Kramer and his screenwriter Mac Benoff decided to compromise Swarthout's time sequence by having the entire film set in the present with flashbacks into the past of all the boys, to explicate their presence at the camp. Whereas Swarthout's novel – thematically powerful though it is – is episodic and difficult for some sixth-graders to follow, the Kramer film flows almost faultlessly to its tragic conclusion. The plight of the American buffalo and any other endangered species is at the center of the film's focus. Almost predictably, the dysfunctional group, under Cotton's guidance, set out to free a large herd of the bison after they witness their perverted macho camp counselor, "Wheaties", shooting the animals in a festive (and deeply disturbing) western lottery, which is given validation as a proper method to thin out the large numbers by eliminating the "weak" or "sick" buffalo. The buffalo are not the only targets of this destructive urge, as the Bedwetters – similarly – have also been "tamed", "penned" and crushed in spirit. As a result of their parents' neglect or abuse, they have all been reduced to psychological misfits. Ridiculed and rejected by the other boys in the camp, they are forced to cling even more strongly to their deviant behavior. The boys' pilgrimage to free the buffalo is also a search for their own freedom.