It's kind of funny - I remember watching this movie on tv as a teenager, and the Sgt. Watson character seemed like a real low life for what he did.
Then as an adult, you gradually become aware of shades of grey in life, and think to yourself, yeah, walking off into the desert, and walking into a band of hostile desert people wasn't such a great idea.
Watson gets discussed a lot here. My own opinion is that Watson is a low-life. Not for refusing to go on the Captain's suicide march--I wouldn't have gone either--but for the cowardly way he got out of it: faking an injury instead of confronting Harris directly. And then when he sees that Harris has returned, he leaves him outside instead of helping him, obviously in hopes that he'll die. And finally (when the Captain is killed after trying for the second time to save the others), his obvious glee when he asks Towns: "he's dead, isn't he?" makes me kind of sick. No wonder Towns punches him.
shareYup, I agree with everything you said.
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Actually I'm more sympathetic to Watson than most. Yes, the faked injury was a bit ridiculous, but then he showed bravery and stood up to the suicidal captain later. He couldn't contain his glee at the Captain's death, but he was also glad he wasn't dead WITH him.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of Hollywood... (;-p)
I don't sympathize a lot with Watson. I understand why he does what he does, but I feel much more compassion to Harris, who, while doing "suicidal" things, was looking out for everyone.
Two things made me hate him. His rage and disgust when Harris is found after he returns to he wreck site, and his smarmy "He's DEAD, isn't he?" reaction when Towns returns. Yes, everyone likes to be proven right, but his GLEE at being proven right is what makes him despicable to me. Yes, Harris and Renaud ended up murdered. You don't have to gloat about it.
I love to love my Princess.
Watson was an interestingly complex character, and I think it was a cheap shot on the screenplay's part to add things to make him a more obvious bad guy. Those elements aside, I am entirely sympathetic with him and would've told the Finch character to shove it.
Would you court marshal Sgt Watson for disobeying an order?
shareThe film is about survival. Watson's survival instinct was stronger. Captain Harris is maintaining the pretense of being in control, doing his duty, and doing what is best for the group. But actually he has already descended into madness. Watson was still sane, and did the sane thing. Which was to refuse to go on a suicide mission.
It's true he might have died with the others anyway. But he felt that was his best chance for survival. Either to be spotted by a plane or fly the new plane out of there.
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Watson is a complex character study of an essentially aheroic man expected to provide heroics at the command of his Captain. He is troubled by the resentment he feels for being abandoned to the Army by his parents; having served his entire life he now seems to have accepted that his career has peaked out at Sergeant, thus the prim-and-proper Harris as his Captain, a man who undoubtedly was raised and educated in relative luxury, then commissioned as an officer upon entering the service, must rankle Watson terribly. The idea of class and rank being wiped out by their present predicament is quickly quashed by the supercilious Harris, who still expects himself and Watson to carry on amidst the sand dunes like a miniature version of the Army. I feel more sympathy for Watson now than I did the first time I saw this, since most of the characters are deeply flawed people, whose mistakes in life have, in no uncertain terms, led them to this very spot. Unfortunately Dorfman was correct: contacting the Bedouins only created difficulties. When Watson finally mutinies, one would think Harris might be a little gun-shy with his absurd BE histrionics, but insists on courting disaster, taking the doctor Renaud along with him. Had Watson followed his commander, he would be just as meaninglessly dead.
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