For anyone reading down who hasn't yet seen the film: CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS.
I really think he is the journalist that he introduces himself as, and I agree with you that I don't think he fought—he would have a different relationship with the other four men if he had. He would have a war story to compare with theirs and he has none, not even a self-congratulatory one. He's the one they tweak for not having the shakes, mock-testing him by balancing drinks on the backs of his hands and then leaving them there, his perfectly steady hands useless. He's the "whole" man of the five, but there's not much to him.
It occurred to me to wonder, given what we know about Saunders, if Frink has an element of self-loathing self-insert: he's the one who didn't fight himself but who fixates on the people who did (he's been hanging around them for a year before Nikki shows up -- though admittedly, that's according to Shep, whose grasp on time is not exactly reliable).
And I think Frink's so dismissive of them because in a sense he's envious of them, particularly of their experience with violence. And his lack of that experience (and that envy) is partly what makes him so dangerous -- he will, for example, unthinkingly let a loaded gun point in someone's direction, which no-one trained to handle them would do. He treats their facility with violence ("silly drunk" Cary knocks him down without effort) as if it's emasculating him, as if they're in a dick-measuring contest (when, I think, they know very well that their experience with violence is essentially damage).
Which, again, makes him lethally dangerous: as soon as Cary tries to get him to put the gun down, he treats it as a dick-measuring contest again and one where he thinks he can temporarily retaliate and exert power over them:
"Listen, you keep your hands off me, I've had enough from you, you try any more of your rough stuff and [...] you'd better behave now or you'll get hurt."
(Cary, who can calmly walk unarmed towards a man with a gun, counting down from three, exists in a different world from him, in relation both to violence and lack of interest in self-preservation.)
no subject
I really think he is the journalist that he introduces himself as, and I agree with you that I don't think he fought—he would have a different relationship with the other four men if he had. He would have a war story to compare with theirs and he has none, not even a self-congratulatory one. He's the one they tweak for not having the shakes, mock-testing him by balancing drinks on the backs of his hands and then leaving them there, his perfectly steady hands useless. He's the "whole" man of the five, but there's not much to him.
It occurred to me to wonder, given what we know about Saunders, if Frink has an element of self-loathing self-insert: he's the one who didn't fight himself but who fixates on the people who did (he's been hanging around them for a year before Nikki shows up -- though admittedly, that's according to Shep, whose grasp on time is not exactly reliable).
And I think Frink's so dismissive of them because in a sense he's envious of them, particularly of their experience with violence. And his lack of that experience (and that envy) is partly what makes him so dangerous -- he will, for example, unthinkingly let a loaded gun point in someone's direction, which no-one trained to handle them would do. He treats their facility with violence ("silly drunk" Cary knocks him down without effort) as if it's emasculating him, as if they're in a dick-measuring contest (when, I think, they know very well that their experience with violence is essentially damage).
Which, again, makes him lethally dangerous: as soon as Cary tries to get him to put the gun down, he treats it as a dick-measuring contest again and one where he thinks he can temporarily retaliate and exert power over them:
"Listen, you keep your hands off me, I've had enough from you, you try any more of your rough stuff and [...] you'd better behave now or you'll get hurt."
(Cary, who can calmly walk unarmed towards a man with a gun, counting down from three, exists in a different world from him, in relation both to violence and lack of interest in self-preservation.)
And, well, we know how that ends.