Question: Why didn't the prisoners just walk through the tunnel to Switzerland on the other side?
Question: In all honesty I have little (if any) anthropological knowledge of what life was like for Native Americans in the USA in the nineteenth century. But it seemed to me that, for much of the time, the Native Americans in the movie did not resemble the members of a 'hunter gatherer' society whose way of life was under threat from the onset of the modern industrial world. Instead the Native Americans seemed to live, act and behave much more like the members of a 1960's hippie commune. How accurate is that?
Answer: Some members of tribes like the Cheyenne joined in the 'modern' world to some extent, using guns and even putting on Western clothes and eating Western food. While nowhere near the technological nous of the white settlers, the natives were far from being hunter gatherers at this point.
Answer: Well observed sir! What you say is correct. I admit I probably was wrong in calling Native North Americans 'hunter gatherers' as I think some tribes had agriculture and permanent settlements well before Columbus ever reached the American Continent. I also think that the Cherokee consciously tried to adapt to modern life by building houses and becoming farmers. My point was more that it seemed to me that the portrayal of many Native Americans in Little Big Man did not seem historically accurate, but showed them as being more like 1960's hippies. But I am fully aware that this may have been intentional, since the film was giving a 1960's 'spin' on the legends of the 'Wild West'. But please, do not take my posts on this website too seriously. I am fully aware that this was a film made to entertain people, it was not meant to be a historical documentary. And it was the fictional recollections of a 121 year old man. And the film poster said 'Little Big Man was either the most neglected hero in history OR A liar of insane proportion', so you are invited to have your doubts about anything that happens in the film.
Rob, you may want to look into reading the novel the film was based on written by Thomas Berger. He wrote some pretty twisted stuff.
Question: What's the difference between an enlisted person and an officer?
Answer: An officer is a person who has had special training (in college ROTC, or in OTS, called 90 days wonders) for command, tactics, military law and the like, after which they are Commissioned. They are basically management. An enlisted person is someone who has gone through basic military training, but does not have command responsibilities or authority. Basically labor. This gets a little confusing when enlisted personnel can rise in rank to become a Non-Commissioned officer, often called the backbone of the Service. But the highest ranked enlisted person does not out-rank, and has to salute, the lowest ranked officer.
Question: I can understand why they would use code when talking about positions, objectives, etc. but when they call in the air strike from the battleships, what's the point of using code? Also, later in the film, when the same situation arises, they don't use the code. Seemed like it was just a silly way to introduce the whole premise for the movie.
Answer: The point of using the Navajo code to call in air strikes was to encrypt what the Marines were requesting without the Japanese being able to decipher what was said. This is critical because during the Battle of Saipan, the Japanese made extensive use of caves and reinforced earthworks to support their artillery positions and machine gun nests. The delay between requesting artillery support and the act of carrying it out allowed the Japanese to withdraw their infantry to relative safety before the fire mission could commence. By using PVT Yahzee and PVT Whitehouse, they were able to circumvent this and request attacks without the Japanese knowing what was coming. The only time Yahzee does not use the code is when he uses the Japanese radio to call off the artillery strikes that were falling short and hitting Marines. This situation required immediate attention and it would not have been appropriate to use the code.
Answer: They used the code to call in the strike so the Germans couldn't get the U.S. to bomb their own troops. I don't know why it wasn't used in the other situation.
Question: When the commando teams drops their gear did the parachute fail to open, or could the equipment survive a drop from a plane at that height?
Answer: Depending on how it was packed most likely.
Answer: The majority of prisoners were heading towards Switzerland through the tunnel, only a few prisoners with weapons were acting as a rear guard to hold off the German troops chasing them and buy the prisoners time to escape.
Scott215
All the prisoners were on the train. I've contended before, they didn't need to fix the track. Just leave the train on the bridge and go straight through the tunnel. That route HAD to be shorter than going around on the walkway, and they would have had a much larger head start than waiting to fix the track.
kaevanoff