MovieChat Forums > Southern Comfort (1981) Discussion > Court Marshall

Court Marshall

posted 17 years ago by JackieVega
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I'm from the UK so may have missed the significance of how important a court marshall would be. I presume the National Guard is similar to our TA (weekend soldiers and purely voluntary).

The difference is none of the men seemed to want to be there and when Court Marshall was mentioned they were obviously dismayed. Couple of questions

Is the NG voluntary ?
Would there be any fallout/stigma from a court marshall in your personal life ?
If you killed someone in the NG would a court marshall be enough ? (EG when Powers Booth kills Fred Ward they say he will be court marshalled)

Loved the film !

[–] shasta-8 17 years ago

Yes the National Guard is voluntary.

It's Court Martial, which means a military court will be convened to try a soldier accused of a crime (this includes crimes that aren't civilian crimes, like disobeying orders or disrespecting superiors.)

If Booth's character was found guilty of murdering a fellow soldier in a Court Martial, he would likely be sentenced to death or at least life in prison. Though I'm sure in this case, he and the other guy would just agree to say that the Cajuns did it.