he stood there and watched in the rain.He could have started shooting and raised hell up in that hooch but no chose to stand there,cry and watch instead of stepping up,showing some balls and doing what's right.
EDITED: DEC 2008
Alright alrighty post was a little sexist and highly inflammatory...although I probably would have killed the other men and blamed the VC
K U C H I I
i guess when he actually saw her face and what they done he snapped ?
share?????????????????? Kuchii??? What are you talking about...how old are you???? unless you were there how the hell can you see he was as bad as the rest of them, If he had have made a big fuss they would have murdered him, nobody would know.
think before you post.
"she's the tear that hangs inside my soul forever."
Like Erickson said to his friend after it happened. He had a chance to take off with the girl but Clarke turned up, then what was he supposed to do? Kill Clarke and then what? Kill Merserve, Hatcher and Diaz, because they would have come after him!
Not only that it would have gone against his principles to kill his own men.
Not only that it would have gone against his principles to kill his own men
Did I say I agreed with the way Erickson acted? Grow up.
share"your such a man" ? im sorry, but isnt that incredibly sexist? anyway, did you read the rest of what Ezekiel_Stone posted?
i must admit, when watching the movie i kept wishing erickson would do something, and i even said to myself "i would do something" but of course I've never been to war and had a knife at my throat and a gun in my face. erickson risked almost everything to save the girl, but in the end he would have had to kill people to do it. he did the most sensible thing and try to get the girl out, then try to bring the men to justice. i cant say i would do the same thing, be brave enough to bring the men to justice or actually let the rape happen anyway. but if i was in the same situation, and i shot four men to save a girl, i would STILL feel horrible.
he is obviously a tortured man by the end of the movie.. in retrospect your post is just ridiculous. get off your high horse, you know people do drugs and you dont stop it, so that makes you as bad as drug dealers? you could give money to starving children in africa but you buy a barbie doll instead, so obviously you are equal to a child killer. shut the hell up, you make no sense lady!!
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"your such a man" ? im sorry, but isnt that incredibly sexist? anyway, did you read the rest of what Ezekiel_Stone posted?
i must admit, when watching the movie i kept wishing erickson would do something, and i even said to myself "i would do something" but of course I've never been to war and had a knife at my throat and a gun in my face. erickson risked almost everything to save the girl, but in the end he would have had to kill people to do it. he did the most sensible thing and try to get the girl out, then try to bring the men to justice. i cant say i would do the same thing, be brave enough to bring the men to justice or actually let the rape happen anyway. but if i was in the same situation, and i shot four men to save a girl, i would STILL feel horrible.
he is obviously a tortured man by the end of the movie.. in retrospect your post is just ridiculous. get off your high horse, you know people do drugs and you dont stop it, so that makes you as bad as drug dealers? you could give money to starving children in africa but you buy a barbie doll instead, so obviously you are equal to a child killer. shut the hell up, you make no sense lady!!
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Even if he did get away with the girl, what would he do then? If he isn't killed by the enemy or friendly fire in the Jungle, and somehow makes it back to base, Meserve and the others could just say that Erikson deserted the patrol and that erikson made it all up, the higher command would probably sweep the whole incident under the rug like they tried to do even after the rape and murder was exposed. They could then just hang erikson out to dry for desertion in the face of the enemy and put him in prison and then put the girl back into her village and maybe give her sum incentives like buffalos or cash to shut up.
share[deleted]
I think his guilt for not doing anything while they were raping Oanh, is one of the main things that helped fuel and push him to expose the situation. He knows that even though he didn't rape her, he still didn't stop them from raping her, and that guilt is something that he has to live with for the rest of his life. To me, this is another form of casualty that was present in the film, the lost of innocence through the effects of war on an individual. We know in the beginning and towards the end with the "bus scene" that Erikson is a tormented man, and maybe he's tormented not because of his fear of retaliation, but because of the fact that he's dealing with the guilt that he carries inside him for not doing more to prevent the rape and murder of Oanh.
sharei think he was in Shock THat they were actually doing what they did....
He was scared and had NO Idea what to do.. and just broke Down...
I mean what can you expect him to do... Idiots like That of Seans Charachter do what they do because their Sick minded Simpletons...
Had Errikson tried to Stop them by Force, he would have got Killed...
The GOvernment would have just covered it up by simply calling it Friendly Fire.
Thats how the US Army Goes.
i love how everyone on this board is just like "why didnt he kill them?" as if it was just THAT easy.
most of you have no clue what you are talking about.
The evidence would be very clear by the girl's appearance. She already appeared very banged up and as Erikson determined, getting very sick from food and water deprivation. The physical evidence was there, and they could even use a rape kit to collect evidence from her genital organs.
I doubt he would have faced a court-marital for desertion. Desertion is abandoning all your duties and day jobs altogether, not just one measly patrol day.
true but he was also out-numbered
sharehe admitted he had failed in his attempt to stop the rape and torture, he tried desperately to stop the murder on two occasions. he was outnumbered, he was outranked and he was outgunned. Standing up to them was an extremely brave move, one that diaz failed to go through with. starting to shoot them probably wouldn't have helped, he would have been killed and the others would have continued with the rape and torture. It is difficult to see what other course of action he could take, by making a brave stand, he hoped to influence the others and he almost succeded when he stop hatch from murdering her, unfortunately Clarke was a psycho, meserve had lost it completely and diaz was weak. He also had the courage to pursue legal action in the face of huge pressure to drop it from the authorities and threats on his life, despite all this he is racked with remorse, guilt and torment at not being able to do anything else.
Shooting hell up in the hooch as you put it would not have solved anything, he would have been dead, the rape and murder would still have occured and the others would have got away scott free. it is a position i hope i never find myself in, and i hope nobody else does either, because there are very few options a brave and principled man can take, dying to protect her is only useful if you succeed in protecting her, otherwise you die for nothing, and that is as pointless as the war in Vietnam was in the first place.
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Ericsson as bad as the others? No way in hell, what an absolutely stupid statement.
Did he rape and beat the girl? Did he knife her twice? Did he shoot her? No.
He did tend to her wounds, feed her and try and to save her on more than one occasion.
He was a young man involved in a foreign war with the odds stacked against him (4 armed men against 1), its not like he was sitting at home enjoying a beer and watching the telly while his buddies were raping a girl in the next room for heavens sake.
"Wash, Rinse and Repeat - Always Repeat" - Homer J Simpson
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Everyone says, "I would be the hero in this situation." But the truth is, most people go the route of Diaz and comply. Not many would have the guts to even stand up as much as Erikson did.
share[deleted]
The problem is that to stop them meant to kill them and if the guy wasn't a sociopath (Eriksen), overcoming the reluctance to kill other humans, even for trained soldiers, requires a combination of factors that weren't exactly there. Additionally, the training that enables military units to function as a unit also builds resistance to actively threaten other (US) soldiers.
Pretty much, what's left is passive resistance.
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I agree with user-7088. If Eriksson tried to intervene in any way, he probably would have gotten hurt in the process by the other four, either beaten to within an inch of his life, shot on purpose, or "by accident" during the line of fire. That would mean that no one would have ever known what had happened to Oanh, or be punished for it.
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Everyone dies but not everyone gets to live.
Flower your logic is absolutely flawed.
share