Sorry, Stone himself says Barnes cares deeply about the men under his command that were on his side and not Elias. In the directors commentary again Stone says himself Barnes is in that little hut sitting there because he cared for those men.
He most certainly did not give the wrong coordinates for the artillery. In fact he cusses the LT for getting so many of his own men killed and injured with bad coordinates. He is furious and immediately calls for them to check their fire to stop them. Stone makes one thing clear in the commentary, and that is Barnes deeply believes in the war and cares for his men. He wanted to kill Elias simply because he believes the "we break down, the machine breaks down" quote. Elias in his view was doing that very thing.
I suggest you listen to the commentary with him and Dale Dye, its fascinating.
That's why we get incorrect "psychoanalysis". Stone knew guys like that, and believed in them, living a delusion. That's how maniacs like Barnes get by, because too many idiots like Stone swallow their "I care for my men, so I kill them" lie.
I suggest you get out in the real world instead of listening to grunts who listen to quacks.
I've known too many maniacs like Barnes. And some who believed they were just "rough around the edges" didn't survive to tell the truth, but some did. And some were always fooled and just lucky they didn't get hurt bad.
The reason this is fact is because there is no motivation for people like Barnes except pure evil. These maniacs will lie and get the gullible to rationalize, because people want to think well of "rough" guys, but it is what it is.
Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
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michaeluk26
9 years ago
Served 2 tours in the sh!t-hole known as Iraq, infantry. Not some fobbit. Was there in 2004 when the insurgency exploded and then again during the surge in 2007 when we went from Camp Victory and Liberty to COPs in southern Baghdad.
War changes people. It dehumanizes you. I believe Barnes was simply a product of his environment. Stone said Barnes had already served 3 tours and was shot and injured numerous times. He came to believe it was his war and it was personal. The simple fact is, to survive in a war zone you have to become a maniac. The damn problem in Vietnam was the same we faced in Iraq, we had no idea who was a friendly and who was an enemy. You keep losing guys and hardly ever see the enemy and you know the people know who and where these insurgents are and yet they don't tell you. You become suspicious of everyone which inevitably leads to hating them and viewing them less than human. Better one of them die than us.
I frequently saw things that disgusted me that some of our fellow soldiers did. Killing unarmed civilians, dogs, destroying peoples property act. But no matter what, we all cared about each other no matter if we got along or not because when the sh!t hits the fan, and my god it hit the fan damn near everyday, we were all we had. Barnes simply got lost in the war but he did care about the troops in his click deeply.
Yeah, Barnes was a maniac but everyone in a war is a maniac to one degree or another. Almost a decade later I still can't sleep well at all, my hands shake, I have terrible nightmares when I do sleep. I constantly wonder why it was my buddy who died and not me. We were sitting a foot apart and the sniper chose him, not me. Why? Getting to set on the right side of the Humvee one day, which was not my usual spot, and an IED hit and badly wounded everyone but me and another spec. I would not wish war on anyone.
Wow, I did not realize I wrote this much. Talking about movies for some reason calms me down, weird.
Haters gonna hate
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kidd-simon
8 years ago
Late reply but I agree with what you said with regard to Barnes. He is clearly a psychopath who will be ok to you as long as you go along with everything he says and does.
The moment you disagree or challenge someone like that you will more than likely be dealt with swiftly and in an unpleasant fashion, that is why Elias ends up dead. He had become a problem to Barnes and when the opportunity presented itself Barnes took him out, being a psychopath killing Elias was logical to him and the obvious way of solving that problem.
Barnes did not kill Manny, thats ridiculous. The whole point of that part of the movie after Manny's death was to show how the war had pushed some of these men to the absolute limit and they snapped, mainly through fear I'd say although that is no excuse for killing innocent people.
The part where Chris sees Barnes smoking after the two guys have been blown up is very interesting. He looks shaken and sad even if he is a psycho, the whole experience of the war had clearly had a very negative effect on him.
It smells like a Spin Doctors concert in here.
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