Aug '22
I was just thinking about this. Can anyone think of any Stephen King book, or movie, where he makes a character in the military who is positive or sympathetic?
He might do it in some of his books from the middle period of his writing. I have read most of his early stuff, and a fair amount of his recent stuff, but I am having a hard time thinking of any of his books showing people in the military as the good guys. Maybe he did this in some of his books from the 90s or early 2000s.
Anyway, I guess I just find this interesting. In The Stand, the military guys are just about always very unsympathetic, because they were responsible for the virus. There might have been a few very low-ranking, sort of everyman, regular dude characters in the military that you feel bad for, but overall they are pretty awful people. In The Long Walk, the army guys are just soulless killers, pure and simple. In the novella The Mist, the army is clearly responsible for whatever the hell happened to the world... some kind of portal to another dimension, or something like that.
Can anyone think of any of his books or movies where he presents military people in a sympathetic way?
I might have started thinking about this just in the context of 80s horror movies. The 80s had Predator, Lifeforce, Day of the Dead... probably others. They all had a major military element, whether it was for good or for evil. But, Stephen King just doesn't seem to like to write about military people, except as part of a soulless machine... it is just difficult to imagine Stephen King writing a fun Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, or a Rambo, Steven Seagal, or Jean Claude Van Damme movie, with the main character saying lots of deadpan one liners before vengefully machine gunning dozens of his enemies into tiny little bits and pieces.
I'm repeating myself a lot, here... well, whatever. Anyone have any thoughts?
He might do it in some of his books from the middle period of his writing. I have read most of his early stuff, and a fair amount of his recent stuff, but I am having a hard time thinking of any of his books showing people in the military as the good guys. Maybe he did this in some of his books from the 90s or early 2000s.
Anyway, I guess I just find this interesting. In The Stand, the military guys are just about always very unsympathetic, because they were responsible for the virus. There might have been a few very low-ranking, sort of everyman, regular dude characters in the military that you feel bad for, but overall they are pretty awful people. In The Long Walk, the army guys are just soulless killers, pure and simple. In the novella The Mist, the army is clearly responsible for whatever the hell happened to the world... some kind of portal to another dimension, or something like that.
Can anyone think of any of his books or movies where he presents military people in a sympathetic way?
I might have started thinking about this just in the context of 80s horror movies. The 80s had Predator, Lifeforce, Day of the Dead... probably others. They all had a major military element, whether it was for good or for evil. But, Stephen King just doesn't seem to like to write about military people, except as part of a soulless machine... it is just difficult to imagine Stephen King writing a fun Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, or a Rambo, Steven Seagal, or Jean Claude Van Damme movie, with the main character saying lots of deadpan one liners before vengefully machine gunning dozens of his enemies into tiny little bits and pieces.
I'm repeating myself a lot, here... well, whatever. Anyone have any thoughts?