You guys took that way stuff way too seriously...
While it may be possible that a lot of what Modine's character was saying, was to help the audience get a feel for what the crews had to worry about and so on...
You guys obviously missed the part of the movie where every member is telling each other what they were going to do at the end of the war... Modine's character suggests that they all come work for him at his familys furnature factory... And then a comment is made to the effect of... "That is the last thing any of us need, YOU ORDERING US AROUND FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES! Then everyone starts saying things like "Check You Masks!" & "Let's Make This Are Best Run Yet." Most of what Modine said early in the film, was said, to help support the "joking" he received later on!
And even if the script writers were not trying to set anything up, and the "Joking" was an after thought to provide some Humor... Modine's character, was the Captain of his "Ship". He was responsible for the lives of the men under his command. Yes, perhaps these guys were highly trained after 24 missions, But he still wanted to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing...
Think of it this way, how many "Parents" out there just suddenly stop caring for their children the day they leave home? They still constantly badger their children to take care of themselves... And give them leftovers to take home with them... and so on. No Different.
As for going around again on the bomb run... That is all a matter of the morals and beliefs that people have, who make the decisions. Many people think wars have rules, and you don't kill unarmed children if you can avoid it. It's one thing to unintentionally kill children, that happened to be, unknowingly by "The Enemy", wandering around inside a major war time munitions factory (Why they were there in the first place is beside the point), but knowing that if you don't drop the bombs, right in into the "Pickle Barrel", and they will otherwise land on a bunch of schools in the same area... Is just something most people won't do, because they won't be able to live with themselves for killing children, instead of killing people making weapons of war.
Modine's character's decision to go around again, was not "hokey"... Scripted for dramatic effect? perhaps...
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stevekaczynski
8 years ago
In "Diary of a Young Girl", Anne Frank makes a passing reference to an American or British air raid on a factory in Amsterdam in 1943 (the same year in which this film is set) in which many bombs landed on nearby housing, killing scores of Dutch civilians. This was very common in WW2 and many thousands of civilians of occupied countries died in that way. It was no doubt not intentional but no major precautions were taken to prevent this kind of "collateral damage" happening either. If that was the attitude to the civilians of an ally, how much concern was there, really, for enemy civilians?
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
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