MovieChat Forums > Southern Comfort (1981) Discussion > Why isn't Stuckey arrested on the spot?

Why isn't Stuckey arrested on the spot?


Right near the start he not only points a loaded weapon at someone but he also fires it. Which is an instantly arrestable offence under the laws of Military Justice.

I'm amazed people weren't suddenly running towards that spot to either help the person being fired upon or to kick the holy cr@p out the person firing.
Do the National Guard not have MP's?

Stuckey would have never been with them.
He'd have been taken into custody and probably sectioned.
The movie would be over and done within about 5 minutes.

What gets me is no-one makes a big deal out of a non-com firing at an SNCO.
It doesn't matter that they are blanks, you can STILL kill someone with blank rounds and he wasn't using a BFA.

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Interesting post there, a chara, but I need some clarification:

1. What's an MP?
2. What's an SNCO?
3. What's a BFA?
4. What did you think of the movie as a piece of performing art?

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MP = Military Police
SNCO = Senior (or Staff) Non Commissioned Officer
BFA = Blank Firing Attachment or Blank Firing Adapter

I found out all these meanings for myself within about 3 minutes using Google/acronym finder.

Why don't you use a bit of initiative and do the same yourself next time instead of asking to be spoon-fed? It's what the internet is all about.

Just a thought ...


Somebody's coming up .... somebody serious

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You must be VERY proud, esteban... Do you feel validated now?

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

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As validated as a very validated thing.

Somebody's coming up .... somebody serious

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Why don't you use a bit of initiative and do the same yourself next time instead of asking to be spoon-fed? It's what the internet is all about.


The initiative should have been yours to spell out the acronyms prior to using them, or simply not using acronyms that are specific to a governmental department. The only one I was familiar with was MP.
And did you seriously censor the word crap for yourself? In the future, just use BM. Just a thought...

We've met before, haven't we?

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The biggest Problem I have with your post is that I agree with it completely even in the case of not holding them to the same standards he would have been in the stockade for that

///!sig!\\\ I view in flat, I AM politically correct, ask me about my politics

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He should have been but it would have been a boring film if he had been.
Later comment: it is clearly a poorly-functioning unit and that helps set the following events in motion. Poole presumably bore some responsibility for this and I doubt the unit would have been in a better situation even if he had not been the first to be killed.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

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Because the National Guard in 1973 was a refuge of losers who didn't take it seriously. They weren't even issued live ammunition.

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I really did immediately assume it was simply because the NG isn't as stringent and nailed down as the "real" US Army, and more tolerant of "numbnuts gonna numbnut."

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None of the automatic rifles would have chambered a 2nd round without the use of a BAF.

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You can kill someone with a blank round if you are pretty much point blank range to them... but if you are as far away as the guy was you aren't going to do anything. Do you have a clue how a blank round is made? It isn't firing anything except some paper or wax wadding which isn't going to do shit besides vaporize almost instantly when it hits the air. The only times you get people getting hurt with a blank is when their is something stuck in the barrel that no one knows about or some idiot put it up against their head both of which have happened in Hollywood which eliminated one idiot and a poor sod that had no clue what was happening.

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