Just wondering what was going on in the early scene which shows The Colonel's (I think...) very strange family.
I know this character later freaks out...but I am not quite sure what was going on in his apartment. And what was meant by these strange people...
They were his parents. I'm guessing there's some sort of domestic violence situation where his drunken dad was possibly beating upon his equally drunken mother. He seems ashamed of his humble roots though he can never truly leave them behind.
"It's because of movies like this that illegal downloading exists and you can be bored for free..."
Thanks was going to ask the same question! found it kind of weird to have that part in the movie.
share[deleted]
He obviously has been dealing with his parents all his life. He managed to lift himself out of the squalor and become a respected Air Force officer. But he can't escape from his family problems. Notice that he appears to have no wife or children (none that we're made aware of). And he's become so rigid, he can't discuss his parents even with his sympathetic superior.
"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"
They werent very strange people. His drunken parents.
OP didnt yu listen to the dialogue at all?...
It was very clear who they were unfortunately.
The scene also has the general finding the colonel there and the colonel is greatly embarrassed and maybe even ashamed. This comes back later when the colonel snaps and shouts at the general, "You think you're better than me!"
shareCol. Cascio is one of the people with the closest possible ties to US nuclear capability. The implication is that he has grown up in squalor and poverty with alcoholics as parents, with all that implies for the state of his later psyche. Lumet's, or rather Burdick's point is - these systems on which our very survival depends are run by people with very human flaws. The systems are bound to escape our control, and bad decisions are bound to be made.
-drl