History Film / ThePentagonWars

Hey, it makes as much sense as everything else that had anything to do with that [[TheAllegedCar/RealLife Alleged Fighting Vehicle.]]

The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Fighting_Vehicle Bradley Fighting Vehicle,]] as designed, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQ2lO3ieBA was a deathtrap.]] If it were to be sent into combat without significant modifications, it could kill hundreds of its own passengers. So what do you do when the top brass orders you to make it pass the tests, so that it can be deployed in the field on schedule and make them look good? Do you make a somber, tragic movie showing the depths to which humanity can sink? Do you do a scathing news exposé of the affair and demand accountability?

* LogicalFallacies: Partridge employs a number of techniques to misdirect people when he is forced to answer uncomfortable questions.
** ArgumentumAdLapidem: Partridge constantly disparages Burton's testing methods without clearly explaining why they're flawed.
** CircularReasoning: "If the fuel tanks were filled with fuel, there's a good chance the vehicle would have exploded."[[note]]This is exactly the point, and one of the congressmen points this out.[[/note]]
** InsaneTrollLogic: Starting with his opening monologue and continuing throughout the movie, Partridge frequently employs non-sequiturs to deflect attention from the issues being raised.

** AppealToConsequences: "We must not, will not, allow [enemies of the United States] to prevail for if we do, you can be certain that you and I and everyone else will never again enjoy the luxury of meeting in this building to debate anything!"

* SpearCarrier: All of the testing crew besides Dalton and Granger.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Colonel Bach and Major Sayers, Partridge's devotees at the testing facility. John C. [=McGinley=], the actor who played Bach, would also be part of a similar duo in Film/OfficeSpace.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Colonel Bach and Major Sayers, Partridge's devotees at the testing facility. John C. [=McGinley=], the actor who played Bach, would also be part of a similar duo in Film/OfficeSpace. Technically, their also ThoseTwoBadGuys.

* DisapprovingLook: a great one by Secretary Weinberger, his squint saying "do you think I'm ''that'' stupid?", when General Partridge tells him he didn't know Burton had been fired.

* TooManyCooksSpoilTheSoup: Part of the reason why the Bradley was in development so long. Colonel Smith comes up with an effective troop carrier, only for the committee he answers to constantly revise the design for their own personal use, from scout to anti-tank roles.

* OhCrap: Burton realizes the full extent of just how much Partridge is willing to work him out of the loop when he's told the Bradley is already in production despite not being tested.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Partridge accuses the Congressional committee of forgetting what the point of military procurement and development is and of not worrying about the soldiers in the field. Meanwhile, he's covering up the development of a vehicle he knows to be a deathtrap.

* VillainOfAnotherStory: The officers behind the testing of the various other behind schedule weapons all clearly have a lot of waste and problems going on that they steadfastly lie about to the Secretary of Defense, although whether any of that stops to Bradley levels of negligence is unclear.

* YourMom: At one point as Partridge's VoiceOver covers an argument between Burton, Bock and Sayers he does not that it's regrettable how certain things were said about Colonel Burton's mother.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Colonel Bock and Major Sayers, Partridge's devotees at the testing facility. John C. [=McGinley=], the actor who played Bock, would also be part of a similar duo in Film/OfficeSpace. Technically, their also ThoseTwoBadGuys.

** Partridge and his cronies attempt to turn Burton into this by almost-literally burying his office in 17 years' worth of paperwork and memos, attempting to render him simply too busy to oversee the joint tests.

* TakeAThirdOption: Col. Burton can either skip the vaporifics test or wait at least sixteen months for ruminants (sheep) to be approved by an office deliberately dragging its feet. Instead, he just goes out and buys sheep from a local farmer himself.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Colonel Bock and Major Sayers, Partridge's devotees at the testing facility. John C. [=McGinley=], the actor who played Bock, would also be part of a similar duo in Film/OfficeSpace.

No, you make a made-for-TV BlackComedy starring Creator/KelseyGrammer as a Maj. General Partridge who wants the Bradley in production no matter how much of a liability it is to its own crew,[[Film/ThePrincessBride Cary Elwes]] as Lt. Colonel Burton, who will do everything he can to prevent that from happening and Creator/ViolaDavis as an admin sergeant assigned to help him.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Colonel Bock and Major Sayers, Partridge's devotees at the testing facility. John C. McGinley, the actor who played Bock, would also be part of a similar duo in OfficeSpace.

* ThoseTwoGuys: Colonel Bach and Major Sayers, Partridge's devotees at the testing facility.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The movie glosses over some of the central points of the book, particularly with regards to the broader context of the Pentagon at the time with the "Reformer Movement."

* BotheringByTheBook: "We can't touch him, sir, it's by the book."

* TankGoodness: Averted to high heaven with the Bradley.

* VastBureaucracy: The Pentagon. Played for all the dark laughs it can obtain (trying to stall Burton's test with live animals by making a division to research the "perfect" live animal to use--a process that will take a year, at the fastest) and drama (everybody on the Bradley project that isn't a JerkAss WarHawk getting the decency grinded out of them on-screen because it's the only way that they will get ''anything'' done).
* YouDidntAsk: One reason why Burton was never told about the aluminum gas study. Also when the Bradley explodes during the demonstration at the end--the soldiers didn't rigged it to blow up, nor did they rigged it to prevent the thing ''from'' blowing up like they had been doing. They just didn't tell Burton because he didn't allow them to explain when he was making his speech.

** The movie glosses over the development of what was actually several IFV prototypes such as the XM800T, implying there was one direct line of evolution rather than a gradual evolution of expected capabilities caused by the failure or cancellation of other projects.

* MasterOfNone: The end result of designing Bradley for every role imaginable is that it's not good at doing any of them. It's too big to be a reconnaissance vehicle, too lightly armored to fight against tanks and it can only carry six fully equipped soldiers instead of the originally planned eleven. It's only standout features are its good mobility and high firepower, neither of which is particularly useful because of the aforementioned weaknesses.

* HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee: Partridge.