MovieChat Forums > The Wild Geese (1978) Discussion > Wittys trembling during the last stand (...

Wittys trembling during the last stand (SPOILER)


Anyone else caught the medic Wittys trembling during his whole final death-scene? When he first hears movements in the bushes behind him his hands are very shaky as he reaches for his gun.
Was the actor playing Witty ill or suffering from the heat during the shooting or something?

Oh, and I think the whole scene was totally epic by the way! :)

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Besides being a portrayal of an overtly homosexual character as a HERO, dying a heroic death to buy time for his friends to escape (a noble presentation and much RARER in those days), I just assumed Witty was frightened, clearly trembling at the 100% knowledge that he is going to die a gruesome death. But he controls his fear and stands his ground and dies like a hero.

At least that's how I saw it. :)


Dr. Kila Marr was right. Kill the Crystalline Entity.

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Sorry for late reply.

Yeh dude, him being scared would of course make him tremble. Though I saw Witty trembling just as bad during the physical training-scene in Swaziland too. :)

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the weapons handling of the whole cast is poor throughout the movie. Anytime an actor is in scene about to use a weapon there is a fumbling.Watch Richard Burton same problem, Hardy Kruger , and Jack Watson.

People unfamiliar with weapons don't handle them naturally as trained soldiers do. Despite their best intentions actors do not have the skills of soldiers and often act awkwardly when it comes to weapons.

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Well granted: Non-military trained people are usually not very able in handling a weapon. In this case I do not believe heavy trembling is the result of poor handling though :)

Oh, Hardy Kruger actually served as a Hitler Youth in world war 2. Though I guess that was a long time ago by the time he made this movie.

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And let's not forget, his primary role was as medic; a saver not taker, of lives. He was probably afraid of the actual combat, of realizing that as tail-end Charlie he was closest to the enemy force, the size of the attacking force, AND the realization that he would have to kill as well. While it's standard practice for medics to arm and fight for themselves in several armies, it's unclear whether he actually killed any1 b4. Remember, during his interview, Faulkner praised him as the finest medic he knew, and he was currently working as an orderly in a hospital. Nothing was mentioned of him having killed any1 previously. While combat itself would be enough to make him shake, maybe another contributing factor was the realization that he had to do the opposite of his life's calling until that point. Of course once the shooting started, the adrenaline takes over and he taunts them ('come on out, you beauties! It's a shame we can't all be friends'). So, a combination of fear and horror over taking a life.

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Speakin of which, the first instant of Witty trembling were during the first "training" scene when Sally kicks Witty while the latter is on the ground.

Maybe the actor had some sort of illness like malaria or something. I mean its not unusual for outsiders to pick up that stuff while in Africa or any other high risk country. Movie history is full of actors catching illnesses in exotic filming locations :)

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He KNEW they weren't going to just shoot him. Even heroes are afraid of dying a horrible death. But he slowed them down and took as many as he could with him.

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When he first hears movements in the bushes behind him his hands are very shaky as he reaches for his gun.


Combat (and the knowledge that it's imminent) scares the crap out of people. Even trained soldiers with combat-experience suffer from this. It's quite a natural reaction, because you'll have loads of adrenaline pumping through you at this point, since your body is getting ready to either flee or fight.

Just the other day I watched a documentary about fighter pilots where one of the guys they interviewed (Vietnam Phantom-pilot) described how he froze up and was unable to to anything for a minute or two when he spotted a Mig. He went on to say that he was so nervous that he wet his pants during the fight. He summed it up as "I got the kill, but I needed a new pair of pants afterwards".

And this is a pretty "detached" form of combat we're talking about here, meaning as a fighter-pilot, you're shooting at another plane, not at a human being who is 5 feet in front of you.
In Witty's case, the combat which was about to start was as up-close and personal as it gets.




S.

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I know he is a medic and not a combat soldier but why only one clip if they gave him an UZI.


Witty is a medic and carries medical equipment, so I can see why he wouldn't have a sidearm.

Why doesn't he reload? He probably was out of ammo. Their plan called for a mission duration of no more than three hours with minimal enemy contact and they had to go in light, since they relied on speed and mobility and had to cover quite a bit of ground on foot. Due to the betrayal, they had seen a lot more combat than they were expecting, so it's not unreasonable to assume that he was either down to his last mag or that he had given whatever spare mags he had left to someone else in his group. Especially since he was part of Faulkner's "mini-group" which got separated from the main force during the plane-attack.


S.

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