A couple of points shocked me.
Why were those soldiers there? They weren't there to serve and protect. what happened on Boston Common was not a tragedy, but a crime. Moore's notion of complexity is conservative in the most narrowminded kind of way.
No it's not. I hadn't seen a more ridiculous trash wallow since Colin Farrell, Rosario Dawson and a knife had sex in Oliver Stone's Alexander. And I say that as someone who actually liked most of that movie!
What was Moore thinking?!
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At a much later date, I started going, this really isn't Kent State, it's a misleading type for what this episode is about, and what happens here. A more accurate description of this sequence is the Boston Massacre, in that a group of soldiers pinned in a situation that they're unprepared for, and a tragedy happens. In the Boston Massacre, a group of British redcoats, before the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, were backed up against a building in Boston with a mob, and the mob grew ugly and started throwing things. The situation got out of control, and somebody in one of these situations, like in that situation aboard the Gideon, squeezes off a shot. And it's really kind of key to the idea that you'll note we didn't show you who squeezed off the shot, where the first shot came from. Was it one of the civilians? Was it a Marine? How did that Marine fire off the shot? It doesn't matter, but the mistake is made. One shot goes off, and then the other Marines, in this situation they were completely unprepared for, fire back on instinct and people are killed. That's not Kent State. Kent State is a very different political situation, a very different setup. It carries with it a great, heavy political connotation. This is truly a little bit more the Boston Massacre, which then became a propaganda thing. The Colonists used it as a weapon ("There was a massacre, they fired indiscriminately into this crowd"), but the truth is actually more complex.
This little beat, I love it because it's so oddly twisted. What is going on with these two? What kind of relationship do they have? There's some vaguely violent sexual thing that happens between Tigh and his wife. You get the feeling this ain't the first time, and there's tragedy in the air, and then there's anger and then there's sex. It's interesting sometimes how those dots are connected.
What was Moore thinking?!
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