Les soldats vierges

'The Virgin Soldiers' concerns a collection of new recruits (in national service) and their exploits in a far-off, exotic Singapore. Deals with the endless boredom, fear of fighting an enemy they had no knowledge or concept of (they were never meant to have seen any action) and the endless pursuit of sexual conquests. Sterling cast of Lynn Redgrave, Hywel Bennett and Nigel Davenport. Based on the highly successful novel of the same name.

I had assumed that The Virgin Soldiers would be a light-hearted, bawdy slice of British sexploitation in the vein of the Carry On, Confessions and 'Adventures of…' series, but it turned out to be a far more realistic affair, and actually proved all the better for it. The film stars Hywel Bennett as Brigg, a young conscript in the National Service, stationed in Singapore during the early 1950s. Working as a clerk, Brigg hopes that the only action he will see is with the local ladies and a sergeant's daughter, Phillipa (Lynn Redgrave), but he finds himself in mortal danger when he and his fellow conscripts see active duty against rioters and bandits.

While there are some mildly funny and a few sexy moments to be had, the film works best as a touching coming of age drama and a poignant anti-war film: as Brigg counts down the days to his return to good old Blighty, he makes the transition from untainted youth to worldly-wise young man, experiencing camaraderie, love (of sorts), fear, and even death, forced to kill or be killed. Bennett is brilliant in his role, displaying just the right amount of wide-eyed innocence, and he is given able support from a raft of familiar British faces, including Nigel Davenport as Sgt. Driscoll, Christopher Timothy (All Creatures Great and Small) as Cpl. Brook, Geoffrey Hughes (Coronation Street) as Lantry, Jack Shepherd (Wycliffe) as Sergeant Wellbeloved, and Wayne Sleep as Villiers, the toughest soldier in the platoon (nah, just kidding).

Not a normal war movie, this is a well acted study about the unpredictable fortunes of life. A British Army private in Singapore during the Malaysian uprising experiences the boredom of garrison duty, the search for sex and love, and finally the terror of combat. The movie has many interesting twists and turns that illustrate the random quality of luck. The private's girlfriend finally decides to surrender her virginity - only mistakenly offers it to the wrong soldier! Soldiers die accidently, without reason. And when the private panics, and flees combat, he ends up becoming a hero! At the end of the movie the private paraphrases his discoveries - "That's life, isn't it".

I loved both the film and the book of "The Virgin Soldiers", but I personally believe that "The Green Virgin Corporal" is a better book and would make an excellent film. The "Green Virgin Corporal" is a story very similar to the "The Virgin Soldiers" and was about a naïve corporal who served in Malaya about the same time as time described in "The Virgin Soldiers". The book "The Green Virgin Corporal" is available through Amazon Books

I saw this film on late-night TV in the 1970's, a few years after doing a tour in Vietnam as a 20-year-old GI in the US Army. Even though it's a different time and a different war, I really thought "The Virgin Soldiers" captured a lot of the feeling of a young, western soldier serving in a confusing, brutal, sometimes even humorous Asian war zone. One of the most realistic things was, these guys were young, like most soldiers in most wars, kind of scared, and having to face the reality of shooting the guy in the other uniform before he shoots you. And I definitely recognized a fair number of the characters, especially the sergeants. War movies often stereotype or simplify the NCO's. In reality, and in this movie, some of them are bullies, some are flat-out cowards, and some are competent, quietly heroic people who do their best to keep their troops alive in the combat zone. War is not a good thing, but how people cope (or don't cope) with it will always be a fascinating topic. I highly recommend this film...wish it was on tape or DVD.