Herói sem Pátria

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!

What an early Denzell Washington's performance. I admit that his was not as good as he is now, but that's more his character that is interesting than himself. I like this kind of scheme, usually used by the American directors and speaking of Vietnam war vets who have the greatest difficulties to get back to civilian life. With everything that means. It is question this time of the Faulklands war, back in 1982. Here it is also a social crime drama, a criticsm of the Margaret Thatcher's political regime, poverty, ghettos, dangerous suburbs, soldiers who fought for UK in the war and for whom England refuses the British citizenship; so many British films were - and still are - oriented in this direction. Washington is definitely an anti hero here, trying to desperately make it. It is downbeat, sometimes gloomy, it may hurt. But I love this film.

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.

Denzel Washington's early career was a test of his accent range. He played a South African in "Cry Freedom," a Jamaican in "The Mighty Quinn," and a Brit in "For Queen & Country." As a Brit he wasn't half bad.

Denzel played Reuben, a recently retired paratrooper getting on with the next part of his life. He lived in a shabby flat and didn't have much going for him. He still had ties to his old life before the army which was the wrong side of the law. He couldn't quite shake that part of his life though his opportunities for doing better for himself legally were infinitesimal.

For all that was going on with Reuben it all boiled down to being marginalized and castaway as a veteran the government has no more use for. Here are your shiny medals, now figure out the rest. It is a movie with universal appeal, or at least U.S.A. appeal because the same treatment happens here. Reuben's situation was relatable for any ex-soldier on the margins of society, and doubly relatable for any Black ex-soldier.

"For Queen & Country" could've used a little touch up to be better. One of the trouble spots was the relationship between Reuben and Stacey (Amanda Redman). It started strangely and ended strangely as well. The character development was somewhat lacking. It may seem like nitpicking, but these are all the things that need to be tight to be considered a topflight movie.

I have to disagree with the previous commentator's opinion. Washington's accent was about as spot on for a "Yank" as was we'll say Pitt's was in "Snatch" to an Irish tinker's. The movie while obviously low-budget (no different than we'll say "My Beautiful Laundrette" or "Mona Lisa" at this particular time in UK productions), yet its concentration on the inherent drama of a confused and conflicted ex-Para in a non-empathetic society totally over-rode its budgetary limitations.

This was an above-average movie (and a rare one) of its genre and adequately displays Washington's versatility as an actor.