MovieChat Forums > Southern Comfort (1981) Discussion > WORST FIGHTING FORCE EVER ASSEMBLED?

WORST FIGHTING FORCE EVER ASSEMBLED?


Wow,
These guys are quite possibly the worst fighting force ever assembled.

Why on Earth can't they find the highway?

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They fell part pretty quick huh?

A couple of nights in the bush and they're applying warpaint and knife fighting each other.

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Bowden is probably the biggest liability yet seen in film. One of the most irritating characters in history. That's putting it lightly.

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I've seen the movie a dozen times and never really thought about that until now. Yeah, those aren't the type of guys you'd want in action as they pretty much fell apart once the leader was take out. A funny bit was when the pothead starting asking the Coach about the team back home (in so many words) and Coach starts in about key players being injured, etc. I work with a guy like that and you just have to ask him right and you'll the entire roster's stats.

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They were weekend warriors and did this part time - There is a big difference with active duty members and guards man -

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Reece on his own would probably have been fine. But not a team player, oh no.
They weren't really a fighting force. Only Reece actually had some live ammunition and that was only because of the kind of guy he was.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

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They were not a fighting-force in any way at all. They were National Guardsmen, which is not an excuse, but most of the characters were uninterested in the military life. I always figured they were in the National Guard because of the Vietnam war - they were either too old or had civilian jobs which prevented them from being conscripted into the actual army. They just went along with their weekend duties but had no desire or military ability.

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Well, yes, although I think some Guardsmen (volunteers?) ended up in Vietnam. Poole superficially at least is the only really serious soldier among them, and was he not in Vietnam? Yet he lets Stuckey get away with quite bizarre indiscipline and seems to have little real control over the unit. Reece is a loose cannon but is on an individual level a fighter, although how someone like that was not in Nam is a mystery to me. Casper is a wannabe soldier, and seems to have read the manual but has no leadership ability. The others have no real interest in being soldiers.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

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