The Bofors Gun

John Thaw (Inspector Morse) was in this movie which is why I'm here. He died just recently and I was doing a little research. I saw this movie about 30 years ago so I'm hazy on the details. What I remember is that the movie had very little to do with that particular piece of military hardware. Instead, the actors basically stood around and vented their feelings at each other. This was a popular style of theater back then. We were all going to be honest with each other and say what we felt. While this is OK under certain circumstances; it tends to make for a very dull movie, especially when most of the expressed feelings sound unpleasant and mean spirited. I don't think I'd watch it again unless I was terminally bored.

The Bofors Gun is an adaptation of a stage play about a group of British soldiers in a West German army camp guarding an artillery piece (the Bofors Gun). It draws in no small part from the National Service experiences of John McGrath, who wrote the play and adapted it for the screen. There is some comment relating to futility which is very much of its time, i.e. guarding an artillery piece against an enemy that has nuclear weapons, however there are absolutely timeless themes. Essentially David Warner's Bombardier Terry is forced into confronting elements of his own personal psychological make-up during a night where he supervises guard duty. It looks very much like he is a kind, cultured, sensitive and thoughtful individual, but events compel him to recognise that he might in fact be adopting a persona that allows for his survival, and that he's just another player in the game, a coward, a snob and a selfish one, of whom it cannot even be said in remediation that he plays with flair or is aware of his own motivations. By counterpoint Nicol Williamson's O'Rourke is an earthy violent man who knows himself all too well, and has run out of patience with the British Army, its attendant hypocrisies, and life in general. Mix for combustion. What I like about the movie is that it's not clear cut, you can believe as you wish about Terry, is there an essential duality to his mind, is he really just a nice guy who is pushed too far, or is he indeed as pathetic as it gets.

The dialogue is, at times, so out of this world that I overcame my habitual distaste for stagey movies. I've only mentioned the two characters I consider essential to the movie, but in fact there are several other interesting characters, and an eminently credible supporting cast.

I remember that David Warner is a mild-mannered young British officer guarding a naval gun station in the North Atlantic, in peacetime after World War Two. It's a cold, remote, unpleasant duty, and he's desperate to transfer out of there. But the transfer must happen soon, before he's more than halfway through his service time - otherwise, the War Department won't bother retraining him for a new post, and he'll be stuck. He's got a fiance or something he needs to get back to, but he also reports to an unsympathetic superior who doesn't like him and will do anything to delay his paperwork - effectively denying the transfer. So we have a sensitive, educated young upperclassman, the opposite of any kind of warrior, fighting not the enemy but "the system:" in this case, the British military bureaucracy.

He only needs to get through one more night of guard duty without mishap, which should be easy because there is absolutely nothing going on. But he has trouble relating to the men under his command, especially Nicol Williamson, a borderline psychotic from the slums who constantly tests Warner's authority and creates havoc wherever he goes. So now we've got class warfare in a power struggle between the civilized and the savage. Williamson is brilliant as he deserts his post, gets drunk with his buddy Ian Holm (also excellent), vandalizes the base, and just gets crazier and more dangerous as the night unfolds.

Warner has to control this lunatic and somehow correct and conceal the escalating troubles before his superior finds out. There's a lot of suspense as Warner becomes increasingly stressed, racing the clock between inspection rounds. As another reviewer points out, there is also a lot of talk, in the somewhat-Freudian, somewhat-socially conscious theatrical style of the time. But the conflict and rising tension is splendidly executed, like a first-rate stage play brought to the screen, and Williamson's bravura performance is one of the best in his outstanding career. This is a little-known movie that I recommend.

Best line, Williamson, sweating drunk in a moment of insane clarity: "I should not be at large...!"

This is definitely one of my favourite films of all time, I own a poor quality copy on VHS taken from the TV, and have lost count of the number of times I've watched it.

The film overall is not exceptional, the story concerns the events that take place during one evening whilst a squad of men guard a gun park on a military base. The story was originally a play by John McGrath and this shows in the films very wordy script and and static locations. Not all films from plays work well on screen but some can be very powerful (12 Angry Men and Streamers to name but two) and this is case here.

The tensions between the main characters, Lance Corporal Terry Evans (David Warner) and Gunner O'Rourke ( Nicol Williamson) are brilliantly worked through in the script and the performances from the two main actors are masterly. At every step David Warner's character misreads and misjudges his reponses to the malevolent force of nature as portayed by Nicol Williamson.

To me this is the best thing about this film. Williamson's performance is stunning, his portrayal as a man at the end of his tether, with nothing left to lose, who seems to have come through some sort of existentialist crisis to arrive at a point where death is the only option left to him, is one of the best screen performances ever.

He really makes you believe that this man is truely desperate and dangerous, something that is very hard to pull off on screen. Witness the long line of psycho bads guys that fill action movies these days. How many of these are really convincing?

Track this movie down and watch a truely remarkable performance from a great actor.

I really like this movie especially the performance of Nicol Willimson as O'Rourke. It is one of those films that the British were good at but don't make anymore. Not a lot happens, no big action sequences, and a small storyline would not entice many people but it holds the attention well. John Thaw, David Warner and the others all turn in excellent performances but it is Willimson who stands out. Rating 7 out of 10.