Movie Thoughts

I sometimes talk about awkward subjects (more often in the past then lately).  Things that might upset some people.   So recent readers may be a bit surprised at this.

I don't watch many movies and the ones I do are usually old.  Not OLD old like 'Wizard Of Oz' but not "new" like the newest movies on HBO.  I watched 'Red Dawn' (1984, I think) tonight.  Well, sometimes the nature and science CDs start to feel repetitive, you know?

The movie is about WWIII when some collection of Soviet-based countries decide to attack the US in the "near future" *hey it was 1984 at the time of the movie*.  It had a decent explanation, not about the reasons, but about the methods. Some Coloradans decide to fight back. 

So some older teenagers/young adults were away from home hunting in the countryside when the attack hit.  With typical hollywood bravado and skill, they fought back.  They got better at it with experience.

No deaths were glorified (much), some of it was difficult, some was sad.  A person had to kill his brother after a betrayal; a young mortally-wounded woman saved her last grenade to take an enemy soldier with her; a sacrifice was made for honor...  One of the best things about 'Red Dawn' was that it ended ambiguously; no resolution to the war is provided. 

 What struck me was the practical lethality. And this is what causing me to write about this tonight. And let me state upfront that I was never a soldier and never had to face that choice of killing another human being.  But if there is something abhorrent about killing someone who is trying to kill you for no really good reason, I don't know it.

The deaths were mostly long-distance rifles and machine-guns and anonymous.  Bombs set off at distances, grenades dropped into tanks, simple ambushes.

I do not like death.  I stopped hunting deer when I killed a lactating doe with an arrow, realizing that there must be a fawn somewhere that would die of starvation slowly.  I cried about that.  I cry when I read of a cat who dies, even though all such deaths are inevitable.   I weep for the innocent...

But I just can't feel the same for those who attack other people.  One of the lines in the movie was something like Enemy: "Why are you killing us"; and the response from the US partisan was "Because this land is mine".  I understand THAT!

Killing in that situation wouldn't cause a single tear from MY eyes...  I wouldn't know the enemy's family (or beloved cats).  My conclusion after watching the movie was "I could do that easily".

Having said that, I am taking some time to decide whether or not to post this.  8:56 pm  Post or not, hmmm...  Could be a lot of objections; could be angry responses from veterans who say I don't know what killing a person is like; could be angry replies from anti-hunting people.  I'll think on it a few hours...

OK post it.  I'll be interested in the responses, if any.