¨Historias De La Puta Mili¨ or "Tales of the Stinking Military Service" is a Spanish film shot in 1993 , and premiered on January 14 , 1994 . Directed by Manel Esteban and starred by Juan Echanove, based on comic strips with the same title by Ramón 'Ivà' Tosas', publicized on satiric magazine ¨El Jueves¨ that talked about military life in the barracks and embarrassing assignments . At the same time , to be made a homonyms television series . It deals with the adventures and misfortunes of a bunch of Spanish military commanded by sergeant Marcelino Arensivia . Dealing with recruits who did compulsory military service , as the motley group of soldiers (Jordi Mollà , Achero Mañas , Marc Martínez , David Gil) are lousily commanded by Sergeant ¨Chusquero¨ Arensivia (Juan Echanove). As when the army computer wrongly assigns a dangerous mission to the sergeant Arensivia's platoon , the band is parachuted and they undertake a risked aim . Later on , the outfit becomes involved with military high-command (Agustin Gonzalez , Jose Sazatornil , Craig Hill) , an Anti-Otan manifestation shouting : Yankees go home , Bases Fuera , ecologists , anarchists , a tough Guardia Civil officer (Jose Maria Cañete) and many other things . This is a silly comedy plenty of sarcastic humour in which there is a real criticism to the military organization . The Spanish army is generally presented as an inept band , being panned as a bungling and incompetent stratum . Here the military class is shown as a complete disorganization , as it is filled with incompetent officers , botcher staff , and silly managers , all of them cause absurd situations . The film belongs to a peculiar sub-genre , usual in the 70s and 80s , such as ¨La Quinta Del Porro¨ by Frances Bellmunt , ¨La Batalla Del Porro¨ and ¨Soldadito Español¨ by Antonio Gimenez Rico , all of them concerning a sour critique to military class . ¨Puta mili's¨ characters are phonetically transcribed in non-understanding dialogues and it shouldn't be correct in a written language , in addition , using many slang . The support cast is pretty well , including a plethora of familiar faces such as : Jordi Mollà as El Pulpo , Achero Mañas as El Chino , Marc Martínez , Agustín González , José María Cañete , Gracia Olayo , Craig Hill and the great José Sazatornil . Atmospheric cinematography by Joseph M. Civit . Josep M Civit is one of the best Spanish cameramen , as he has demonstrated in "The Hidden Face" , ¨Shiver¨, ¨Warriors¨ , ¨The Absent" ,¨Anguish¨ and many others . Being shot on location in Castelldefells , Montseny , Sabadell, Castellbisbal and, Terrasa . The motion picture was regularly directed by Manel Esteban . Based on popular comics by Iva , published by Editions Thursday in a humorous magazine , which had several readers , these are auto-conclusive stories , often two pages . In these cartoons , the author referred embodied anecdotes and disconcerting stories , being true or not . These stories have been taken as real events as imagined , including exceptional happenings and personal inventions . All or almost all , reflected the daily lives of many barracks and many aspects of the perception of military service for a good part of the Spanish male population , most of them who had done and belonged to the military service , being a total waste time , where recruits were treated as slaves , harassed and mistreated by the abusive superiors ; and receiving a salary for 1137 Pesetas , a month . As the misfit characters were anonymous and there was no continuity , such as military barracks where every hundred days there were different recruits . The only character that showed a slight continuity was Sergeant Arensivia who was as awkward as most characters of this comic . It had more than 200 numbers and disappeared following the professionalization of the armed forces in the late 90s . Another proof of the success of this series is the appearance of the series by the same author that resulted to be similarly successful : ¨Makinavaja¨ . As well as Makinavaja , the ¨Puta Mili Stories¨ were adapted to theater, film and television . As in 1990 a play about the "Tales from the Puta Mili" with Ramon Teixidor as Sergeant Arensivia, directed by Angel Alonso . In 1994 this movie starring Juan Echanove and homonyms TV series are produced .