Those Who Decide Should Fight

Rating: 10/10 (16 February 2007)

I've often been Luke warm about Kirk Douglas. This, however, is a phenomenal movie. War is usually fought by people who have no say in what is happening. The despicable man who can send thousands to their deaths to get a military promotion is every bit as bad as the enemy being fought. We have a lot of that going on in this country. Those who choose war should fight it or send their own to fight it. This is ad much a story of how people treat each other as it is a war movie. We hand over power to a complex that sustains itself on the backs of those who never get to state their cases. The men chosen are done so in an arbitrary way, caught unawares and defenseless. Of course, religion plays a part in it too. We may die, but there is a reward for us. There are so many parallels to what happens to men in combat (the ambush, for instance) that these men become victims. Like someone said, so much war is fought over anthills. I have never felt so sorry for characters as I do for these because they are defenseless. The cockroach scene has stayed with me my whole life. It's the same basic premise as Galipoli (which came much later).