The Execution of Private Slovik

[Burgermeister]

70s TV movie starring Martin Sheen. Last saw it when I was 12-13. You can watch it on Youtube. There was no dumbing down or softening. Watched it with my 16 year old. We were each a silent quivering mess at the end. They did some serious shit on TV back then. He said afterwards that they don't make movies like that anymore.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

Slovik was told he would be sent back to his unit if he agreed to end the court-martial.

He said he would just run away and serve in a stockade until the end of the war and be released.

That got him shot dead.

 

[The Irish Ram]

70s TV movie starring Martin Sheen. Last saw it when I was 12-13. You can watch it on Youtube. There was no dumbing down or softening. Watched it with my 16 year old. We were each a silent quivering mess at the end. They did some serious shit on TV back then. He said afterwards that they don't make movies like that anymore.

I watched it when it came out and never forgot it. It's hard to take...

 

[0311]

70s TV movie starring Martin Sheen. Last saw it when I was 12-13. You can watch it on Youtube. There was no dumbing down or softening. Watched it with my 16 year old. We were each a silent quivering mess at the end. They did some serious shit on TV back then. He said afterwards that they don't make movies like that anymore.

I remember watching that movie. Eddie Slovick was the only American G.I. executed for desertion in WWII. Eisenhower denied his appeal to President Roosevelt.

 

[Burgermeister]

Slovik was told he would be sent back to his unit if he agreed to end the court-martial.

He said he would just run away and serve in a stockade until the end of the war and be released.

That got him shot dead.

You have it sort of right, but backwards. It wasn't up to him to end the court-martial. He was given multiple opportunities to report to his unit and avoid a court-martial. Thousands of guys avoided combat and got the stockade, and nobody had been executed for desertion since the Civil War, so he assumed being honest about it would get him the stockade at worst. He asked for an alternative non-combat post and they refused. He didn't have the stomach for combat, and he told them he would be a liability, and he told them he would just run away again if put on the firing line. That got him shot dead - and they fucked that up too. 11 guys missed a kill shot so he hung there for a few minutes dying while the doc listened to his heartbeat as they waited to hear if they had to reload and shoot again.

The point I was making was not about right or wrong, just that this was a quality, intense movie of the kind that we don't see anymore. And it was a TV movie. A couple years later, the family gathered around the TV to watch Roots.

Now we have steady stream of vacuous Hollywood garbage written by and for unserious superficial morons.

 

[Burgermeister]

I watched it when it came out and never forgot it. It's hard to take...

Same here. Will never watch it again.