"not the badass he so desperately craved people to see him as."

Yeah, Millus can come off as a war-crazy nutjob. You can see it even as far back as in Hearts of Darkness, that documentary from the 90s about Apocalypse Now. He interpreted the film in a completely different way than everyone else... which explains, of course, why Coppola refused to use his ending.

I have no real thoughts on your original post other than silent agreement. Sure, they broke from the Hollywood narrative, but not the oft-neglected story that precedes it of them as a bunch of white males coming from relatively affluent backgrounds.

Socioeconomic privilege is relevant to everything, even the arts.