Rockumentary on dead puppies:
In the recent spy spoof Kingsman: The Secret Service,
young secret-agents-in-training were asked to pick dogs which would be their companions throughout training. As they were trained, they also had to train their dogs. The “graduation test” was being told to kill their dogs on command. A kid who doesn’t, washes out; one who does, passes the course. (One older agent shot and wounded his dog, not killing it, then nursed it back to health; he also passed the course).
You mis-remember:
The test is the willingness, not the act… The guns were loaded with blanks, and the successful candidate’s dog survived. Colin Firth’s character’s dog was unharmed and had later died of plain old age.
I saw a Canadian cut of the film by the way, I’m not sure they made different versions for different markets or not for this film.
Awesome user-name/field of study combo!
Ah, thanks!
As I’ve said in other threads on this subject, it makes zero sense as an indoctrination tool. You want your special forces elite troops to obey orders without question, right? How do you do that? By having the elite troops trust their officers, and believe that even if ordered to do something suicidal there’s a good reason for the order. It’s called Esprit de Corps.
When soldiers are ordered to participate in atrocities to initiate them into the unit, it’s always against those outside the group. German SS weren’t asked to shoot their mom, or their buddy, they were told to shoot Jews and Slavs. This sort of atrocity creates a group identity. Shooting your pet dog to prove your loyalty creates the exact opposite, the soldier realizes that to his leaders he’s as expendable as the dog. Armies go to great lengths to try to establish esprit de corps, even among bands of murderous psychopaths you don’t want the psychopaths shooting each other or their officers, you want them working together shooting at the enemy, or massacring villagers, or whatever.
And of course, contrary to the notion that the German armed forces wanted zombie-like obedience, the German military in WWII emphasized initiative, creativity, responsibility and flexibility.