History Main / WarCrimeSubvertsHeroism

** The mental torture of the German soldier after the death of Wade.

** And they still screwed Faramir over.
** Aragorn killed the Mouth of Sauron during parley in the extended version, but there's no real stigma attached to it. Maybe it's because of Sauron's forces being AlwaysChaoticEvil.
*** That one was more of an extreme ShutUpHannibal, anyway.
*** And a [[AdaptationDecay radical departure]] from the book, where [[IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim the exact opposite point]] is made in this scene.

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A strange form of KickTheDog in war movies, where the heroes (or more often, the side that the heroes fight for) commit a war crime of some sort, most often mistreatment of enemy prisoners of war. Done to illustrate that most [[WarIsHell wars]] aren't instances of BlackAndWhiteMorality, as well as the mix of good and bad in most armies. Sometimes, these crimes will be reprisals for earlier ones against the heroes' side. May sometimes overlap with TokenEvilTeammate.

-> The real war will never get in the books.

A fairly young trope that emerged from the previously hidden TruthInTelevision of TheVietnamWar.

* The ''SwordOfTruth'' series has shades of this, where there are several drastic and questionable actions the hero takes (having a prisoner tortured, [[WallBanger mowing down peace protesters]], imposing total war). Sometimes averted, where it's treated as if the hero doing this is ''completely right and just'' (the peace protesters), while in other places it's justified as the only option he has left (the total war).

* The bayoneting and setting on fire of Japanese soldiers in ''FlagsOfOurFathers''. Similarly, the bayoneting of an American soldier in a cave in ''LettersFromIwoJima''.
** To be fair, the experiences both armies experienced up to this point meant that anybody surrendering was probably a trap, and so it was customary to just shoot them. Not pleasant, but given the circumstances, not that unbelievable.
* The shooting of surrendering German troops and Czech conscripts by American troops in ''SavingPrivateRyan''.
** There's actually several scenes. The mental torture of the German trooper after the death of Wade, and the killing of the bunker troops when they are obviously surrendering on D-Day. Finally, in the CMOA and HeroicBSOD of Upham, he kills [[spoiler: the same German trooper that was captured but set free earlier, while he's surrendering, but only after Upham saw him deliberately shoot Captain Miller, the man who let him live.]]

* ''{{Pacific}}'' has one poignant scene where US Marines are torturing a Japanese survivor of a banzai attack by shooting him in the arms and legs. The last Japanese soldier they tried to take prisoner blew himself and a couple Marines up so they are not taking prisoners. The protagonist ends up just shooting the guy dead, 'spoiling' the fun for the other Americans.

***** Not nearly as self-serving or at least as false as one would think. The first set of UnfortunateImplications was very much true when you are facing off against what could generously be called a death cult on a national level (which the Japanese military pretty much was at the time), and was TruthInTelevision, and a reason why Japanese soldiers who did come out with their arms up tended to be killed anyway (because many of them were strapped with bombs). As for the later, it helps that that US campaign takes place in the Pacific, which saw very few American war crimes in the ground campaign if for no other reason than because A. There aren't a whole lot of civilian populations to massacre and mistreat on godforsaken uninhabited rocks in the Pacific, and B. the Japanese military did not give many chances for that to happen by their suicidal behavior and their generally poor behavior to noncombatants, even their own (see Okinawa and the sealed orders given the Japanese commanders tasked with the defense of the "heartland" (namely the home islands and Taiwan). Had the campaign taken place in Europe, it MIGHT have been more likely. [[JustifiedTrope But it helps that historically the US- and the Western Allies in general- DID have a far lower rate of atrocities committed by its servicemen than said Germans, Soviets, and Japanese (though by no means none).]]

--->'''Spiers:''' You want to know if they're true or not... the stories about me. Did you ever notice with stories like that, everyone says they heard it from someone who was there. But then when you ask *that* person, they say *they* heard it from someone who was there. It's nothing new, really. I bet if you went back two thousand years, you'd hear a couple of centurions standing around, yakking about how Tertius lopped off the heads of some Carthaginian prisoners.

* An actual montage of this trope occurs early in the 2008 film ''{{Defiance}}''. The Bielski brothers raid trucks and people's homes for supplies as well as for vegeance. They shoot the women with the Germans as well as any townspeople who might get in their way. And later, the entire camp of refugees beat to death a captured german soldier.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defiance_(2008_film)#Critical_reception There has been some controversy on the film's portrayal of the Bielski partisans]], particularily in regard to their links to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_partisans#Controversies Soviet partisans]].

* Occurs much higher up in the ranks than most examples of this trope, but in the ''TheWestWing'' episode "Posse Comitatus", President Bartlet is forced to [[spoiler: assassinate a terrorist-sponsering foreign defense minister]] and lie about it to avoid having to embroil the middle east in a war. Doubles as one of the heaviest examples of TheChainsOfCommanding in the show, and one of the biggest [[TearJerker Tear Jerkers.]]

*** Historically, Speirs had a reputation for killing German POWs, but it was never confirmed if he indeed had. Stories were passed through the company and battalion, but rumors were, according to the soldiers interviews, probably embellished, and Speirs was known to believe that having his own troops fear him wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The truth of what he did or did not do died with him.

* ''{{Pacific}}'' has one poignant scene where US Marines are torturing a Japanese survivor or a banzai attack by shooting him in the arms and legs. The last Japanese soldier they tried to take prisoner blew himself and a couple Marines up so they are not taking prisoners. The protagonist ends up just shooting the guy dead, 'spoiling' the fun for the other Americans.

* Pretty much everything Bunny does in ''{{Platoon}}'', including beating a crippled Vietnamese civilian and his elderly mother to death just for the hell of it, and nearly raping a young girl. Troper literally cannot watch Kevin Dillon in anything to this day without getting irrationally angry.

** Also, in the opening of {{Fallout}}, an old T.V. shows a news report of America's annexation of Canada, with footage of an American soldier executing innocent Canadian civilians, then ''waving at the camera.''
*** It's implied that they were rioters and/or looters, but it's still pretty damn harsh treatment.
*** It's actually implied that those were Canadian Armed Forces, or perhaps civilian resistance fighters.
*** [[BlackComedy "Our dedicated boys keep the peace in newly annexed Canada."]]

** There's actually several scenes. The mental torture of the German trooper after the death of Wade, and the killing of the bunker troops when they are obviously surrendering on D-Day. Finally, in the CMOA and HeroicBSOD of Upham, he kills [[spoiler: the same German trooper that was captured but set free earlier, while he's surrendering, but only after Upham saw him deliberately shoot Captain Miller, the man who let him live.
** That was NOT the same soldier, though it is a common mistake. It wasn't played by the same actor and word of god says it didn't happen. on another note that is EXTREMELY cheesy for a spielburg film...scratch that I now believe he lied to cover his ass. ]]

** There's actually several scenes. The mental torture of the German trooper after the death of Wade, and the killing of the bunker troops when they are obviously surrendering on D-Day. Finally, in the CMOA and HeroicBSOD of Upham, he kills [[spoiler: the same German trooper that was captured but set free earlier, while he's surrendering, but only after Upham saw him deliberately shoot Captain Miller, the man who let him live.]]

* Pretty much everything Bunny does in ''{{Platoon}}'', including [[spoiler:murdering a unarmed, disabled Vietnamese civilian and his elderly mother just for the hell of it]] and nearly [[spoiler:raping a young girl]]. Troper literally cannot watch Kevin Dillon in anything to this day without getting irrationally angry.

A strange form of KickTheDog in war movies, where the heroes (or more often, the side of the heroes) commit a war crime of some sort, most often mistreatment of enemy prisoners of war. Done to illustrate that most [[WarIsHell wars]] aren't instances of BlackAndWhiteMorality, as well as the mix of good and bad in most armies. Sometimes, these crimes will be reprisals for earlier ones against the heroes' side. May sometimes overlap with TokenEvilTeammate.

A strange form of KickTheDog in war movies, where the heroes commit a war crime of some sort, most often mistreatment of enemy prisoners of war. Done to illustrate that most [[WarIsHell wars]] aren't instances of BlackAndWhiteMorality, as well as the mix of good and bad in most armies. Sometimes, these crimes will be reprisals for earlier ones against the heroes' side. May sometimes overlap with TokenEvilTeammate.