Pour la gloire

"For Queen and Country" sticks Washington in the center of a bunch of characters as a deadpan British vet of the Falkland Islands war whose come home to find less than a hero's welcome. The film spends the first third fleshing out everyone but the centerpiece and then doesn't give him any depth as he stumbles through his thick cockney mumblings from one costar to the next. The film doesn't really begin to move until close to the end when it winds up and down in about 20 minutes with a less than desirable conclusion. Given the typically British austerity of the film, an illfocused and bleak story, an almost complete absence of passion, and what are by film standards rather sublunary events with no payoff in the end, this flick was barely tolerable. Not recommendable. (C-)

Note - I watched this film back to back with another British film "The Fourth Angel" which didn't receive rave reviews but was still head and shoulders above "For Queen and Country".

A hero returning from war and finding that he`s no longer wanted isn`t one of the most original ideas for a screenplay but it is one of the best . Unfortunately FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY is one of the weaker of these types of films . The budget doesn`t help because the scenario of the Falklands War is relegated to a brief scene to a bunch of soldiers looking out of a ship doorway seeing flashes of gunfire away in the distance , and that`s the extent the film paints of the Falklands War . It`s not only this scene that irritates , I couldn`t help noticing that many of the interiors look like they were filmed in a film studio . But perhaps the most unconvincing thing about the film is Denzil Washington`s London accent , I can`t believe some people think its any good because I find it as irritating as Dick Van Dyke`s in MARY POPPINS . And let`s not forget that when this film was made Washington wasn`t the double Oscar winning mega star he is today but was best known as a TV star due to ST ELSEWHERE . Indeed FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY feels like an overproduced TV play similar to the excellent PLAY FOR TODAY that the BBC produced in the 1970s but not as well written . The ending is just too coincidental . I know it`s trying to be bitter and ironic but is completely contrived .

" Soldiers don`t fight and die for Queen and country. They fight and die for one another" Major Chris Kebble . 2 Para

I really didn't know what to expect when some friends and I hired this DVD. Denzel Washington plays Rueben James, a retired English Paratrooper, returning home to the housing estate he grew up in as a child. Here he finds that not much has changed since he left about 10 years beforehand.

Many of Rueben's friends are still involved in 'less than legal' occupations, and the poverty and wretchedness of the estate seems even worse than when he lived there before. He needs to decide just where he fits in back home, and what direction his life will take. Despite trying to make a new life for himself, obstacles from past and present seem to always get in the way.

While I did find this movie slow paced, it captured the dismal feel of this community excellently. It also avoided using simplistic general stereotypes (for example, police are portrayed both in a very positive and very negative light).

I would recommend this movie if you're in the mood for a bit of gritty realism, but don't expect to feel particularly upbeat afterward!

The first time I saw this film was back in the early Nineties, and I hadn't really heard of Denzel Washington either, therefore I presumed I was watching a low budget film about a Falklands Veteran returning to life in Civvy Street.

What I actually got was an eye opener about Life within Her Majesty's Armed Forces versus Life on the outside. Reuben, having been discharged from 2 Para, returns to London after a tour of duty in Northern Ireland and the Falklands, where he was decorated as a war Hero. However, given his vocation to his country, he finds interviews for jobs surprisingly difficult to arrange, even though they were sorted out by his careers officers in the army. Within time, he realises his illustrious army record holds no sway in everyday life.

This film makes you realise how easy it is to fall into the criminal side of life as Reuben becomes a body guard to a drug dealer. The ending is as grim as his life has become, therefore don't expect a smart, streetwise, cocky character to race through the film avoiding trouble. This is a Gritty urban Drama. I felt that as you watch Reuben's hopes for the future fade away, there truly is no justice for the little man.

Washington's British accent is impeccable, you would believe he was born, and lived his life in Milwall or Bermondsey. I read an interview that he learnt the native accent by getting drunk for a fortnight in London.

The choice of Reuben James as the name of Denzel Washington's character is surely not a coincidence.

In 1804, during the Barbary Wars, US Sailor Reuben James, positioned himself between his captain, Stephen Decatur, and a pirate; taking the sword blows directed at Decatur.

In October, 1941, before the US entered WW2, the first USS Reuben James, a destroyer on convoy duty in the North Atlantic, positioned herself between an ammunition ship and the known location of a German U-Boat. Struck by a torpedo which ignited her magazine, the Reuben James sank in five minutes. Two thirds of her crew perished. Woody Guthrie wrote a song "The Sinking of the Reuben James".

Denzel Washington's character, Reuben James, likewise, positions himself in harm's way to protect others. ,