Why didn't he just get himself 'fired'?
Tommy wanted to go back but couldn't because he got that dishonorable discharge... why couldn't the rest of them start drinking and smashing windows?
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What obviously seems like a solution to you is regarded with horror by a military man. The key to understanding the attitude toward the Bad Conduct Discharge is the term "dishonorable" or as the military describes it "conditions other than honorable." It's not just the implied dishonor of the soldier himself, but the dishonor shown to all of their comrades with whom they fought and might have watched die or be disfigured. It kind of pisses on all that. To say that a soldier would use it as a device to exit the service fails to understand almost the entire point of this film, that comrades in arms form a special bond. Tommy starts drinking and smashing windows because he can not control himself and ultimately becomes so ashamed that he kills himself.
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
I'm not a military man so that's maybe the point that I didn't get :) Thx for clearing that up
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I still dont get why they didnt get themselves fired. In what way is it more honourable to run away then to deliberately get fired? They wouldnt let the other soldiers down any less; I mean, the result is they avoid going back to fight, the only difference is that with a dishonourable discharge they get to keep their lives. It just seems silly.
shareWhat you are suggesting is the option of behaving in a manner that gets you discharged dishonorably. I have a question for you. Were you always happy in school? Particularly high school? Did you ever get disgusted with the tests you were asked to take and thought, "What the hell, I'll just fail." Were there times when you would have just like to walk away from the cliques and the phoniness and the pressures? Why didnt' you just start a bunch of fights or bring drugs and/or alchohol to school to have gotten expelled? What stopped you?
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
I really dont see how that is meant to be analogous. I didnt get myself expelled precisely because I didnt want to get expelled. In the film, he does want out.
He was okay with running away to get out of going back to war, so I just dont see why it would be worse to get discharged. It doesnt seem any less "dishonourable", and would be alot more convenient.
Well, not to be too precise, but he didn't want to "get out." He felt he had earned his discharge, had been planning on it, and had used himself up for this exact expiration date. I see a big difference between wanting what he believes he has earned (what's been agreed upon) and being willing to become a drunk or an addict or violent against his own troops to receive a dishonorable discharge.
You didn't want to leave school, may I just speculate, because you knew the date of your graduation. But what if in the Spring of your senior year you had been told that, naw, you'd have to stay another two years? Would you perhaps have acted unreasonably to match the unreason you felt you had received? Getting expelled to get out would not have been a substitute for the graduation you felt you already earned. Right?
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
I feel like you're missing my point. I'm asking what makes it an acceptable solution to run away, but not to get himself fired, in the situation he's in.
To me, running away seems no less "dishonourable", nor would he let the other troops down any less than if he got himself fired.
"I feel like you're missing my point." The feeling is mutual.
I was hoping someone with more armed service experience would jump in on this one. But until and if that happens I just have to say that Brandon King, when he he first fled the base, didn't see himself as running away. He acted instinctively. Being a man of action, he almost immediately took action. He didn't abandon his troops, they were not in combat.
After taking that action he felt that couldn't go back until he'd spoken to someone who would listen to him. As the film progresses he begins to realize that he is a small cog in a large machine. Fortunately for him, he has people in the service who value his leadership and want him back. But at no time does he act dishonorably, IMO. He breaks the rules but he does not ever behave other than as a the leader the army has shown him to be. To you this might make no difference. But I see the difference.
Most tellingly, when it finally comes down to abandoning his home and duty, he can't do it. It is not who he is. For everything he's done, everything he's witnessed, and everything that he been through, he has not fundamentally changed from the patrioticly honorable young man who had joined up. Just like the earliest Greek trajedies, he's been caught up by fate and cannot escape except by betraying everyone and everything that he values.
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
aGuiltSoul: You are correct -- Nephele is being obtuse, just playing dumb or drinking . . . he's amazingly very concrete.
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