Colonel Miles Quaritch was legally insane

[Porthos1]

Imperius Dictatio wrote << You come off to me as not having enough common sense to pour piss out of a boot…'Aliens!' Stories are dumb as hell becuase they violate the rules on common sense… You blue alien space cat wanking is tiring….Go cry in a corner.>>

With those posts, I see that you are here because you truly get a rise out of d*cking with the “Na’vi lovers.” It is not arguing about a subject dear to your heart, it is arguing for the sake of it. It is arguing to show superiority over the guppies that take your bait. Dude, you can be a human advocate if you like without your advocacy making you look like a total skxawng (moron). You should try it.

If you are truly not an a$$ and are actually promoting a serious discussion (and I might apologize if so), allow me to chime in: Stories of alien invasions of our planet have roughly the same theme; we, the humans, are imposed upon by a highly advanced and hostile species bent on taking what they want. They cause the humans to put aside their petty problems and repel the intruders to save the planet/species. Independence Day is an example. Common sense would dictate that if our lives are threatened, we would try and defend ourselves. We humans are unlikely to treat a raiding alien species as our Star Trekkie buddies.

This may be nonsensical to you, but if you look at our own history, you can see equivalent stories. There are plenty of examples of highly technological “alien” invaders encroaching onto the lands of “backwards” inhabitants and the drastic consequences that resulted. The expansion into the American west in the 1800s is one. Side note, did you know that the Apache word for “the people” is “Ndee?”

Avatar is the reverse of Independence Day. We, the human species, are the alien invader. The Na’vi’s existence is threatened and they must defend themselves (common sense). Jake Sully (Pres. Whitmore) rallies them for the final confrontation. The aliens take a face plant.

The movie is really not trying to portray the humans in a bad light, but portray the soulless and merciless corporate institution from which the humans must live and work in that light and the consequences of an “illegal invasion” on the indigenous flora and fauna. This same play is going on today on our planet.

PS, I got the piss out of my boots ‘cause the instructions to pour were on the bottom of the heal. It was like magic. Yes, as a matter of fact, I was surprised. Now if I could just figure out how to get it out of your hat. Hmm.

[Porthos1]

Ooops! I almost forgot why I started reading this thread. Ha ha! To return to the original post’s comment, I do not think that Miles Quaritch is legally insane. He is a self serving, manipulative, power hungry, vengeful murderer, but not insane. You can argue that any one of those would send him to the padded room, but I think he was rational and clear. I’m not saying he was a nice guy. Quaritch is performing the role of the “Stick” for the RDA. He is a mercenary and corporate tool. The fact that he plays it too well does not make him legally insane, IMHO.

The Na’vi would think he is Stingbat sh*t crazy and his “in-san-a-ty” was treated by Nurse Neytiri by becoming a pin cushion. Cured! Booyaaa! Go Big Blue!

[HufweMakto]

Imperius Dictatio wrote << You come off to me as not having enough common sense to pour piss out of a boot…'Aliens!' Stories are dumb as hell becuase they violate the rules on common sense… You blue alien space cat wanking is tiring….Go cry in a corner.>>

With those posts, I see that you are here because you truly get a rise out of d*cking with the “Na’vi lovers.” It is not arguing about a subject dear to your heart, it is arguing for the sake of it. It is arguing to show superiority over the guppies that take your bait. Dude, you can be a human advocate if you like without your advocacy making you look like a total skxawng (moron). You should try it.

If you are truly not an a$$ and are actually promoting a serious discussion (and I might apologize if so), allow me to chime in: Stories of alien invasions of our planet have roughly the same theme; we, the humans, are imposed upon by a highly advanced and hostile species bent on taking what they want. They cause the humans to put aside their petty problems and repel the intruders to save the planet/species. Independence Day is an example. Common sense would dictate that if our lives are threatened, we would try and defend ourselves. We humans are unlikely to treat a raiding alien species as our Star Trekkie buddies.

This may be nonsensical to you, but if you look at our own history, you can see equivalent stories. There are plenty of examples of highly technological “alien” invaders encroaching onto the lands of “backwards” inhabitants and the drastic consequences that resulted. The expansion into the American west in the 1800s is one. Side note, did you know that the Apache word for “the people” is “Ndee?”

Avatar is the reverse of Independence Day. We, the human species, are the alien invader. The Na’vi’s existence is threatened and they must defend themselves (common sense). Jake Sully (Pres. Whitmore) rallies them for the final confrontation. The aliens take a face plant.

The movie is really not trying to portray the humans in a bad light, but portray the soulless and merciless corporate institution from which the humans must live and work in that light and the consequences of an “illegal invasion” on the indigenous flora and fauna. This same play is going on today on our planet.

PS, I got the piss out of my boots ‘cause the instructions to pour were on the bottom of the heal. It was like magic. Yes, as a matter of fact, I was surprised. Now if I could just figure out how to get it out of your hat. Hmm.

Thank you for all of the insight. I'm glad I'm not the only person who saw this movie as "souless coporations vs nature", in that how coporations, greed and ignorance can quickly and destructively destroy the very things we hold dear (our humanity, love, the animals, nature, etc.). We, as humans are not bad, likewise, you don't have to look far from Jake Sully, Trudy, and the Avatar scientists to see how the spirit and the morality of the sitiuation won out against coporate greed and ignorance. It's the very fact that even though the fight seemed hopeless and that they were not of the same species as Neytiri and Mo'at, the human characters of Jake, Grace, and others where able to see past that. In a sense, they were able to "see" what the RDA and SECFORS weren't able to.

The fact of the matter is the same, the Na'vi were fighting to save themselves, like humans would if we were faced with an invasion of "sky people". That is just common sense. But like with our own world, there is still an ongoing invasion upon our natural world, wheather it is plastics choking and killing albatross chicks, or fracking that causes gas leaks in the water supplies. The "moral" of this film is to not allow this kind of greed and ignorance to plague our world, to stand up and have some common sense and help our natural world.

[tm20]

and my point is proven, I.D. is just here to argue for the sake of arguing, must be very bored.

[louielouie11224]

Can't really argue that he wasn't insane, but he certainly was a badass. If there was something to shoot, breathing came second. And the way he jumped out of the gunship???? He was an awesome villain.

Stephen Lang is in a Fox show called Terra Nova. The pilot was alright, but after that the show became mediocre at best. Slang is about the only reason I still watch it. That, and dinosaurs.

[mirija]

Legally insane, possibly. Criminally stupid, also possibly. Strategically and tactically incompetent, highly likely. A ground force Colonel who does not have a grasp of simple combined arms operations, even a shaved tail looey can figure that out. Taking your aircraft through such hazardous airspace? The pilots would have grounded themselves! Dropping unneeded infantry into a jungle? To what purpose? You have a trans-atmospheric shuttle and you order it into floating mountains? Why not just plant it in orbit and drop your daisy-cutter from there? Too much fuel, then just go to 60,000 feet. Instead it would be better to chalk it all up to a script written by someone who has not been in the military before.

[Ahoragi]

Legally insane, possibly. Criminally stupid, also possibly. Strategically and tactically incompetent, highly likely. A ground force Colonel who does not have a grasp of simple combined arms operations, even a shaved tail looey can figure that out. Taking your aircraft through such hazardous airspace? The pilots would have grounded themselves! Dropping unneeded infantry into a jungle? To what purpose? You have a trans-atmospheric shuttle and you order it into floating mountains? Why not just plant it in orbit and drop your daisy-cutter from there? Too much fuel, then just go to 60,000 feet. Instead it would be better to chalk it all up to a script written by someone who has not been in the military before.

I don't think Cameron intended to follow standard military procedures. Instead, I think he wanted to show Quaritch lose his control and do something drastic for dramatic purposes. Most of what Quaritch did throughout the movie was not protocol, hence the attack on home tree. He was simply out of control.

[mirija]

I concur with the "he put it in the script for drama" thing but to take the actions of a character in a true context (meaning that if it were happening today) the Colonel, even in his role as a security department head, still has to remember two things:

1) The purpose of their presence is tied to the bottom line. Wasting resources because you want to reenact Custer's picnic at the Little Bighorn would be frowned upon even in these days of GSA scandal.

2) In security it is still necessary to utilize restraint. Though the individual may lack restraint, it is the job of the COO (Chief Operations Officer) the become that restraint. You can't have one department going crazy with personnel and funding when there is no profit to be had.

Ultimately he was the same as any other human that ever worked in a factory; do your job properly or you're out the door. He got out of control because his boss allowed him to. Says a lot about the boss. As a side note, as a Colonel in the real world, you cannot conduct operations that do not advance the goal of the undertaking. The ultimate control does not come from the military chain of command, it comes from the civilian Commander an Chief; the President. I personally abhorred Bill Clinton but it was my duty to perform my function as best I could in spite of that.

I still stand by my comment about script writers who have never served.

[Ahoragi]

His boss did try to stop him but quaritch and his men overpowered him. I think it's in the deleted scenes. It wasn't captioned so I don't know what they were talking about but it appeared that selfridge tried to shut down the operation. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[mirija]

I got nothing.