So why didn't Prewitt halt for the sentry? Especially after the first shot at him missed. This doesn't make any sense.
Warden's explanation is not satisfactory. Prewitt took a principled stand throughout the movie for specific reasons. Getting killed over nothing is not principled, but foolish.
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I read the book ages ago, but I can't remember if there's any explanation for why he didn't stop. My impression from the film is that he thought if he could make it to his own company, Warden would need every man who could stand and the stockade would be pushed aside, at least until he could explain the circumstances. Because "Fatso" had been so reviled, I doubt the Army would've wasted a lot of time on a trial for his killer. Prewitt could've pleaded self-defense.
He may have felt that being stopped by someone outside the company, he would have no leeway and go straight to the stockade.
"We're fighting for this woman's honor, which is more than she ever did."
The screenwriter left a few small details out of the movie that were explained in the James Jones' novel and would be better served to also have been explained in the movie.
First of all, Prewitt was completely healed from his knife wounds. (He had hid out at Alma's for over two months.) His wound didn't break open. The timeline in the movie was wrong.
Then, he DID halt for the sentries, but without valid ID he couldn't convince them that he wasn't a spy or "sabatoor." They were going to take him into the Provost Marshal's office, and he had self-vowed never to be taken into the stockade again, and that's why he ran. He struck out at the sentries and made a break for it. And the result was the same in the movie as in the novel.
This is my favorite movie and I've seen it umpteen times. The answer seems so simple: Prew was a hard-head and a man of few words. He thought his unit needed him. He had to get back there. If he halted he would probably not. So he kept running.
That would have been better if they showed that bit with the sentries.
Norman Vincent Peale: "Stay Alive All Your Life".
Spoilers (for the novel), of course.
While Al Williams accurately reflects the events in the novel in his post above, he didn't mention a key detail that is emphasized in the book. At the very end, when Prewitt is fleeing the sentries, he reaches the lip of the sand trap on the golf course. But instead of diving into the sand trap, he turns around and stops, looking back at his pursuers. This is why he is hit by bullets.
The soldier who was shooting at him mentions he wasn't trying to hit him, and that if Prewitt hadn't stopped, he wouldn't have been hit.
This is discussed repeatedly by the soldiers who witness the shooting, as well as Warden when he arrives. The point is this: We don't know why Prewitt stopped, but it reflects the self-destructive (if not suicidal) side of his character.
Despite reading 860 pages, we are never completely clear on Prewitt's motivations. This is a subtlety that I think would be quite hard to convey in a film.
Stuck in purgatory.
I watched the movie a few months ago and i thought about that too. Except that he was hard headed i personally think it was like a suicide. Army was his life and he wasn't going to stay in the safety of their house like a deserter, especially after realizing he couldn't have a future with Lorene.
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