Miltary dramas have graced the big-screen and small across the years, with the likes of Stanley Kubrick‘s PATHS OF GLORY and DR. STRANGELOVE and more recently Rob Reiner‘s A FEW GOOD MEN, based on Aaron Sorkin‘s stage play, adapted by Sorkin for the big-screen and saw the likes of Tom Cruise battling Jack Nicholson over a legal conundrum involving two Marines.
Closer to home and released nearly three decades before the Cruise film, KING AND COUNTRY – adapted by Evan Jones from a stage play by John Wilson and based on a story by James Lansdale Hodson, with direction from Joseph Losey – is getting a timely release in time for the 2023 Remembrance Day traditions.
Given the situation in the Middle East and ongoing troubles in Ukraine at present, the film should provide some food for thought over the mental health and well-being of those at the heart of war.
The film is being reissued as part of StudioCanal‘s ‘Vintage Classics‘ label.
Private Hamp (Tom Courtenay) is caught and detained after deserting the front line during key conflict on the front line at the height of World War II. Admitting to his dilemma and why he tried to walk home without due consideration for those in service to military lawyer Colonel Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde), Hemp discovers that Hargreaves is none-too-pleased with Hamp’s half-hearted approach to his duties, stating that family pressures and infidelity led him to volunteer for the armed services.
As the court martial progresses, Hargreaves begins to get more clarity and sense about Hamp’s own inner conflict which casts a shadow on whether or not the legalities of duty and honour are being considered….
Competent and tightly-choreographed stage-to-screen adaptation, demonstrating the star power of Tom Courtenay and Dirk Bogarde, who get to the heart of their characters during shadowy uncertainty, with clarity and keen reflection on the true effect of war on those out there within the intensity.
It’s also a timely reflection of the impact of conflict on mental health from a time in history where ‘just get on with it and think of England’ was the mindset in the armed services. Music by Larry Adler provides calm amongst the drama.
KING AND COUNTRY is out now.
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