sidney
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Post by sidney on Feb 19, 2023 4:14:17 GMT -5
Well, I'm sitting here watching THE EXPENDABLES for the very first time. It's that movie with Sylvester Stallone and a bunch of older action stars and they are mercenaries.
And they are brutal. I'm trying to picture Hannibal and the guys doing what they're doing. The A-Team never killed anyone. They never actually shot anyone. They aimed above heads... I don't think they would be even capable of doing the jobs these guys are doing. Is it because The A-Team did things smarter? These guys are pretty smart and have great plans. Maybe it's the ingenuity thing the team has? The fact that they are so unorthodox?
Or maybe our team just aren't really mercenaries. Here's the Google Definition: mer·ce·nar·y adjective: mercenary primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics. "the crime was committed out of mercenary motives" Similar: money-oriented grasping greedy acquisitive avaricious covetous rapacious bribable venal materialistic money-grubbing Opposite: altruistic philanthropic
noun noun: mercenary; plural noun: mercenaries a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army. "he had planned to seize power with the aid of a group of mercenaries" Similar: soldier of fortune professional soldier hired soldier hireling private army merc hired gun freelance condottiere adventurer lance-knight Opposite: volunteer conscript a person primarily concerned with material reward at the expense of ethics. "the sport's most infamous mercenary"
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sidney
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Post by sidney on Feb 19, 2023 18:50:03 GMT -5
I'm watching Expendables 2 now. It's even MORE BRUTAL!
But I finally see something that's A-Teamy. They entered the camp to save Arnold in tanks that honestly looked like vehicles the A-Team made, and one of them had 'Bad Attitude' painted on it. I'm sure they were actual armoured vehicles though. I don't think they made them with limited scraps in a junkyard somewhere.
Perhaps the reason why The A-Team don't have to do any of this hard core stuff is Hannibal deliberately picks jobs with incompetent or neutered bad guys? How often was the bad guy in an A-Team episode actually playing for keeps? JAMESTOWN. That one had a bad guy that was believably dangerous.
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Feb 19, 2023 18:54:10 GMT -5
Based on those definitions of "mercenaries," I don't think TAT are mercenaries. Although they do jobs to make money and sometimes charge very high prices, I think that they are not in this "business" primarily for the money but because they are sort of forced into it. Charging the high prices also may help ensure that those hiring them are serious about hiring them (rather than someone trying to just connect with the team in order to capture them).
I think the team could do anything those you are describing in THE EXPENDABLES could do. And probably without killing anyone.
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sidney
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Post by sidney on Feb 19, 2023 18:55:27 GMT -5
Have you seen The Expendables, amyk?
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Feb 19, 2023 19:26:20 GMT -5
The movies are definitely way more graphic than our show, but so was the A-TEAM movie.
I think most people associate mercenaries as people willing to sell their skills, which usually involves fighting. That laymen definition would fit our boys, but I have never considered them mercenaries in the true sense of the word.
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Katia
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Post by Katia on Feb 19, 2023 21:36:34 GMT -5
Have the A-Team ever been described as "mercenaries," though? I mean, yeah, they were out for hire, but I assume they didn't take every job that came along, regardless of what it was. (Actually, it might've been interesting to see someone try to hire them for an unsavory job and they turn it down. Or, if the job is unsavory enough, even turn the tables on the bad guys and the episode is about taking them down. Though I guess the episode with "Insane Wayne" was sort of like that.)
(The other question I have is... did the military ever actually try to catch them by pretending to want to hire them? That would be another one that would've been interesting to see.)
(Okay, maybe we need a thread about "post your idea for an episode"!)
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Feb 19, 2023 21:55:04 GMT -5
Have you seen The Expendables, amyk? No, I have not ever seen it. It sounds way too brutal for me based on what you wrote.
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amyk
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Post by amyk on Feb 19, 2023 21:56:37 GMT -5
Have the A-Team ever been described as "mercenaries," though? I mean, yeah, they were out for hire, but I assume they didn't take every job that came along, regardless of what it was. (Actually, it might've been interesting to see someone try to hire them for an unsavory job and they turn it down. Or, if the job is unsavory enough, even turn the tables on the bad guys and the episode is about taking them down. Though I guess the episode with "Insane Wayne" was sort of like that.) (The other question I have is... did the military ever actually try to catch them by pretending to want to hire them? That would be another one that would've been interesting to see.) (Okay, maybe we need a thread about "post your idea for an episode"!) Did they sort of work for the military in THE A-TEAM IS COMING, THE A-TEAM IS COMING?
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Bert
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Post by Bert on Feb 20, 2023 2:45:26 GMT -5
I love the Expendables movies.
The A-Team are more like knights-errant: chivalrous travellers searching for adventure to show their abilities and generosity. The only mercenary-like thing about them is that they like to get paid.
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Post by HoudiniDerek on Feb 20, 2023 8:28:44 GMT -5
Have the A-Team ever been described as "mercenaries," though? I mean, yeah, they were out for hire, but I assume they didn't take every job that came along, regardless of what it was. (Actually, it might've been interesting to see someone try to hire them for an unsavory job and they turn it down. Or, if the job is unsavory enough, even turn the tables on the bad guys and the episode is about taking them down. Though I guess the episode with "Insane Wayne" was sort of like that.) (The other question I have is... did the military ever actually try to catch them by pretending to want to hire them? That would be another one that would've been interesting to see.) (Okay, maybe we need a thread about "post your idea for an episode"!) I think SAY IT WITH BULLETS is probably the closest we see where the military tries to "hire" them. And this was a ruse using a woman who truly did need help.
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Katia
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Post by Katia on Feb 20, 2023 12:11:35 GMT -5
I liked the Expendables movies, too, because I like action movies (back in the day {you know, like 10 years ago, ha}, if it had Jason Statham in it, I was watching it). But mostly I think the appeal of those movies was the fact that they got together all the old nostalgic action stars, and I think the movies mostly rode on that more than plot. (But, that's happening a lot lately anyway-- bringing back old stuff that people are going to see for the sake of nostalgia because "Remember when we loved Tron/Star Wars/Ghostbusters/whatever?". At the theater the other day, did I see a poster for another new Indiana Jones movie? I love Indiana Jones, I love Harrison Ford, but...)
(And, to answer the original question... I think because it was the 80s. People expect a lot more realism now. Uber-bad guys aren't just going to quit because a few guys stand up to them and shoot them with soda-pop cannons, and they're not going to get hauled off by the cops and we never hear from them again. "Taking care of them" was probably A. not something we were going to see in the 80s, especially on mainstream TV, and B. wasn't going to fit neatly into half an hour, either. For the characters, you could argue either way-- either you have the Expendables guys who are ex-military and no strangers to killing other people. Or you could take our guys, who maybe don't kill people because they've already done enough of that for several lifetimes. It's been a long time since I've seen the Expendables movies, though-- do they actually hire out for jobs to kill good guys? Or are they, too, only going after baddies?)
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