Self Restraint

Two incidents in Sands of Iwo Jima.

1. Three soldiers jump in a fox hole and realize they are low on ammunition. One of them volunteers to run back to camp to get some and bring it back. After he gets the ammo, he comes upon another soldier making coffee. He sits down and enjoys a cup. Meanwhile, his buddies run out of ammunition and have to make a run for it. They jump into another fox hole, only to find themselves surrounded by a gang of Japanese soldiers with bayonets. One of them is killed and the other escapes wounded. The third soldier returns to find his friend dead.

This incident shows how deadly it can be--for others in this case--when a man lacks self-control.

2. As night falls later that day, the Americans find themselves needing to hold their position with very few soldiers. The commanding officer tells Stryker (the John Wayne character) to spread out his men and make sure they don't smoke or talk or do anything that would give away their position. Otherwise, the Japanese will be able to find out how vulnerable they are and will attack.

During the night, someone starts calling out the name of the American soldiers, as if he were lying wounded on the battlefield. The soldier stationed with Stryker says he is going to go out and see who it is, but Stryker tells him not to because it could be a trap. The soldier tells Stryker that the only way he's going to stop him is to kill him--and Stryker immediately aims a rifle at his face. The soldier accuses Stryker of being inhuman. The scene ends with the voice from the battlefield calling out Stryker's name and the camera focused on Stryker'sface--and you can see that he is in agony. He knows that he needs to stay where he is even if the cry for help is real.

Stryker is not being inhuman here: he is exercising self-restraint--the very quality that the first man lacked. He knows that if he does not stay put, it may well lead to the death of his companions and the failure of the entire mission. Just as the first man's lack of restraint led to the death of his friend, Stryker's ability to exercise restraint keeps his friends safe.