Ok, Stephens was a bit of a wimp but during WW2 there was conscription in the UK so most able-bodied men were called up. He might not have been a front line soldier but could have been in the service corps, catering corps etc. Yet Bannen's character says 'you shouldn't even be in the army'. Why not - is he not A1 fit or something?
sharePOSSIBLE SPOILERS.
In the scene you refer to Harris (Bannen) appears at first to be enjoying a rather cruel joke at Stevens's expense. Stevens (Alfred Lynch, excellent as usual) is angry that Harris's anecdote about a previous "queer" inmate is a sly suggestion that he is gay - and I think Stevens is right in his suspicion - but Harris rebukes him saying that the point he is really trying to make is about Stevens being far too sensitive and the need for him to develop his own method of surviving the camp's harsh regime. For me the double meanings in this exchange of dialogue reveal as much about Harris as it does Stevens.
Interestingly one might have assumed it would be the roly-poly slobbish Bartlett (Roy Kinnear) at the greater risk of physical damage from the pressure, but he proves to be much more of a survivor and mentally robust, possibly because he is motivated by total self interest and the need to be continually getting one over on everybody (staff and inmates alike). So although Stevens is in better physical shape he appears to be barely more than a boy, and is delicate and vulnerable at both an emotional and psychological level. This is what Harris appears to pick up on, what is obvious to the others in Stevens's cell and crucially what the Medic's negligence failed to spot during the medical inspection
Putting aside how Stevens's cellmates amused themselves at his expense when he'd been reduced to a shell shocked, broken tin soldier, I suggest that Stevens was killed by both the shock and demoralisation at this display of man's inhumanity to man, and through the dehumanisation process which crushed whatever fragile inner life he had left.
"What would Alain de Botton do? An evil Alain de Botton?"
Private Bartlett was in prison eight times before serving his new term, so he knows how to handle prison life; yet, it is amazing that he manages to climb up and down the hill several times, where Staff Sgt. Williams could barely complete climbing up the hill.
shareYes there is an amusing exchange of dialogue between Wilson and Bartlett early in the film when Wilson reads out a summary of Bartlett's previous incarcerations, sarcastically asking him to name the last time he'd seen action. When Bartlett struggles to reply Wilson snaps that the inmate had never ever seen action. "Well I never really got round to it!", is Bartlett's sheepish reply.
The scene where Williams attempts the hill is, I suppose, there to emphasize just how truly despicable he is. Williams really has no redeeming features whatsoever. We boo and hiss when in the cool of the evening, dressed in shorts and t-shirt, he manages only one complete run and rewards himself by getting drunk with the RSM. We know of course the inmates will have to pay for his own lack of fitness and resolve, and probably for his hangover as well. Ian Hendry has fashioned a truly memorable and believable villain out of the sadistic Williams.
"What would Alain de Botton do? An evil Alain de Botton?"
Able body yes, able mind no. I think it's really that simple. It's mentioned he had a desk job before getting into prison. If you fail your basic training (which is probably so easy that everyone that isn't literally missing an arm or a leg gets through, because they needed as much people as possible), they can simply dismiss you. In this prison, he had to undergo severe drill constantly and it got to him. The hill especially became literally insurmountable, there was something that cracked in him because it must have felt like hell with no end in sight.
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