MovieChat Forums > Wartorn: 1861-2010 (2010) Discussion > Anyone Else think the Last Guy Was Putti...

Anyone Else think the Last Guy Was Putting On an Act?

posted 13 years ago by trompos
9 replies | jump to latest

So this documentary was very good. I felt for all of the vets there, except that last guy who had the pics on his computer. It seemed to me that he just wanted attention and wanted to seem like the damaged poster boy for PTSD.

He seemed quite immature and silly. Why would you have pics of dead children on your comp? I'll tell you, so that people can say "WOW, what a disturbed man." His son is right by him and he's scrolling through them and he suddenly tells the boy to look away. Then we find out he showed one pic to his son because "he begged" something tells me he was baiting his son to ask to see it. And he shows him a dead little girl? Of all the pics, why would you choose that one?

ER doctors see this stuff too, they're not on TV.

Then the silly Wal-Mart walk. How pathetic, he even said people were staring, I doubt anyone was staring at you because they knew you had PTSD, they were probably staring at the cameras.

Then he shows us the punched wall, dude, seriously, stop the show. We get it, you were in the war, you saw ugly things but come on you weren't at Antedum. There are guys I know who got back from iraq who are indeed disturbed by the war, but they lost friends, they were outside the green zone, this guy was actually in the green zone and didn't lose a single man. I doubt he was in serious combat situations. Someone wants to be on TV, no wonder they left him till the end.

If you love Jesus Christ and are 100% proud of it, copy this and make it your signature!

[–] bwetherill 13 years ago

I don't think you quite get what PTSD is. Maybe he has the pictures to show people like you why he has issues. Yes, ER doctors see bad things too. But, the bad things they see are not a direct result of the actions they took(not that that is the case with him and these pics).

Here is a general situation that may put it into perspective. You are running a road block during the invasion. No traffic is allowed to get through this road block. And you and your unit are aware that the enemy is transporting themselves in civilian vehicles so you can't even allow these vehicles to come close or it cost you your life. So, a car approaches in the dark speeding at you. It doesn't respond to warning shots. It just keeps coming. So, you light it up. Then you go to check out the bad guys you killed in the morning and find that it was just a regular family. That will mess you up. Sure it was the right thing to do. But it will mess you up.

As far as how the guy was acting in Walmart. That's a perfect example of what PTSD is. The guy is used to constantly being on edge. So, what has become almost a natural instinct to him, constantly being overly aware, is overloading with so much going on. Loud noises also tend to be a big problem for somone suffering from PTSD... Ever been to walmart? I've seen these things first hand. I've had a good friend snap to where I thought he was going to kill me because I slamed his car door to hard and the loud noise threw some switch in his head. It might have saved his life in the war but here there is no place for it.

Anyway, I don't know this guy in the show so for all I know he could be putting us on. But, his symptoms fit...

Oh and another walmart point... If you were being followed around by a camera crew, probably some producer, think people would be starring at you?

[–] trompos 13 years ago

I understand it quite well thank you. My father is a WWII vet and has PTSD. He is not an attention whore though.

I get what you're saying here, and I even get the scenario you put together from that HBO original series where they kill that guy's daughter in the car.

I think his symptoms fit too, a little too well, a little too text book. I can't explain it, but it seemed like he was putting on a show, he wanted to be that guy. He wanted to bait people to ask him, what he was looking at, he was like a little kid with a black eye who is praying you ask him how he got the shiner.

My dad exhibits his PTSD much differently, and I think that the people in this film, mostly were people who suffered from mental illness or were prone to suffer from mental illness if they went to war or not.

My dad got pissed at me once for dropping a phone book that made him shake at the sound of it (it hit a hollow metal plate and made a real loud sound) and he has had issues as he has gotten older, but really, he's a happy go lucky guy. He was at Omaha Beach on the third wave, San Lo, The Siegfried Line, the Rhine, he didn't play house over there. He doesn't really talk about it, but he can and he can even laugh about certain things that are kind of creepy. Like a guy who died in a fox hole when a mortar hit it directly and how he had been telling people to take cover. About a Sgt. Ded (perhaps spelled another way, not sure) who wanted to land on the beach and how he was shot in the head and my dad gets a kick out of the irony of the Sgt's name. My dad just isn't the depressive type.

If you love Jesus Christ and are 100% proud of it, copy this and make it your signature!

[–] Zinnober 13 years ago

This is, quite possibly, the most ignorant, mindless, ridiculous thread I've ever seen on IMDB.

That's impressive.

You infer the most awful things about this man, based on 10 minutes of screentime. You judge this man who you do not know on purely subjective interpretations of his behavior.

Are you a veteran? Are you a therapist? Unlikely. You're a schlub watching at home just like me.

The difference between us, though? I've got enough respect to not make any kind of judgment on this man - because I will never know what he's had to endure.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

http://eugenicsbeginswithyou.wordpress.com/

[–] trompos 13 years ago

OH BOYYYY here we go. You disagree with me so you label me ignorant, that stupid man's fall back insult.

This guy was a joke, and yes, I can tell in 10 minutes that he was a big attention whore. And guess what Mr. or Mrs. High and Mighty, you have judged me quite harshly from a post on the internet.

And guess what else, just because he was in the military, does not make him beyond reproach, I can still call you on BS if you're worn a uniform or not. Any TRUE combat vet will tell you that the LAST thing that people enjoy talking about is combat. As mentioned above, my dad must be pressed to even talk about it and when he does he glosses things over with humor guess what you DON'T DO, you don't scroll through pictures of dead people.

Have we become such sheeple that we can't call BS without the wrath of the followers and those who love to fake outrage?

If you love Jesus Christ and are 100% proud of it, copy this and make it your signature!

[–] Zinnober 13 years ago

I feel bad for everyone who knows you.

So long.

http://eugenicsbeginswithyou.wordpress.com/

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] peachtea18 11 years ago

Honestly, I did.

I just watched this movie for the first time last night and that's exactly what my thoughts were. I do believe that PTSD exists, obviously it's not a myth and really does affect people in all sorts of different ways, and I do believe that this guy had it...but only to a certain degree.

I think he was just hamming it up for attention. He seemed like one of those types of people who, when they get sympathy because of certain problem they have that's out of their control, they exaggerate the problem even more to evoke more sympathy.

So, yeah trompos..I agree with you.

I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves.

[–] imajestr 10 years ago

People like you are the reason PTSD remains a misunderstood problem. Would you rather him hide his serious issues for the sake of the camera? The point of this documentary is to illustrate the effects of this disorder that most people refuse to talk about. He is not hamming it up. He was asked by the producers to share his life, and he did. If you aren't interested in it, then turn it off, but you are only perpetuating the problem.

Honestly, I'm trying not to be abrasive, but your post completely misses the point of the film. These are not drama queens. These are people who have seen the guts of children and their friends splattered on the ground, then told to "suck it up." You really think this guy is faking? Try walking a day in his shoes, or in his wife's or his kids. These people are suffering, and you're sitting in your comfortable chair judging the fact that they're willing to share their stories. I hope one day you can think deep enough to realize how selfish that is.