 Jenkins says that the character of Hartman could not have been portrayed as having a warmer social relationship with the troops, as that would have upset the balance of the film, which depends on the spectacle of ordinary soldiers coming to grips with Hartman as a force of nature embodying a killer culture.Various episodes in the book have been cut from the screenplay or conflated with others.For example, Cowboy's introduction of the "Lusthog Squad" has been both markedly shortened and supplemented by material from other sections of the book.