Happy's Motivation?


After seeing this movie im not entirely convinced about the motivation of Happy. He wanted Germany to lose the war to get rid of the fascists etc which means he is betraying his own side regardless if they good or bad people. They go on to say that he will be saving lives by doing this, but i see him mainly saving American lives by revealing the locations of the tank and infantry battle groups detailed in his mission. The allies will no doubt send aircraft to those exact locations and bomb those units to smitherines meaning more of his country mens deaths. Had he not revealed the locations then yes the war might have lasted a little longer but with equal casualties on both sides.

No doubt he was courageous and he did something he believed in which deserves respect. All Politics aside however I couldn't help but be in two minds about his flipping, was he a traitor or a hero?

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Spoiler....SPOILER....SPOILER







Good question. Clearly, when Happy is captured in the Hagenau Woods, he's just glad to be out of the war. But when the officer he was accompanying gets murdered by a Nazi kangaroo court inside the American stockade, well, that just about tore it for him. It was another useless death at the hands of the Nazi maniacs and he was just sick of it.

Remember what he says during his initial interview with American Army Intel ? He wanted to go back to a world where one isn't afraid all the time. He wanted to help end the war faster in a small way.

As you know, there really was an intell unit attached to the US Seventh Army called "G2 SSS 7th Army," although the "Happy" character was created for the movie.

CmdrCody

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I think his motivation was set by saving German lives. Remember when he was sent to be the personal medic to the leiutenant and there was the soldier who was begging not to be hanged after 20 years of faithful service because he had gone awol to take care of his family. A lot of German lives were needlessly lost. And then the fear the woman in the street had when she approached him about medicine for her sick child and was afraid Happy would report her. I think he just felt the war initiated by such a horrible regime was taking more worthwhile German lives than it was going to benefit.

"...and I would've gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids."

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"Was he a traitor or a hero?"

That's obviously the question the movie wants us to ponder - and there's hardly a clear-cut answer to that. From a broadly symbolic perspective though it seemed that Werner's character and his sacrifice were meant to be seen as redeeming, sort of helping to put the evil Nazi past behind and move on.



"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan

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