COLLIER. Nah. Grady, I think you're at war.
From Fury (2014, director/writer, David Ayer), a scene deleted from the released film. Brad Pitt as Sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier and Jon Bernthal as Private Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis. The time is April 1945, a month away from the end of World War II in Europe, and Collier and Travis are members of an M-4 Sherman tank crew who have been fighting since December, 1942.
This, as I said above, was cut from the theatrical release. I personally like it—it tells us a lot about being in war. And other things too. So...
1. There's only a little here—4 minutes—but what did the scene above tell you about war that you hadn't thought about before seeing it. In answering this, try not to repeat what others have said—or if you do, add to your classmates commentary.
2. In the reading on the teacher page: one thing that jumped out at you and why?
3. Per our discussion in class: we've agreed that America is at war right now—two Americans were killed last month by an Afghan soldier while 1500 Afghan civilians died in July, most by Afghan National Forces and not anti-coalition forces. For your entire life we've been at war—almost 7000 American miltary have died in it, 109-110,000 oppositional forces, and up to 266,000 civilians, according to the Watson Institute at Brown University. So how does it feel to be at war? How has it affected your life? What has it made you think about war itself?
That's enough to start the semester. 200 words in all.
The setting of the scene relates to information that surprised me. I did not realize that soldiers operating tanks were sometimes even more endangered than foot soldiers, as Sherman tanks were called “Ronsons” after the cigarettes they smoked because according to the article, “it lights up the first time, every time.” I had always viewed tanks as the ultimate war-time protection.
ReplyDeleteThe quote by Chris Hedges where he refers to war as a lethally addictive drug and historians as “myth makers” peddling that drug is incredibly intriguing and something that I do not know would have ever crossed my mind. This quote defies history, and for those who argue that the present is history’s reflection, this quote also defies the present.
Wow. These numbers are shocking, but they also make sense to me regarding my lack of awareness about war. Just looking purely at the numbers above, the US appears to be less affected. I guess it feels natural to be at war, as the topic rarely crosses my mind. My only connections with war are indirect: my uncle serves in the military, my grandfather came back from war a changed (not for the greater good) man, and I think war has changed the adolescent mindset. In my experience, younger people in this country are more cynical about the world and what happens in it, as I have heard many adults refer to us as the “post-9/11 generation.”
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. I had never considered how people deal with the war while still in it and how they cope with that strain. While I’ve read about PTSD in the news and in books, it was fascinating to me how Collier deals with Travis’s breakdown while the war is still going on. In particular, it’s clear that Collier doesn’t really have the answers for how any of this death and destruction can be okay. His method of counseling Travis to keep his nerve was much more dismissive than I expected and was primarily composed of encouraging him not to think about the war because there’s always booze and sex to be had for distraction once the fighting is over. Even more surprisingly, it works, and Travis becomes humorous and flippant almost scarily quickly. The intensity of the emotions and the switch highlights a level of stress and tension that’s hard for me to imagine living under.
ReplyDelete2. “The Cat” struck me because it was such a specific, small, mundane incident in the middle of the violence of war. It was easier for me to comprehend, so the end of the poem hit me harder emotionally than most of the other pieces. The ending, where the brief funeral of the kitten is compared to the worth of his own life, conveys an overwhelming awareness of death, and how it does not have morals. There’s such a powerful sense of futility to it, especially considering how undignified and unnoticed the final burial is, amid the destruction of war.
3. The US’s wars overseas have had almost no impact on my life beyond the headlines. My family has no military history in America. I do not even have a real, visceral idea of what it is that we, as a nation, are fighting for. Perhaps this war is increasing our security, but I’m not sure I believe that, and even if it is true, it does so in such an abstract way that I am not at all aware of it. This set of circumstances makes it very easy for me to condemn war from a distance. What I do know of it has led me to the conclusion that it is barbaric and brutal to everyone involved in it, from veterans suffering PTSD to the civilians caught in the crossfire, but again, I do not have a very nuanced understanding of war. There are very few circumstances that I can imagine that would ever justify war.
1. Private Grady shares how he is struggling to deal with the difficulties and tragedies of war, yet even though his fear is completely rational, he is still worried about being considered a coward. I had not realized that some soldiers might feel unable to talk about being scared because they fear being labeled “cowardly.” I did not know that this word holds so much meaning as an insult.
ReplyDelete2.The excerpt from Jarhead jumped out because I had never thought of war films in that way. It is strange to me that films that depict so much death and destruction can also be seen as a celebration of war. It is such a different perspective that I would almost want to question whether or not we are watching the same films.
3. I think that I have been desensitized to the war in Afghanistan because it has been happening for so long and I do not feel directly affected. However, I do think that living in a time of war has shaped my political views. I think that seeing how global leaders act during wartime, especially in regards to refugees from countries in conflict, has helped mold my thoughts on them. My limited knowledge of the war in Afghanistan makes me think about how our country is viewed by people around the world as opposed to people who live in the U.S. Some countries are exposed to a much different and more violent side of the U.S. government than I am.
1. I’ve always admired strong people. I remember that as a child I liked to imagine myself to be a soldier – tall, brave and strong. Because who could be stronger than a soldier? I wanted to grow up to be as strong and fearless as possible. But sometimes that’s not all that courage is; the absence of fear. Strength is not necessarily the absence of weakness. Oftentimes it takes an immense amount of strength and courage to admit fear, face it, and continue on despite it. And this is the type of emotional that Grady demonstrates in the clip. Watching this now, I do not see Grady as any weaker or less courageous because he has admitted his fear. On the contrary, it humanizes him and shapes him into a raw human being with real depth of emotion rather than some child’s idealistic caricature of a soldier’s bravery.
ReplyDelete2. One that really stood out to me while reading through the teacher page was the concept of human morality and how it contrasts so sharply with the actions of war. For me, the last few lines of the passage from Apocalypse Now captured the perverse duality of human nature, and in all honesty I am still grappling and coming to terms with this notion.
“You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill—without feeling, without passion, without judgment—without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us.”
Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola, John Milius
3. Despite the fact that thousands have died and will continue to die in war, some of them at the hands of United States, I myself am not at war. The closest involvement I have to the war are the dollars collected by the federal government. War has never impacted my life in any real, significant way. Yet maybe there is a deeper underlying issue in that statement. The fact that everyday people suffer while I can sit safe at home and read the news relatively unaffected heightens the sheer unfairness of the circumstances. No, I do not think that world peace and equality are achievable goals, however the total of asymmetry of the world is sickening on a scale of morality and general human decency.