Obedience to a totally different level

Power is never everlasting, at the end of the day, victory often goes to those who stand for freedom and decorum than those who wish to control the lives of other fellow human beings.This is brilliantly portrayed by the two movies – ‘A few good men’, directed by ‘Rob Reiner’ and ‘Shaurya’ directed and written by ‘Samar khan’. Bothtry to answer what true code and honor stand for, and the exact meaning of valor.

One of the most important questions both the films ask is about “Obedience”, one of the most direct forms of social influence. What would a man with honor, do when he is asked to something against his conscience? Follow it or disobey the order?

  

He obeyed- In the movie, ‘A few good men’, two Marines, ‘Pfc. Louden Downey (James Marshall)’ and ‘Lance Cpl. Harold Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison)’were ordered to perform “code red” by‘Lt. Jonathan Kendrick (Kiefer Sutherland)’ on Santiago. They followed the orders and consequences, of course, were truly tragic for the innocent and defenseless victim. One is forced to ask questions like why, seemingly normal, law abiding citizens actually obeyed such directives. What leads to the tendency to obey, even when obedience results in potential harm to innocent human beings?

We can come to an understanding that such destructive obedience can stem from many factors. One could be the transfer of responsibility. “I was only carrying out orders” is the defense the marines offered after obeying harsh and stern commands. They believed that they were following orders and of course the notion is that ‘’a good soldier always obeys!’’

Another possibility is that the fast pace of events provided little time for reflection or logical thoughts to the Marines. The person in authority that is ‘Col. Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholas)’ possessed visible badges and signs of high status. The odds are that, this perhaps served to remind marines of the social norm “obey the people in charge”. This is a dominant and prevailing norm, and when confronted with it, most people find it difficult to disobey. After all, no one wants to do the wrong thing, and obeying the commands of those who are in charge is the heart and soul of the institution.

He refused- In the movie, ‘Shaurya’, ‘CaptJaved Khan’ realized that there is always a choice even in the face of direct orders from his superiors. He realized that he was responsible for any harmed produced and, not the authority. One realizes that he had a clear idea that, beyond a point, total and blind submission to destructive commands is utterly inappropriate. He questioned whetherthose in the ranks of power are truly in the best position to judge what is appropriate and what is not; what motives lie behind their seemingly brutal commands- socially beneficial goals or selfish gains? And so instead of keeping quiet and watch his Superiors kill an innocent girl, he pulled the trigger and shot his Superior ‘Major Virendra Singh Rathode.’

Thus, the movie tries to prove that the power of authority figures to command obedience is certainly great, but it is not irresistible, and the brave Indian solider will always stand firm against allatrocities and shall ultimately triumph, despite the long odds against him.

‘CaptainRudraPratap Singh’ from ‘Shaurya’ and ‘Col. Nathan Jessup’ from ‘A few good men’ are both portrayed as aggressive and hostile individuals. By studying their characters, one can nail down the roots of their aggressive behavior. One of the obvious causes is, frustration and provocation. This aroused them to drive harm on other people, in case of ‘Col. Jessup’ it was the cold weather. Whereas ‘Cpt. R P Singh’ was provoked by ‘Jamil’ who was a servant in his household, raped the captain’s daughter and finally burnt the whole household, leading to the death of his daughter, wife and mother. His inability to find and punish Jamil led to an outrageously hostile attitude towards the entire Muslim clan.

Desensitization could also be a reason for the aggressive attitude of both the officers. Since they were exposed to a large amount of violence, the resorted to being less sensitive to violence and its consequences. Another reason could be the excessive form of self-love and an over inflated view of theirown accomplishments. Both of the officers are portrayed as narcissist and thus they may react sternly to small provocations because they believed that they are a force be reckoned with due to their high stature in the organization. This is one possibility, the alternate could be that they had nagging doubts about the accuracy of their inflated egos and so they reacted with extreme anger towards anyone who tried to undermine them. This is seen when ‘Santiago’ wrote a letter to the higher authority about an illegal cease fire, ‘Cpt Jessep’ ordered a code red to be performed on him since he felt that his authority was in question.

These two movies have a very disturbing effect as they seem to parallel many real life situations involving atrocities against innocent victims, like the massacre of millions of Jews by the Nazi and more recently the murders and disappearance of thousands of civilians in Kashmir. It questions our very view of the Indian Army and the Government agenda!