How retarded is that? The protagonist never even tries to bring the rapists to justice? I mean, WTF? The ending was truly awful, because the rapists got away with it, and the film doesn't even register the importance of bringing them to justice. I mean I can even understant the hero trying and failing, but HE DOESN'T EVEN TRY. Maybe he didn't consider the gang rape to be that big of a deal?
shareIn the novel, (I've never seen this movie) the rapists couldn't be brought to justice because it had happened sooo long ago that it would have been almost impossible to discover them. As they say, as a case gets colder and colder, it becomes that much more difficult to solve. In the book, Captain Campbell went to a school with several thousand other male officers, and the assailants were all decked out in black and war paint. She never saw their faces, and since the rape was never reported, no evidence was collected. Without a rape kit, and any other physical evidence they cannot place potential suspects there at that place and time.
shareIn the film they find out who was responsible for the rape. It might have been impossible to prove it, but they never even try. It's extremely dissatifying for an audience member to see the hero of the story to not even try to put up the rapists "against the wall", despite the fact that he knows who the rapists were. He just ignored them, which was very frustrating.
shareI thought Travolta's character said he found out the names of all the men that raped her and told James Cromwell that each will be serving 20 years.
The greatest trick the Devil has ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist!
Brenner hands the General the list of rapist and tells him that Sunhill found them with minimal effort. The says each will be looking at a 20 year sentence at levansworth.
So I guess im not understanding how Brenner wasnt going after them.... What else was he supposed to do? They didnt know anything about the General's part in the cover up so they didnt play a part in the movie. The one Recon Officer already flipped on his recon team so Brenner didnt need to investigate that more.
In the novel,Brenner (Travoltas character) talks about how they could have been brought to justice IF the gang rape was reported.Thought the film was *beep* compared to the novel to be fair...
shareI loved this movie
I thought everyone did a great job
I also felt that the Rapists would be brought to a military style justice
I think the movie went to great lengths to point out that in the military you dont have the same rights as in cilvian law.
Bremer does promise the general that the rapisits would all be caught and my guess would be that the one guy who witnessed but did not stop the rape, the one that was interviewed by Agent Sunhill in the locker room,
his testimony would be enough to convict in a miltary court
Agent Sunhill told him that CID would be in touch
I do think the rapists were brought to justice
The key to the end of the movie was bringing the General to justice for his role in covering up the rape and for obstructing the investigation into his daughter's death
The only fault I could see is that at the end of the movie, there should have been some text that indicated "all the rapists were brought to justice"
I had a strange experience with this movie. I was channel hopping and saw the scene near the end where Travolta says his we found the SOB that did it and it was you speech. And then I saw the salutes and James Cromwell walking off which I interpreted as an epic irony, the bad guy got off scot free, the military is untouchable, justice is not done. And I thought, wow this is powerful stuff, I'll have to watch the rest of this movie some time. However, I just watched the whole thing and I see now that Travolta had just delivered his I am going to take you down speech, and so I missed the whole point of the movie, i.e. that the good guys will always win in the end. So preferred my initial misinterpretation; wish I hadn't seen the whole movie now! Depressed. I should point out that my ultimate uplifting movie ending experience is probably Brazil, so I suspect my idea of a good ending may not match up with other viewers'.
shareSo wait a minute. You don't want the "good guys" to win?