I have a number of questions about this movie, but I won’t list them in the OP. Since the movie is a number of years old now, I’m guessing interest in it isn’t very high these days. I hope I’m wrong, however, and if this question generates some interest, i’ll ask more.
anyway, for those of you that have seen it and read the book, how close is it to the book? One scene in particular struck me as odd. When Teague and his Home Guard boys go to Esco and Sally’s farm to look for their sons, the home guard tortures the mother until the boys come out of hiding. But instead of taking strategic positions to fire their rifles and maybe kill Teague and his men, they come charging out of a barn, apparently unarmed (one son is carrying something, but it could easily be a shovel instead of a rifle. I can’t tell what it is, and he never levels it to fire, so it doesn’t matter anyway). The reason I suggest that they should have taken strategic positions to shoot at the Home Guard is because it took a significant amount of time to tie Sally up in the fence in prime torture position. It wasn’t like they just grabbed her and shot her in her feet until their sons came out…
Anyway, the sons run out of the barn and charge toward the Home Guard, and are shot to death. One of the boys is killed by the flying Wallenda of the Home Guard, the white-blond guy that looks almost albino, who does a back flip off the fence and shoots one son in the chest. The other is killed by Teague. Was this scene presented in the book this way? It seemed like such a ridiculous scene on so many levels, but the back flip was the strangest part of the scene.
I’ve read the book and seen the movie, but that was years ago for both. I do recall the movie being close to the book. That’s about all I can tell you.
They had both equipped themselves with farm tools that they’d found in the barn. One had a hay fork and the other had what looks like a hoe. So no firing from “strategic positions” for them.
The backflip from the fence didn’t seem all that weird. Some people I know can do small-time shit like that pretty casually.
Haven’t read the book so I can’t tell you how close it is.
Well, i’m going to have to disagree with you there on the backflip. It was strange. Completely out of place for a movie like this, and unnecessary to boot. It was just distracting.
You are right about the pitchfork. I think that’s what the first son was carrying. The second one could have had a hoe, like I said, I couldn’t get a good look at it. But they were in the army, so they almost definitely had rifles. Charging out of a barn after watching the Home Guard kill your father and tie up and torture your mother seemed a poor plan at best. You don’t bring a pitchfork to a gunfight, or a hoe. This whole scene had so many odd story choices.
The Home Guard was another strange thing. In the movie, it was said that Teague was too old to fight, but that wasn’t the case at all. He wasn’t too old to fight. And the men with him weren’t too old to fight, either. Why were they exempt from fighting when they were clearly able to? The confederacy was taking 16 year old boys, if not younger. I don’t think they would have turned down a 40+ year old man (Teague) or a young man like the white blond kid. Even if he did have an issue with a bleeding nose.
I’d watched the scene before answering. It was definitely a small farm tool. The kind you’d find in a barn like the one they were hiding in. If they’d had rifles with them I expect they would have used them.
Your objection and disbelief at them running out with improvised weapons when the home guard had guns while their mother was being tortured is odder than the scene, in my opinion.
I’m pretty sure people could volunteer for Home Guard service and, well, someone has to be in the Home Guard, might as well be the older guys and the sick dude.
That aspect was accurate. Teague was over 50, as I recall, and men of that age wound up with Home Guard units. Presumably, men with infirmities which kept them from marching were treated similarly. Can’t speak for the rest of Teague’s unit.