Posted on 10/02/2016 8:24:38 AM PDT by NFHale
Interesting post. Not to think too hard into a movie but one question about the movie I have is why did Pvt. Pyle go into the Marines instead of another branch of the military given is physical makeup?
The draft? Of course even then a widebody should have been disqualified.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies_%281963_film%29
Low budget, and it shows. Grainy black and white, really shows up on my Criterion BD.
Some of the sound is not quite right, and some of it was fixed with ADR after the lead character’s voice had begun to change.
However, it is more faithful to the book then the 1990 film.
I went though BCT (Army) in ‘69 and my experience was pretty close,but not identical,to FMJ.Our junior Drill Sergeant had just completed his second combat tour of Vietnam when I had the pleasure of meeting him.We even had a "Private Pyle" but ours shouldn't have been in the Army (he clearly had a very low IQ) and he didn't kill anyone.
Quite realistic indeed.
Our junior Drill Sergeant took just about every one of us behind the barracks to beat the tar out of us.I guess it was SOP.
Said it made him a better man.
Getting the tar beaten out of me didn't make me a better man but BCT,as a whole,did teach me very valuable lessons about life....lessons that I very probably would not have learned anywhere else.
Told me he never spent an evening in his bunk the entire time in boot. Also still had the scars on his back, where his DI took a riding crop to him. Would have ended sooner but he refused to say it hurt.
His son was one of my students and won the right to place a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown, in Arlington for taping the interview with his father.
Forgot to mention. His father was so proud that his son was be given that honor that he drove to DC with his family to watch the changing of the guard.
“The helicopter door gunner in the movie just mows down civilians like there’s no tomorrow.”
Its in the middle of the Tet offensive, just on he outskirts of Hue. And you think they were “civilians”.
I worked with a guy who was in Hue during the Tet Offensive.He didn't say much about it (understandably) but he did say he got the Bronze Star and one of the higher Navy ribbons (can't recall which one).Marines are a breed apart.
Outstanding!...great to hear that!
So then you truly believe, no door gunner in that war ever shot at unidentified people in Vietnam. And you must also believe that no enemy there wore civilian clothes.
Google VC, their appearance, locales, methods of transport. He was shooting just fine. He made a joke...that’s all.
The door gunner scene is straight out of Michael Herr’s book “Dispatches”. Outstanding book.
bump
Yes, the whole experience was wonderful. His son rather than dress casually as the rest of the students did (one day class trip to DC)Dressed in a suit and tie.
“Anyone who runs is a VC. Anyone who stands still is a well disciplined VC.”
I did my basic training at Ft. Bragg in April of 1970. I saw drill instructors drop kick recruits who were on their hands and knees vomiting from the 5 mile run we were completing.I also saw one instructor on the firing line knock a slow-to-learn recruit to his knees with the sign he was holding. Only thing that protected him was his steel pot.
true story: We had one instructor who was truly sadistic who loved to hurt recruits who had an unfortunate accident one night as charge of quarters. He was coming up a flight of steps in barracks and met unknown people with entrenching tools who beat him unconcious. HE was found hours later still unconcious by the runner. We held our breath for days waiting for the MP’s to come round all of us up- didn’t happen- never mentioned- just like it did’nt occur. Door gunner - I was flight engineer on a chinook in the 101st airborne. I had one gunner replaced when his unofficial body count topped 15. He was writing them on his wall of the hooch.. Lots of crazy things happen in combat.
I still have an old paperback copy of it somewhere.
Comes up “An error occurred...”
“...unless you are a recruit at Parris Island. :)...”
Haha! He must have scared the living crap out of those recruits in his prime. But I’ll bet that because of him, a LOT of them came home alive.
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