why did sean penn only get 10 years, it was all his idea and he gave the order for her murder, seems like he should have got life too me.
shareDamn straight.And Hatcher in real life even ended up getting off.Disgusting.
I think in Meserve's case his medals and his saving Erikson helped which is bulls**t.
William Calley, leader of the massacre at My Lai, a far worse atrocity than this incident, was sentenced to life in Leavenworth. Nixon and Army officials moved him to house arrest and reduced his sentence. Ultimately, he served less than four years, all under house arrest rather than prison. The other soldiers who participated in the massacre weren't even charged.
Justice...not a high priority for the military and government at the time.
The anti-war community wanted Calley released because they perceived him a scapegoat.
shareI know he was the guy who set up the entire event, ordered the unwilling guys in the group to participate, and ordered the girl killed. He should have had the longest sentence of all. (I'm speaking of the way it happened in the movie....I know nothing of the real life people)
shareNo matter how it actually came out in real life, for the purposes of this film, I think it's intended to be an irony of military "justice." Clark gets life--unofficially, perhaps, b/c of his alleged attempt to kill Eriksson, and also b/c he just made the worst impression on the court and they figured that someone had to "take the fall." As a corporal with some level of authority, he made an excellent scapegoat. Still, Clark was no more a factor than any of the others, and definitely less of one than Meserve was. He was convicted of "premeditated" murder while the others were only convicted of "unpremeditated" murder. As another person stated here, the court probably went easy on Meserve b/c of his excellent service record and the fact that he'd saved Eriksson's life (which may have come out during the trial), never mind the fact that Meserve was the senior NCO in charge, it was his idea to kidnap the girl, and he gave the order for the others to rape and later shoot her. The reluctant participants, PFC Hatcher rec'd 15 years (more time than Meserve), and PFC Diaz rec'd 8 (almost as much): Again, an irony on the "justice" of the whole thing, and another thing that left Eriksson haunted.
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