Did Barnes kill Manny in some sick plot to harden his men?
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mobstar1967 — 11 years ago(July 29, 2014 09:55 PM)
I don't believe Barnes killed Manny for a second..
Yes he eventually went on to try and kill Elias but that was only to save his own ass from a court marshal and possible imprisonment for an illegal shooting.. He's out of control but not to that extent.. -
ynotony23 — 11 years ago(August 08, 2014 12:35 PM)
no Barnes didn't kill Manny. First off he did really know where Manny went. Lt. Wolf was the one that ordered Manny to that spot. Like the other said as well Barnes was sad because he just saw and had 2 of his friends blown away.(both those guys were in the clubhouse playing cards) Plus next time you watch it you can see a white tag around Manny's neck which is something the VC did to mock/insult US soldiers. Barnes killed that women because he was just fed up with everything. He thought they were lying about not knowing anything or helping the VC. He got sick of hearing her so he put her down. I don't think he was trying to turn everyone into killers he was doing his own thing. after the other soldier saw that, some of them are just as fed up and suggest killing everyone the war is taking away their humanity. IF Barnes was just planing to kill everyone in the village he wouldn't have gotten upset at the soldier who brought that guy to Barnes and tripped him. Barnes pointed at him and told him to get the hell out of here. He just wanted straight answers like i said he was sick of the BS.
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Chopperbubba — 11 years ago(August 14, 2014 05:13 PM)
I couldn't see Barnes brutally killing one of his own troops to prove a point when they just lost two men to a booby trap. Barnes may have been a sadistic %#&@ who enjoyed killing VC, but a pure psychopath he wasn't.He showed genuine concern and emotion when someone died from his Platoon. He killed Elias out of survival, due to the looming court martial hanging over his head.
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tellbeerx — 11 years ago(October 16, 2014 11:06 PM)
Julie, your mom made great points.
I also think Barnes kill Manny too just to harden his men. Why? because- it would be extremely stupid for NVC to give Platoon the excuse to start killing nearly villagers, villagers that provide them with provision.
- Barnes knew where his platoon is heading at, and he put the corpse where everyone could see to eliminate any suspicion.
- Give way for his men to start killing villagers - check. Their first victim? an unarmed mentally challenged man and he was also a crippled.
Examples from the above made me realize why the death counts for civilian in Vietnam were so high because leader like Barnes know how to inspired.
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nickm2 — 11 years ago(October 18, 2014 11:34 AM)
Civvie casualties are high because usually a village gets artillery prep & the NVA were very quick to make sure civilians were in the mix where they could amush allied units from bunkers in the village. It does build mistrust-like the cops in shytty parts of town (& trying to track down people with a history of firing at police) tend to be more trigger happy: shoot first ask questions later.'
All that being said, that's always been a feature of guerrilla wars. Yet in spite of all that, more civilians died AFTER the war because in true commie fashion the North Viets & their erstwhile allies/clients like the Khmer Rouge & Pathet Lao just couldn't resist 'liquidating class enemies';
Still, usually NVA would operate in the hills & jungles away from populated areas because they were nearer to their sanctuaries & basecamps, near or over the border.
Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!? -
michaeluk26 — 10 years ago(June 05, 2015 10:06 PM)
- The Vietnamese would most certainly take out an American soldier 50 meters from his platoon. The fact that the Americans butchered a village drove more and more people to see the Americans as the bad guys and would help hosted people to fight against them. The Vietnamese would have no samn problem with losing those supplies. They were fighting a political war as well as militarily. They never planned on winning the war militarily. They just had to inflict casualties and fight as long as they could. They were willing to fight till the last man as they viewed the war as another 1st world country trying to invade and subject them to slaves.
- The VC killed Manny, oliver stone himself said the same thing happened to a guy he knew in vietnam . The VC even wrote a message and put it around his neck.
- Barnes was not out to just murder people. He believed in the war. Killing the villagers was a natural reaction that many real life soldiers did as well. The 3 deaths of his troops, and Stone himself said Barnes deeply cared for those on his side of the platoon, along with finding the supplies simply boiled over into murder. Barnes did not set out that day to murder civillains.
Haters gonna hate
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drystyx — 10 years ago(May 05, 2015 05:03 PM)
The answers pro and con are off the mark. The ones who think Barnes wasn't a psychopathic killer are way too nave.
However, Barnes, being a control freak psychopath, a homicidal maniac, was only interested in creating scenarios of death for anyone he could, in a power game we see with many rich kids today who play internet games.
Barnes is the maniac who thinks he has strategy, style, and inspiration, even though he has zero of each. He was only out to abuse power. He cheats his men at cards, and he cheats them in their lives.
He would not "kill" Many himself, but he definitely would ensure a situation where Manny would be killed. It is very likely he even saw who did it, and allowed it, even likelier he told Manny he "had his back" and let him hang out to dry.
It's most likely that the exchange of looks is Barnes wondering if Taylor also saw the killing.
Don't believe for a second that Barnes "cared" for his men. If there wasn't a war, he would find another reason to destroy or kill whomever he could. It was his way of feeling in control. If he was a construction worker in the states, he would sabotage a scaffold, replace a tool, anything to possibly cause someone else to die or get hurt. The incident with the "friendly fire". The lieutenant was under his thumb, and there is no doubt he gave the lieutenant the very coordinates to kill his own men, and the lieutenant is even more afraid of him after that.
Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!