MovieChat Forums > Hart's War (2002) Discussion > Cold Truth behind Bedford (Some Spoilers...

Cold Truth behind Bedford (Some Spoilers)

posted 18 years ago by mbphilly
5 replies | jump to latest

I am not saying Bedford is a wise and just man, and anyone who lives with a bigoted philosophy is a neanderthal of the first order. But cold truth is, while in general you have to admire the American GIs who fought in that war, if you took each of them individually you'd probably find a few more who were disturbing, depraved cretins not much more valuable than a slug. Actually that's cruel to the slug. I'm sure slugs contribute something more to the order of nature than any bigot has. Bedford was willing to let a fellow soldier be shot because he was black? Am I suppose to feel mad because the Colonel killed him? For that alone, Bedford should have been hung from the nearest tree.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!
--Michael Palin (Monty Python's Flying Circus)

[–] richardkarlgood 18 years ago

Go write a book about it, jeez..

I'm pretty sure, not even a large, or substansial amount of GI's joined the cough*retarded*cough KKK, I'm sorry, but that sounds absurbed, maybe post some proof, or the article you originally read.

And the black thing, sure it's happened, racism played a huge part in the upbringing of America, and a large part in this film. Racism is always a popular theme among films, and hollywood likes to exploit this. check out the huge success of "Crash", and all that is, is stereotypical, commercialized racism to feed the American public.

~rich

[–] mbphilly 18 years ago

Um, one paragraph does not make a book. Actually, now that I have read up on it some more in wikiopedia, the numbers of Klan members dramatically dropped after WW2, largely because the Klan was mostly opposed to American involvement in the war.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!
--Michael Palin (Monty Python's Flying Circus)

[–] bhilburn 11 years ago

That's the way things were back then, some were more open and aggressive about it than others. Not saying it was ok, but when you make a period movie you have to make it as accurate as possible to be plausible and not PC as to not offend those who are offended about everything.

[–] spookyrat1 11 years ago

...if you took each of them individually you'd probably find a few more who were disturbing, depraved cretins not much more valuable than a slug.

Agreed! Armies around the world take all types at some stage or another.

[–] faithdwnsouth 9 years ago

My understanding was that they accused the black man because the Nazi's would be more likely to sit back and watch what happens. They related to the then shown prejudice. It made for a more convincing ruse. There was a lot less scrutiny given the Nazi's hated them all but because the guy was black on top of that he was hated even more. None of them being held prisoner knew exactly what the plan was except for Willis's character. It was just too much risk to have all these men faking their way through the staged drama from start to finish. Some of the men were bigots but I think they were in the minority. You also have to consider that black pows had almost no chance of surviving these sicko's camps. So to an extent he was a dead man walking and they could at least make the guys death mean something. It was the Kansas City Shuffle WWII style. They were all screwed with nothing to lose at that point. Desperate times make desperate people commit acts they would normally abhor to do. With war nothing is black or white.