'off fighting a war.'
Yabbut, how many yrs was that? Not the whole kids' lives. It's a cop out.
It appears that walt was a an all american regular guy. I actually liked his interactions w his buddy. However, as far as his own kids went, he was clueless. So, he reaped what he sowed in his kids. It illustrates well the imaturaty of american culture, where kids basically blunder their way to adulthood. They are at the mercy of whatever are the current fads. Older, traditional societies have various rites of passage that kids go through. While that had been lost somewhat by the hmong in the movie, their family structure was still more intact than walter's was. He must have given up, early on, or never had a clue, to start w. For whatever reason, he was a failure w his family.
The hmong even had their own shaman. He was also cast as being superior than the american equivalent, the priest. They put in a young, inexperienced priest, compared to the old, wise shaman. Slanted, slanted movie.
S