King & Country

One of the best anti-war films ever made, next only to Malick's "The Thin Red Line." Losey loved to film plays and did it well: and this is one of them. Losey loved to underscore social disparity among his films' characters--this film makes that more than obvious, The film begins with the camera slowly examining details of a public statue about soldiers dead in the war, dying for their country with the inscription "A Royal Fellowship of Death." That opening sequence is spellbinding (a great idea of Losey, his cinematographer Denys N Coop, and the screenplay writer Evan Jones. It prepares the viewer for what is to follow as the stone images merge with images of dead solders with their bones under their helmets and uniforms. Another major contributor to the film is the production design by Richard Macdonald--which should serve as an example for students of production design. Finally, the film belongs to actor Tom Courtenay, who was recognized at the Venice Film Festival for this role winning the Best Actor Award but not so at the BAFTAs, and to Dirk Bogarde giving one of his best performances while also contributing to the script (uncredited contribution.) A major part of the play and screenplay was the young soldiers doing mock court-martial of a rat procured from the carcass of a dead horse--what a bizarre but powerful idea mocking the actual human court-martial. One of the best films of Losey.

Gut-wrenching story of a young British soldier who lost it after Pashendale and tried to walk home, back when no one wanted to hear about 'that mental stuff'

Directed by Joseph Losey, "King and Country" (1964) stars Tom Courtenay as Arthur Hamp, a British soldier who deserts his unit during World War 1. Court-martialed for desertion, Arthur is defended by Captain Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde). Well-meaning but overly melodramatic, Losey's film associates soldiering with muddy trenches, lost-causes and mean commanders. Here the British class-system treats working-class volunteers as cannon fodder, and military leaders are constantly demonstrating their class prejudices. Like the similarly themed "Paths of Glory" and "Breaker Morat", the film ends with an execution, pawns sacrificed so that others may think twice before betraying kings. The film was based on a play by John Wilson, who, as a lawyer, defended a similar client condemned to death. 7.5/10 – Overly wordy, but powerful at times. Worth one viewing.

Joseph Losey's King And Country (1964) Is a very good film. Although one might justifiably place it in some such genre as War I Films, such a taxonomic pigeon hole really doesn't do justice to this rather complex film. This is clearly a film about class divisions in Great Britain, with the much educated, upper class officers passing judging on a lowly private charged with desertion, a lowly private who tells his upper crust military defense attorney that he quit school at 12 years old to become a cobbler, just like his father and grandfather before him. It is a film about a long ago war when the full nature and extent of combat PTSD was not known, nor so much a concern of the officers in charge. This is a film about a lowly working class stiff who volunteered for the army for love of country, very early on the war and, after enduring three years of relentless battle amidst the horrors of the trenches, wasn't given a "break", a second chance after the first blemish on his record. This is a film about a military defense attorney, portraying the staid and "proper" British upper class demeanor, and just assuming that his client is guilty even before the trial has begun who, in the course successive personal contacts with his client undergoes somewhat of a transformation of personality and character, as the story of his client's "desertion" becomes an analogue in his mind for the futility of the Great War, a futility that neither side was willing to admit, while more and more young men were sent to their slaughter in a vain attempt to just to obscure the obvious truth of that futility. This is a film about "just following orders", of "just following the rules", even when such blind obedience to such verbal prescriptions blinds us also to the utter humanity of the situation at hand. The sober BW cinematography in this film relentlessly grinds these themes into our souls, as it gives us unrelenting shots of a mud drenched, claustrophobic environment, where it never stops raining, and where this bleak, hopeless atmosphere is punctuated by archival still photos that give us a close up, "in your face" look at the actual horrors of trench warfare. This film is a quite compelling, and thought provoking portrayal of not only WW I, but also of the utter senselessness of fighting any war whatsoever.

Tom Courtenay plays Private Hamp, he is the lone survivor of his battalion having volunteered in 1914 – some three years prior, the rest whittled away by the arbitrary wantonness of war. He has been accused of desertion and is facing a court martial. Under martial law he is allocated an officer to represent him – this falls to Captain Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde). What follows is the trial set amidst the rain and mud just behind the allied front line. Courtenay plays the gullible soldier to a tee, he is basically an innocent lad who is probably suffering from PTSD or shell shock as it was sometimes referred to back then. Bogarde who was always exceptional plays the officer class perfectly with palpable changes in his attitude as the case unfolds. There is also a magnificently pompous portrayal of a disinterested Medical Officer from Leo McKern who steals the scene. This was made in 1964 and was done for a shoe string budget – that apparently it never made back and that was despite winning awards and being critically acclaimed. However, recent renewed interests might just get this hidden treasure of British cinema some of the wider recognition it so richly deserves – massively recommended

"King and Country" was made 50 years after the outbreak of the First World War. At a time when most film-makers might have been expected to pay tribute to the men who fought and died in that conflict Losey, perhaps not unexpectedly, chose a different tact, This is a film about a British private on trial for cowardice when, in fact, what he was suffering from was battle fatigue. The soldier is Tom Courtney and the officer charged with defending him is Dirk Bogarde. It's a depressing, small-scale affair, (by comparison, Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" is positively an epic), very wordy and very well played by everyone. It may not be the best thing either Losey or Bogarde ever did, (though Courtney has seldom been better), but it's a bold and honorable film nevertheless. Unfortunately, the grimness of it's subject means it's seldom revived but it is worth seeking out.

Memorable but Overshadowed by Bigger more Expansive WWI Anti-War Movies like Paths of Glory (1957) and Others going as Far Back as 1930 with All Quiet on the Western Front, this is Nonetheless a Striking Example of a Filmed Play Using Still Photos and some Subtle but Effective Cinema Techniques like Dissolves. It is a Downbeat Affair that one would Expect from such Material and the Comedic Touches of the Bored and Drenched Trench Combatants Playing with Rats makes more of a Pathetic Statement about the Mental Disintegration of All the Soldiers and not just the Ones who Snap and go for a Walk back to England. The Film doesn't say Anything New on the Futility or the Mismanagement of the War to End All Wars, but Rather Reiterates the Ridiculousness of an On Field Court Martial with Little Substance to Prosecute on Hand as Everyone on Both Sides of the Mock Trial tries to Verbalize that which No Words can Describe. The Movie has Many Touches of Symbolism and the Final Scene is Unforgettable. The Movie was Mostly Forgotten but has been Rediscovered along with a Newfound Appreciation for Director Joseph Losey's Work. He is one of the those that Contemporaneously was Ignored but has since Gained a Cult Following.

The obvious question for the filmmakers responsible for this is: Why? Why give us yet another take on War Is Hell especially when the superior Paths Of Glory was still fresh in the mind and, perhaps more pertinently, when you can't bring anything new to the table and therefore seem content - if not happy - to trot out the same old clichés left over from Journey's End and All Quiet On The Western Front, the mud, the rain, the rats, the duck-boards, the bombardments, the soldiers-as-ciphers bit. All we can do now is vote on the acting which is adequate-to-good with Bogarde and Courtenay leading a company of Elstree-hardened veterans. Bogarde apparently was bitterly disappointed by the poor reception the film drew on its initial release but what, realistically, could he expect from what is essentially a photographed stage play which wallows in rather than attempting to erase its origins.

In the early 1960s the world of international cinema was in a state of revolution, what with the French nouvelle vague and the emergence of an alternative culture in Carnaby Street. In its historical context, this film, directed by Joseph Losey and starring Tom Courtenay as the skinny deserter and the aristocratic Dirk Bogarde as his defending officer, is a bit retrograde. True, no movie about the First World War has ever seemed quite so thoroughly drowned in mud -- the rain is constant, the bunker walls run with water like cataracts, every surface drips -- and there are multiple shots of dead bodies, including a scene involving a horse carcass filled with joyous rats. But otherwise the story is both dismal and predictable. NONE of these guys on trial for their lives over a stupid and impulsive act ever gets off -- not Private Slovik, not the four French grunts in Kubrick's "Paths of Glory," not even Herman Melville's "Billy Budd." How can you expose the futility of war without someone's dying a pointless death at the hands of a feckless justice system? Not that Hodson and Jones, the writers, have caved. The officers of the court are reasonable and just or, at worst, no more stupid than the men they govern. They're just following the rules. It's the law that's really on trial. The action is all studio-bound -- the mud puddles, garbage dumps, trenches, jails, and bunkers. There are occasional inserts of still photos to give us some idea of the larger context. The performances certainly can't be faulted. Courtenay and Bogarde are both outstanding, and the supporting parts by actors like Barry Foster (who went on to become the "sex murderer" in Hitchcock's "Frenzy") are all up to par. Losey's direction is also hard to fault. The guy has a painter's eye for composition, and there is a scene in which Bogarde stumbles into his CO's underground office and the two converse about the trial and the death verdict. The CO is in the brightly lighted foreground. Bogarde sits in relative darkness beside him, farther from the camera. And nobody looks at anyone else. When Bogarde makes an outrageous remark, the CO barely turns his head before responding with something like, "A bit short on ceremony, aren't we?" There's a good deal of easy symbolism too. The other prisoners in the jail manage to catch some of the many rats feeding off corpses. They capture and torment them. And Bogarde, on his way to have it out with the CO, the death sentence in hand, slips to his hands and knees, and for the rest of the scene the piece of paper is dripping with mud and Bogarde's hands are covered with filth. The point of it all is, I suppose, that if a man spends years doing whatever he is told on the front line, sees all the other members of his platoon blown to bits, receives a letter informing him that his wife is betraying him, and walks dizzily away towards home -- we shouldn't kill him for it. World War I was one of the world's more mismanaged wars. There was an impassable line drawn between the ordinary soldier and the officer class, on both sides. If you lost ten men and the enemy lost eleven, the victory was yours. Americans seem to have a more difficult time grasping the significance of World War I, and it's understandable. The Allies fought the bloodiest battles during the first three years while American industry profited by selling goods to both sides. Unlike all the countries of Europe, our was never bombed or shelled. Worse was to come in another twenty years, of course, but thank God our understanding of stress responses had become more sophisticated.

On a World War I battleground, British soldier Tom Courtenay (as Arthur Hamp) is arrested for desertion, after serving three years in combat. If convicted, the shell-shocked young man will be shot dead. He is assigned a military defense attorney Dirk Bogarde (as Hargreaves) who seems convinced Mr. Courtenay is guilty. However, as the trenches trial proceeds, Mr. Bogarde becomes more sympathetic regarding his client's extenuating circumstances. "King and Country" will either spare Courtenay, or kill him... Producer/director Joseph Losey does a convincing job with this drama, though it moves somewhat slowly until the end. Courtenay comes across as a shell-shocked man who volunteered for the war, and could no longer do battle after seeing his entire unit wasted away. He's commendable and understandable, and this shows in Bogarde's astute performance. The film's point is easily made, with Bogarde's character effectively leading doubters toward a shattering conclusion. The film, and both men, won award recognition. ******* King & Country (9/5/64) Joseph Losey ~ Dirk Bogarde, Tom Courtenay, Leo McKern, Barry Foster