...one of the squaddies shot the dog. That's straight out of the 1950s war film school of central casting - ie: how to make the Nazis even more evil is to have them kill someone's dog, or shoot a kid in the back or something! No self-respecting British squaddie would shoot a bloody dog! They might torture Iraqis or beat suspects up and the rest of it, but the whole dog incident was just laying it on far too thick.
shareor maybe it has really happened on occasion...
shareAm I wrong or does this film make the British army look like a joke who haven't got a clue what they're doing and are just lashing out at people who could be innocent because they're upset their colleagues got killed. Apart from Treacle they all seem really nasty.
shareWell I think you got to remember its a fictional drama. But I'm sure these things happen in most army & war situations, whatever the nationality. But thats not to say its the norm, thankfully.
shareyeah true not all people r like that.
shareIt said in the credits that it was inspired by a true story.
shareyes it was all over the news last year, I can't recall it all but some iraqi soldiers were abused, the scene at the end with torture and sexual abuse and the whole photograph thing is based on what happened. I can't remember if it was british or american soldiers that did it.
shareYeah, inspired by true events - we've all seen that in the papers - where they've pee'd on hostages and we've all read about the torture that goes on - on both sides of the war.
I couldn't believe that a dog was shot. I'm sure it does go on, and I knew something would happen to it in the film, otherwise why would they keep showing it and have it barking for that long, I don't know, I just didn't need to see that.
Another poster has given links to information about what has been done to animals but I haven't read any of it. I don't want to. And PLEASE, if anybody does read and it and post about it on here, advise us first so we have the choice not to read about it... Thanks!!
No self respecting squaddie would shoot a dog? They can p*ss on innocent Iraqi prisoners, commit grossly indecent sexual assaults, beat them to within an inch of their lives, and you find it hard to believe they would shoot a dog?
Read the other thread about the dog shooting incident.. there is an article linked to an incident where a dog WAS shot, admittedly by an American soldier, but if an American can do it, so can a British soldier.
Laying it on too thick.. I would venture to suggest this was watered down by comparison to the real life events.
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yes I imagine the whole program was very watered down. It must be so much worse in real life.
shareTo be honest it's not very realistic atall.
the way the soldiers acted and the things they said where wooden, as if the writer had never spent time with squadies in person just maybe interviewed them for perspective.
the army is alot more light hearted. the old saying if you dont laugh you cry, we all seen the amerillo video by the dragoons,
this film was very poorly written though the acting was superb the only reason it has had a margin of sucess is due to it's contrivertial subject matter.
Scenes such as the rpg'ing of the truck was pathetic as not one f the soldiers where returning fire to the enemy, and i'm not even sre why thier OC was out on patrol with them.
I also agree with the guy in that in that particular situation it was just too far to have them shooting the dog. in iraq the locals treat dogs like dogs not like pets that we do so it was unrealistic to have it tied up there in the first place.
I do know of an incident in where i frend of mine was attacked by cow in iraw and his mates had to shoot it or it would have gored him to death.
I was quite pleased that the dog got shot - it was getting on my nerves almost as much as on the fictional squaddy's. (Actually it reminded me very much of a scene in "Last King of Scotland", to the extent that I wondered if Marchant stole it).
But the main point was to show that the individual soldier concerned didn't react too well to stress - a foreshadowing of what we saw later on in the story.
I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.
I agree completely with niceguy. Although he's only named some of it's rediculous scenarios. The acting to me didn't make up for it's complete loss of credibility by that stage.
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firstly as a british soldier i can say ollie501 your an idiot, the whole piss was on iraqs was crap made up by the news papers, this is a couple of reasons why the veichle was never out their, it was a standered training veichle (in other words a viechle awaiting its last breakdown then scrapped. secoundly the boots where tied incorrectly as any basic trainie would know how to tie his boots in the proper manor, thirdly their wearing posh watches which would shine like hell resulting in camo flage being ruined.
and secoundly all these films and comments are made by people who have never been in or seen any of thoses situations so leave your comments untill u have some first hand evidence not the tripe the magazines sell.
the whole piss was on iraqs was crap made up by the news papers
While the pictures in the Daily Mirror were faked, the abuse of Iraqi detainees by British troops was certainly not. People died. And the soldiers involved got away with it, except for one who confessed. Rather like in this film, in fact.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5381968.stm
We also have Abu Ghraib on the record.
It's true that films like this are made and mostly watched by people who've never been in the situations depicted, (most of us manage to avoid participating in illegal invasions of foreign countries) however abuse of prisoners doesn't somehow become right rather than wrong because of your experiences. Schindler's List wasn't made by Nazis, which doesn't particularly devalue it as a film in my view.
I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.
trust me ive seen what these scum do to people every been to africa and seen what these lowlifes force children to do in the name of allah! trust me youd shoot these cowardish scum bags.
as for these terroist that were "abused" do you know what they were planning?
their orginal plan was to organised school kids to strap them selves with high explosives and walk into their class and blow them selves up and to target kids collecting footballs of the soldiers
what people like u forget is that your ablity to speak and act in your way is only safe guarded by the willigness of a soldier to defend and fight for your rights not the self intend polloticain,
and my opion and that of the gineva convetion is that these terroists have no rights under the rules of war and theirfore can legally be treated like scum, due to the fact every army or milita has to distinguish them selves from civilians something that these scum dont do resulting in inocent people dieing,
if you want to know where my veiws come from it from serving in every hell hole on the planet, where muslim extremist scum have taken it apon themsevles to wipe out other religion such as in india against the peacefull budhist but i dont see your outcry.
if you want to see abuse see what the terroist did to christens in bosnia! what we did was extract information that saved hundreds of lives. you cant bring civilian emotion and attitudes to warfare or you wont be able to act properly as a soldier.
which in the worst case senario meas shooting a 8 year old boy which has been forced to wear an explosive device strapped to his chest.
so i say if you havnt been any where near the situations keep your mouth shut!
ps. how can you call the allied forces nazi where not aiming to wipe out a whole race just taking out the rotten core as no one else is willing to take on the deamons of this world
If you're really a soldier, our armed forces would appear to have a serious problem. I prefer to believe that you're a schoolboy with a military fixation.
Let me explain this to you slowly - the people abused in Basra were not terrorists, the troops involved simply jumped to the conclusion that they were. In fact they were innocent.
And the fact that other people behave in appalling ways does not mean that it's OK for British troops to do the same. We have our own standards of behaviour (see also the Geneva Convention) and they should be honoured.
India is a mostly Hindu country so I'm not altogether sure where your ideas about Muslims wiping out Buddhists come from. Every religion has extremists and Indian Hindu fundamentalists have attacked mosques in the recent past.
Finally, our freedom of speech is not dependent on the military. Troops (who are employed by the ruling class of the moment) have more often been used to attack freedom of speech, for example in the Peterloo Massacre. We have freedom of speech because working class people fought for it over the centuries.
I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.
And what makes you think I have no experience? I don't read newspapers or magazines, I judge SOLELY based on experience. I'm guessing from your post you are still quite young, or new to the military? I can guarantee you haven't seen as much you think.. there are atrocities committed by ALL sides that frequently go unreported.
shareA friend of mine was in Iraq, and he said it was not uncommon to shoot animals - if they were stray, or diseased, or overly aggressive they had orders to shoot them. My mate is a dog lover, but he had to shoot a dog for fear it was rabid. He also had to shoot a pony that was badly lame and in distress, yet the owner still tried to make it work. That was an act of kindness in the circumstances. Saying no self-respecting squaddie would shoot a dog is wrong. It's what we'd all like to believe, maybe.
Let's Nuke Russia! - Kenny Everett R.I.P
It is not for nothing that soldiers that were send to Iraq (or any large conflict) come back as complete nutjobs...
shareDice_Man, you are making a good case, but not for yourself. Your examples reflect compassionate and caring soldiers, not soldiers who are on the edge and making heinous decisions.
Any time that you have thousands of people in a 'group', you are going to have some "bad apples". Add to that, an environment of which most of us will never experience, an environment where young children and pregnant women strap bombs to themselves to kill others, where the people lived under the horrific rule of Saddam Hussein and his sons who raped women, threw men into chipper machines and off the roofs of buildings, and where Hussein had imprisoned young children orphaned by his brutal reign, and it is not hard to see that those few "bad apples" out of the thousands of soldiers are going to make some wrong decisions.
Judging the entire 'group' by the actions of a few IS wrong. But sometimes it is easy for those of us who are fortunate enough to reap the benefits of our forefathers to take for granted that freedom isn't free. It is incumbent upon the big to look out for the small, is it not? Who are we to look away from heinous acts?
"...one of the squaddies shot the dog. That's straight out of the 1950s war film school of central casting - ie: how to make the Nazis even more evil is to have them kill someone's dog, or shoot a kid in the back or something! No self-respecting British squaddie would shoot a bloody dog! They might torture Iraqis or beat suspects up and the rest of it, but the whole dog incident was just laying it on far too thick."
Ah, I see now.
So, shooting a dog is much worse than torturing people and cutting their eyes out.
lolz they can torture ppl but they cant shoot a dog??? wot a weird thing to say...
and you might want to do some more research in that field cos there are many videos on the internet right now of british and american soilders having 'fun' throwing dogs off bridges and sh!t...
and why is every1 sayin its not very realistic??? those horrid scenes of the tortute and sexual abuse at the end looked as real as they cud possibly make it. imagine an american film containing that sort of explicitness, you'd never be able to find any americans willing to take part in anything that graphic - this programme wud probably shock the life out of them!!!
just go to youtube and search for "marine kill puppy" You'll find plenty of vids of brutal occupiers. Torture and rape are a great way to bring freedom to the Iraqis.
shareThe whole film is "laying it on thick" even the prisoner beatings etc.
share