Hook is running from two dudes with guns. He has the sense to wait and hit one guy with a pipe, knocking him down. So, does he grab the guy's gun, like any sensible human being would do? (except for anyone in a dumb slasher film) This guy is supposed to be a trained soldier. Is that really how stupid British soldiers are?
"Mortdecai is an embarrassment for all involved."
I thought the film started out brilliant and slowly got worse. By the end, I was rooting for the IRA.
shareYeah I didn't like that part either. But we are so "trained" to expect the badass hero to kill everyone left and right. I doubt it's like this in real life. The soldier didn't really want to kill anybody.
If you want a more rational explanation, he didn't know where the other gunman was and it was safer to get out of there quickly instead of starting a possible prolonged fight.
Nothing in the movie up to this point supports either theory. In the beginning we see the troops training hard. In every military in the world (with the possible exception of the French) soldiers are trained to survive. A big part of any survival technique in a war zone is kill or be killed. If he had done this in a training exercise his DI would have screamed at him and used him as an example of what NOT to do.
It's really just poor screenwriting.
"Mortdecai is an embarrassment for all involved."
So easy for armchairs to criticize.
He was a greenhorn, who had just witnessed the brutal murder of his colleague. People in shock can forget what they were trained to do.
While my uncle (police officer) and his colleague were interviewing an angry drunk in his home about his drunkenness (he had been shouting earlier, which upset neighbors), the angry drunk suddenly shot his crying wife in her head. It was so unexpected that they froze. They didn't realize the drunk had a loaded gun in back of his pants. They finally reacted when the drunk turned and shot at one of his young screaming kids. Both my uncle and his colleague had been in the force for 20+ years. They did deal with dangerous situations before, but for some reason, this one froze them. Such is life.
Plus, the solider wasn't sure if he was allowed to kill civilians. Remember, he was only authorized to stand guard while the RUC were in the house. When the crowd got out of hand, he and his colleagues were repeatedly ordered not to shoot. He probably thought he would get in trouble if he disobeyed that order, even if he killed or maimed the shooters to save his own life.
As a wise and very experienced novelist once told me, "But this is fiction."
It's true that "truth is stranger than fiction". I also know cops who have performed less than optimally in the heat of a moment. And if this were a true story then that would be acceptable story telling. But "This is Fiction". Which means it's up to the writer and director to make the story believable enough to keep the audience from screaming "OH, COME ON!" at the screen. I hardly think that a solider, whose life has been continually threatened for an extended period of time, would worry about "getting in trouble" for defending himself. That's just not believable.
"Mortdecai is an embarrassment for all involved."
I believed it. Even more so as a work of fiction.
It was clear from the start that he was new, uncertain and scared (remember his inability to sleep?).
When his colleague was killed unexpectedly, he was so in shock that one of locals had to tell him to run. If he was a well-trained soldier, he would have been hyped and on alert and after his colleague was shot, immediately ran back to his other colleagues. But he didn't. This was his very first experience with something so violent, after all.
From the start to the Divis flat, he reacted to continual developments around him. Like he only reacted when he was ordered. He was trained to take orders after all. Ordered to stand guard. Ordered not to shoot. Ordered to chase the boy with a rifle. Ordered to run. Kept on doing this until the Divis flat. How else did a little kid manage to order him around? :D Without orders, all he could do was keep running, away from the guys were shooting at him.
It wasn't until the Divis flat that he started making decisions for himself. Sneaked out without the old Army guy and daughter's knowledge. Killed one of the IRA guys. And of course, quitting the Army and taking his brother into his legal custody, which he didn't have the confidence to do earlier.
It would have been more believable for me if they hadn't had all those advanced training scenes in the beginning. Those scenes set the whole squad up as some elite fighting unit.
You raise an interesting point. Wandering around the city like a dolt, following the "orders" or instructions of a child, basically surviving only on the merits of the locals who risked their own lives for his - so what was the catalyst for his new found confidence? One moment he's lying in bed close to death - the next he suddenly sprouts a pare of balls? Where did that come from? What was the turning point that brought about this character arc?
"Mortdecai is an embarrassment for all involved."
Firstly, my dad actually did those "advanced training scenes" when he was in a borstal when he was 15 and at school from 14 until 18. English schools weren't pretty for people like him. :D
Secondly, Hook and fellow soldiers were never portrayed as an elite fighting unit. They were just a new batch of ordinary soldiers.
I did note the film's failure to show just how unequipped and inexperienced they (and their squadron leader) were. The film assumed we viewers already knew the history and that this would help us to recognize the implication of sending them to Belfast when they were supposed to be going to Germany for further training.
Belfast was - between 1967 and 1988 - one of most violent places in Europe. Some say 1968-1972 were the most violent years (500+ British soldiers and 300+ civilians were killed), which is probably why the filmmakers set its story in one of those years.
I agree with you on what prompted him to change. I think I decided it was overhearing the old Army guy and the daughter that prompted to take his life into his own hands. He either couldn't trust them any more or decided he couldn't stay as it'd jeopardize their lives.
Interesting thread. I suppose to answer the OP's question accurately, one would have to consider the intracacies and complexities of Irish politics (which I personally don't know too much about; I have some knowledge of the conflict during the 70s, but am by no means a true, erudite scholar on the subject). I watched '71 recently and thought it was very entertaining, very well made (great acting, editing, cinematography, and a solid -- and plausible -- storyline) and, just as importantly, believable. I have a vague recollection of the chase scene and thought it worked quite well; Hook was merely a basic soldier -- an inexperienced one at that -- thrown into a volatile, divided, gerrymandered and abnormal society, where sectarian, guerrila and ethnopolitical warfare was at its worst. I'm not an expert on the conflict in Northern Ireland (aka 'The Troubles'), but I think during the early to mid-seventies it was probably the number 1 place on earth where it was most dangerous to be a British soldier. Apart from the British presence, there were other factors to consider (which I mentioned above) and then there are all the other factions and splinter groups (i.e. the IRA, the P.I.R.A, the UDA, the UVF, the RUC, the Black and Tans, the B-specials, etc). The list goes on. A whole history to consider (800 years?). I am going to come back to this thread at a later date as I don't have the time presently. In the meantime, can anyone give a more detailed, measured response if possible?
Regards.
One moment he's lying in bed close to death - the next he suddenly sprouts a pare of balls? Where did that come from? What was the turning point that brought about this character arc?
Be in no doubt, when anyone believes without doubts that his/her life is in immediate and dire peril, regardless pain and injury, one finds an inner strength to move, and away from imminent danger. Fact.
After the danger passes,that strength goes, usually followed by collapse.
The body survives on adrenaline.
I had thought most adults knew all of this? Perhaps not after all. So much for our education systems.
Was going to reply but fair play that Zerose guy pretty much shot everyone of your "points" down
shareHe didn't pick up his pistol after hitting him with the pipe because had he have done that then he would become a target to more than just 3 or 4 guys with a guns, he'd become a target for all IRA members who would be looking for an armed and dangerous soldier.
Also, as he have gotten hold of the weapon he would be more likely to give away his position had he have fired it. Not a good idea when you're in enemy territory and trying to escape unseen and and unnoticed.
I think you would react the same way had you have been in that situation, especially as you would be an inexperienced soldier, no older than 20 who is untrained in urban warfare. Most soldiers during this time were trained to fight a different enemy, in the possible event that the Soviet Union were to attack and heat up the Cold War so were unprepared for combat in the streets of Belfast. Much like the soldiers who were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, they had to learn on the job how best to fight an enemy who you couldn't tell apart from civilians.
a US soldier with our inane "rules of engagement" while amongst people who want nothing more than to see you dead.
For all the reasons to not be a soldier (posh c**nts, etc), inane "rules of engagement" made up to satisfy some posh, braindead UN bureaucrat has got to be #1.