King and Country

"King & Country," directed by Joseph Losey and released in 1964, is an unrelenting look at war. The World War I drama concerns a young soldier (Tom Courtenay) who is being tried for desertion. It's evident that, after his whole battalion was lost, that the boy was shell-shocked. A Captain Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde) is brought in to defend him.

The film has actual photos of dead bodies from the London War Museum throughout the movie. The setting is freezing cold, wet bunkers with lots of mud. The men have been jaded to death and suffering and at times act brutally.

The end of the film is particularly awful, that's the only word I can think of. Not awful as in it's a bad movie, but awful in the situation.

Tom Courtenay does an excellent job as a wide-eyed young man who really doesn't realize what he did or what may happen to him as a result; Leo McKern turns in an excellent performance as a no-nonsense officer. Dirk Bogarde is wonderful as the captain who goes to the mat for his client and comes up against a cruel system that seems to have no understanding of or compassion for human frailty.

Lots of gross stuff in this movie - imagine actually having to endure it. Excellent directing job by Losey, and a thought-provoking film that you won't forget quickly, even though you want to.

"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.

King & Country is directed by the American Joseph Losey and stars Tom Courtenay as a young soldier in the Great War, shell shocked and facing a court martial for desertion.

Dirk Bogarde plays the officer whose duty is to defend him, at first he seems to be reluctant in his dealings with him, viewing him as a working class imbecile and cowardly to boot. However once he gets to know him a little, Bogarde discovers that many of Courtenay's friends and comrades in his battalion have died, he takes the case more seriously especially as he will be executed if found guilty.

The film is very much a stage play but is also arch as well as having a stylistic template with actual photos of dead bodies from the Imperial War Museum. The set tries to recreate the trenches with a cold, damp, dank setting.

The film has a grim atmosphere as displayed by the foot soldiers and Courtenay is one of them, a soldier who does not realise what he has done and the trouble he is in.

The film highlights the class aspect of the war as the officers have little compassion for the lower ranked soldiers and show no mercy for those driven to despair or madness.

This is a grim portrayal of trench warfare and an officer corps seeking to "set an example" by trying a soldier suffering from battle fatigue for desertion. He has attempted to walk home from France to England after enduring the death of his entire battallion from constant shelling and futile attacks. Scenes shifting from inside the trial and outside in the camp underscore the futility of war and its effects on the men who fight.

The obvious comparison that can be made with King & Country is Paths Of Glory. Both are concerned with people being tried for desertion and cowardice in World War I. Both are outstanding films though I would give the edge to Paths Of Glory.

One important distinction must be made. Paths Of Glory is an American made film with a French setting about wholesale French desertion during a battle and three guys being courtmartialed and shot as examples. King & Country is a British film with an American director at the helm about the British experience in trench warfare encapsulated in the story of one poor English Tommy.

With the last American dough-boy dying this year, World War I is a memory now with no first hand account of what it was like in those trenches. I know the last French veteran also passed away, I'm not sure of the British forces including those in the Commonwealth. America entered in 1917 and our Expeditionary force saw its first action in Belleau Wood in the spring of 1918. By November 11 of that year it was over. We had six months or so, the Allies and the Central Powers had four years.

All fought for ground gain measured in yards. A stalemate of opposing trenches stretching from Belgium to the Swiss border of France. And both sides throwing everything including poison gas in attempt to break through and score the decisive knockout blow.

Tom Courtenay plays Private Hamp who just saw the slaughter of his entire battalion and just went into shell shock and walked out of the trench in the direction of the coast of France and Great Britain. When he was caught he became a symbol of resistance to the futility of war that the British Army could not tolerate.

Like Paths Of Glory the verdict is already fixed though his defense counsel Dirk Bogarde makes a gallant attempt to save Courtney who is a total innocent as to the forces around him. One particularly good supporting performance is that of Leo McKern who plays the officer bringing the charges. He's a complete fool and there were many like him in all the armies of World War I who had not the wit or imagination to just call a halt to the slaughter.

Unlike Paths Of Glory, Dirk Bogarde has a humiliating indignity that Kirk Douglas did not have placed on him. King & Country is a fine film showing if not the futility of war itself, the futility of that particular war that scarred the world for generations and is still scarring it yet.