The Most Controversial Character.

I think the most controversial character in this movie was Lt. Cmdr. Paul'Bus' Cummings. He was "proud to be an 'Annapolis Man.'" In other words, he was a regular Naval officer, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. And he sold out everything he believed in pursuing a venal cause.

I have often been offended, even disgusted by what I have seen senior officers do. But I have also known many graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs. Our professional military officer schools turn out a good product. They don't all retain all of the ideals that those marvelous institutions instill in them throughout their careers, but they start out as the best of young humanity that we could hope for.

When this movie takes one of those young, idealistic officers and shows him to manipulate a fellow officer and to attempt to murder him in the pursuit of a publicity stunt because his commander wants it that way, it is offensive. I can imagine that many of our best and brightest are truly hurt by this.

I can see it in context as part of a play to explore a great truth. We need to analyze our wars before they start. World War 2 was a great cause that we were forced into. I think that all (yes, I wrote all) of our conflicts since then can and should be defended as the right thing to do at the time, even if they have not all ended as we would have liked. Try, if you can, to imagine what we might have done differently. And by conflicts, I don not include misfires like the ill thought out Bay of Pigs fiasco.

However you think about our military history since WW2, please do not think that Lt. Cmdr. Cummings represents the actual product of our officer academies.