It seemed like when he told them to go they were probably running back in the direction of their own lines.
That would be a shitty thing for him to do after the guy he insisted on letting go, Steamboat Willy, was part of the German attack that cost so many of his friend's lives. He executed SW but let half a dozen Germans back into circulation to repeat the process multiplied?
Is that what happened there?
I'd imagine those soldiers were soon captured or even surrendered given that the Americans were all over that area at the end.
People talking about Jar Jar Binks and how he ruined an entire movie and everyone's childhoods. Well, one year previous to Jar Jar you had Corporal Upham. The wuss to end all wusses. That guy was the OG Jar Jar. Terrible character.
This movie needed a less cheesy script and someone else to play Upham.
I had a somewhat sympathetic feeling for Upham. He was ordered to go deep behind enemy lines, he did not ask for that, he was a nerdy clerk typist and map maker, he probably should have been left there in his tent.
Not everybody is Rambo, the kid froze up a few times, WWII was pretty insane, lots of guys would probably freak out and be sort of worthless.
I get that of course, but it seemed so off theme that after making that mistake once, he would go on to do it in multiple right at the end of the movie.
Upham's character grew during the movie, at the end he meted out retribution (right or wrong) to balance the scales of his error. Then apparently proceeds to make a new mistake when he should have just held those Germans at gunpoint until they could be taken in hand by his own guys.
I don't know, perhaps they weren't returning to their own lines. But the way the shot looked he was just letting them run off willy-nilly with no caution about what they were going to do then.
The scene would have played a lot better if he had told them to get on their knees or lie on the ground and close it out at that. We'd then at least know they were going to be captured or at least that he'd done the right thing.