TeaTimeSunday / SONNETS
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MOVIE ON TRIAL: Court Marshalling "... Private Ryan"
(VOTE: guilty or not guilty ) rhetorical verse in Shakespearean sonnet form
The People (especially Veterans of WWII,
{TTS/060902_01.01} I ASK the ladies and the gentlemen
{TTS/060902_01.02} of this fair jury gathered here today...
{TTS/060902_01.03} Unlock the loaded thoughts you carried in
{TTS/060902_01.04} and listen now to what I have to say.
{TTS/060902_01.06} . . . had captured the last German left undead ...
{TTS/060902_01.07} WHAT DID our soldiers think was to be done?
{TTS/060902_01.08} "Let's shoot the unarmed pris'ner in the head."
{TTS/060902_01.10} to stop the locomotive of revenge?
{TTS/060902_01.11} THE COWARD blocks the shot . . . as Fritz prays... kneels.
{TTS/060902_01.12} AND ONLY THEN ... the Captain does impinge.
{TTS/060902_01.14} These selfish portraits made me want to heave.
{TTS/060902_02.01} DID MEN DIE on that beach in bleeding foam
{TTS/060902_02.02} AND OTHERS lose their arms and legs . . . BECAUSE
{TTS/060902_02.03} they fought to earn the right "to just go home?"
{TTS/060902_02.04} OR DID THEY FIGHT for some much greater cause? ...
{TTS/060902_02.06} The skies were black with ash from Jewish bones.
{TTS/060902_02.07} WE DID NOT KNOW the depths of Hitler's craze.
{TTS/060902_02.08} WE HAD NOT SEEN what's left after the moans.
{TTS/060902_02.10} THEY WERE NOT making plans to cut a deal.
{TTS/060902_02.11} THEY KNEW they risked their lives for something more.
{TTS/060902_02.12} Just ask someone who fought: "What did you feel?"
{TTS/060902_02.14} But only when they'd sung sweet vict'ry's tune.
{TTS/060902_03.01} LAST: What of PRIVATE RYAN in this case?
{TTS/060902_03.02} He disobeyed his order's clear command.
{TTS/060902_03.03} (What if an extra said "No" to Steve's face?)
{TTS/060902_03.04} He ought to be court marshalled for this stand.
{TTS/060902_03.06} But PRIVATES do not have the right to choose:
{TTS/060902_03.07} An army would collapse and go to hell.
{TTS/060902_03.08} You break chain of command... Well then, you lose.
{TTS/060902_03.10} behavior such as this was just not done.
{TTS/060902_03.11} A private does not get to run the show.
{TTS/060902_03.12} THE CAPTAIN should have taken 'way his gun.
{TTS/060902_03.14} And that, for Spielberg, would have been obscene.
{TTS/060902_04.01} SO LET US PUT THE BLAME where blame should be:
{TTS/060902_04.02} A good director's failure TO SEE CLEAR
{TTS/060902_04.03} the moral pivot in complexity.
{TTS/060902_04.04} The tone gone wrong that he could just not hear.
{TTS/060902_04.06} The "good guys" would have done a heinous act.
{TTS/060902_04.07} A CAPTAIN'S WEAKNESS causes every plight.
{TTS/060902_04.08} AND THEN we're sold the whole thing like it's fact.
{TTS/060902_04.10} Not entertaining noise, but school-book tales.
{TTS/060902_04.11} He marches out old profs and lifts up names
{TTS/060902_04.12} of D-Day soldiers crying. . . .
{TTS/060902_04.14} Go off now, jury, to your voting booth.
Spielberg called this film "an immorality tale." He was quite correct. INTERFACE DESIGN FOOTNOTE: The mechanism for online (and via TV remote) voting (-5 to +5) is in development.
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