I hate seeing all those high-up officers so smug with themselves.
Great movie though.
I'm from Paris... TEXAS
That smugness places them in a position of subtle (?) awfulness seldom seen in movies, and the contrast with Col. Dax forces us to an inevitable conclusion--power corrupts.
Great movie though.For sure.
If this movie doesn't make you angry, there's something wrong with you :-)
shareI agree.. war is such a waste of human life and it's those high up the chain who decide who lives and who dies. Whether they're English soldiers or their German soldiers, they're all the same really, they're just following orders and it must have been terrifying. Having said that, General Mireau had quite a scar on his face so I suppose that's to show us that he has been hardened by battle and hasn't just been put in that position without seeing his share of violence
shareGeneral Mireau had quite a scar on his face
For Mireau, I thought that the scar would be a duelling scar, rather than from a battle wound.
shareI noticed the scar too, but theres not enough other information to decide what its supposed to say about his character. You can get a scar from so many vastly different events. Maybe he got it while bravely fighting in battle, maybe he got it while falling down in retreat, maybe he got beat up by a little kid...
shareVampire has a good point. If it doesn't make you angry then you must be dead inside.
<“Every man of courage is a man of his word.” - Pierre Corneille>
I wanted to see Kirk knock out that old fool, he started it to get more stars on his coat.
shareFrom what I remember, whenever Douglas went to see the generals, they were dining on white table cloths and in their dress uniforms. It gives the impression that they did not get close to the front and as someone else said, it was a numberers game. I remember one point being made by one of them was that if the men had charged as ordered they would have all been dead so they must not obeyed the order to charge. To make a point, three were picked at random for execution to be made an example of. It certainly shows that for the men on thr front there was no glory in war.
shareIt was a numbers game for the generals, sadly for the front line soldiers. Again in WW2, it was similar.
In the first bombing raid on the oil fields at Ploiesti, Romania, for example, from bases in north Africa, one general said he expected about 50% casualties, which was "acceptable." Each B-24 bomber held 10 crewmen at that time. In reality, the casualty rate of that raid was much higher than that.
My real name is Jeff
Depending on the importance of destroying the oil fields, 50% casualties IS acceptable. There's a difference between losing men for a mission you have to complete to bring the war to a speedy end and losing them because you're a pompous jerk.
If destroying oil fields with a few bombers causes the enemy to loose a war months earlier because they can't use their tanks, planes and vehicles the way they need to, then losing some bomber crews is a fair price to pay. Easy? No. But men are lost in battles; it's how it goes. It's losing the least you can for the greatest gain that matters.
With this movie, though, Mireau wasn't interested in the war; he was interested in his own promotion, the dirty bastard.
Whores will have their trinkets.
In a way it reflects real life.
Its that man again!!
It made me feel angrier than I have in a long time! Rarely have I been sucked into a film to that extent, as if it were really happening.
Anything but subtle, however as over-the-top it may have been (unfortunately not necessarily unrealistic), it was certainly effective.
Surprising coming from Kubrick. I love his films, but this is the only one of his I've seen with a real heart. The next best I suppose would be The Shining, and the only pathos there is dread.
This is one of those rare films that REALLY gets to me because it feels so genuine. It's almost 60 years old and more convincing than most modern movies.
share^^good point.
"Did you make coffee? Make it!"--Cheyenne.
This is one of those rare films that REALLY gets to me because it feels so genuine. It's almost 60 years old and more convincing than most modern movies.
And what, France did that out of the blue? I think the Germans were the source of their own suffering from WWI. Let’s not forget, they did invade Belgium and France
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I find it so upsetting that they murdered those three guys just to make a point, that I find it difficult to watch the movie.
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