What happened with Dean Martin's character?
I had a VCR glitch and missed the end. Another post explained about Clift's character but what about Martin's? He asked to be transferred back to his old unit and ...?
share... he was sent into combat where we next see him meeting up with Ackerman (who had escaped from approaching nazi soldiers). their unit then liberates a concentration camp. prior to the liberation we see Christian entering the camp seeking food from the commandant, who complains that berlin has ordered him to kill the remaining 6000 prisoners before the americans arrive. but the commandant can't because he only has 10 soldiers left, altho he'd like to. this turns Christian's stomach; he leaves the camp without food. after the camp is liberated Whiteacre & Ackerman are wandering/patroling outside the camp when Christian, in the woods, smashes his machine gun against a rock and wanders, unarmed, down a path. Whiteacre & Ackerman hear the noise of the gun smashing and investigate. Whiteacre sees a *beep* in the woods and kills him from afar. the 2 turn and leave the body in a stream. Ackerman returns home to his wife and infant. the end.
shareThank you.
shareI guess the original question is why don't we see Dean Martin return from the war? I guess he was like thousands of other Americans. He will return to his friends and over bended elbow tell everyone how he killed a horrible German in the heat of Battle(The story will change several times of course). Ackermann's story is more inspirational. While he was in America nobody noticed him, he had a crumby job and was discriminated against. During the war he showed great courage. He will return to an anonymous life in the states work and raise a family like so many others. People like Mike will get all the glory for the war.
Will people like Lt.Green wind up running the world?
In the book, the ending is very different. Noah and Michael are sent out by Greene on patrol. Christian, who in the book slowly is destroyed by the war and turns in an angry, hate-filled inhuman being, sees the two Americans and shoots Noah in the neck. Michael, who has never shot anyone nor seen any action realizes the only way to save Noah is to get the sniper. Michael goes into the forest to get Christian who by now is the far more experienced and deadly soldier. So it is pretty much looking like Michael is a dead duck and only by a quirk of sheer dumb luck/fate (memory of the story might be foggy here) somehow Michael gets a grenade off and Christian is mortally wounded . Michael makes his way to the dying Christian who smiles at him and says; "Welcome to Germany", Michael shoots him. Then returning to Noah he finds him having bled to death from his wound.
The powers that be felt that this was too sad of an ending and decided to let Noah live. I tell you I cried when I read the end of the book. After all Noah had gone through, to die in such a way was beyond tragic, but very, very sadly in real life so true for so many millions of brave soldiers.
The man I am named for was one of these men who died tragically at the hands of a sniper as well in Germany at the very end of the war. at barely 20 years of age.
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In the book, the ending is very different. Noah and Michael are sent out by Greene on patrol. Christian, who in the book slowly is destroyed by the war and turns in an angry, hate-filled inhuman being, sees the two Americans and shoots Noah in the neck. Michael, who has never shot anyone nor seen any action realizes the only way to save Noah is to get the sniper. Michael goes into the forest to get Christian who by now is the far more experienced and deadly soldier. So it is pretty much looking like Michael is a dead duck and only by a quirk of sheer dumb luck/fate (memory of the story might be foggy here) somehow Michael gets a grenade off and Christian is mortally wounded . Michael makes his way to the dying Christian who smiles at him and says; "Welcome to Germany", Michael shoots him. Then returning to Noah he finds him having bled to death from his wound.
All that is followed by the final sentences of the book. Michael picks up the body of his friend and begins carrying it back to the camp.
He does this because he realizes that he had to bring Noah's body back..."personally"...to Captain Green. That's the final sentence of the book.
Noah isn't coming home to his wife and kid in Brooklyn. He's dead, his wife is a war widow, and his daughter never knows her father, who dies in the final days of WWII.
My mother's kid sister had the same thing happen to her, except for the kid...they never even had one. The uncle I never knew went MIA in the Battle of the Bulge, and was finally declared dead.
They never found enough of him to bury. Direct hits from shells often accomplished that sort of thing.
HONK if you love Jesus...
TXT if you want to meet Him... share