I don't understand the fuss and complaints. It was clear from the beginning that Stuckey was an unprincipled moron. Consistent with that early characterization, he then did something incredibly stupid to catalyze the anger among the Cajuns who were already pissed off for having their pirouges stolen (as they saw it). I've not served in the National Guard, but I was never under the impression they had the discipline of Special Forces rangers. Why would they? They're basically volunteers with regular full-time jobs. It doesn't surprise me that some of them, like Casper and Reece, would have weekend warrior mentalities and inflated egos, and would make poor decisions that experienced combat soldiers wouldn't make (Poole even chided Casper at the beginning that he wasn't suitable to be a mercenary soldier in Africa; they wanted combat soldiers and not typists). In trying to make their escape after Poole was shot, and with almost no bullets for their weapons, I don't think as a whole they acted stupidly. It was gradually revealed they erred in following Casper, but as the film took care to point out they all risked a military court martial if they disobeyed him. Any bad decisions they made are not at the level of the idiotic teenagers in early 80s horror films, or even so obviously inconsistent with inexperienced National Guardsmen as you seem to imply. This is an excellent, suspenseful, well-made, and intelligent film. The ending is fantastically tense and unique, what with all that terrific Cajun music and swine slaughtering in the background. It's Walter Hill at the top of his game. I wish filmmakers today could make such high quality male-oriented dramas.
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