Queen and Country

Oh Dear, this is a stinker! Only 2 couples in at the Curzon, Victoria last night. The rest of the world must have known something we didn't. The other couple lasted 30 minutes.......we gave it another 15 or so before deciding it was beyond redemption and that we had better things to do with the next hour. We presume it ran on to an empty house. Dreadful, clunky script and dialogue, cut-out cartoon characters playing simple stereotype roles, wooden, stilted acting, very weird accents (Caleb Landry Jones apparently occupying a class and region of his own devising). Sometimes I thought we had stumbled into an episode of Porridge or maybe Dad's Army. Caleb seemed to be channeling Oliver Reed at his overacting worst, combined with Norman Wisdom or maybe Lee Evans. Sorry, but this was shameful and shouldn't have been allowed to escape onto the screen. Was this a case of Emperor's New Clothes? Was no one prepared to stand up to Boorman at any stage and say "enough"? Was this posted in as a contractual obligation? Yes, I respect the career, but this was a sad sign off and not worthy. This is one that the cast, pretty much without exception, will wish they could deny being involved with and will look at from behind their hands when its inevitable Christmas TV showing comes round in a year or 2. 1 star if I'm generous.

John Boorman's final film is the sequel to his earlier film, Hope and Glory, the last of his films that received serious critical and awards consideration, and the only other film of his that's explicitly autobiographical. I'd say that all of his films are somewhat autobiographical at a certain level, he's just that kind of artist, but this is supposed to be a recreation of a certain aspect of his life. I thought on both of these films that they would be marked departures from the thematic focuses of the movies around them, but I was wrong on both counts. Queen and Country is a capstone of the man's career, boiling all of his ideas into one film like he knew this was his last. Since we're nine years on and there's no indication of any efforts to put another film together, it seems like Boorman decided to make this his one last statement, and it's a nicely packaged one.

Bill Rohan (Callum Turner) has grown up into a young man and must report for his military service of two years. Along with his friend, Percy (Caleb Landry Jones), they report and go through six weeks of basic training. They do not get sent to Korea, though, being promoted to teach typing. Under the exacting and cruel auspices of Sergeant Major Bradley (David Thewlis), a closed-minded, by the books NCO that uses the smallest of infractions, like an undone button on a uniform, to report his inferior officers to his superior officer, Bill and Percy chafe and hope for a break from their unfair prison of military life. They commiserate with Private Redmond (Pat Shortt) about their situation, but there's little they can do against Bradley since he's so by the book.

The film continues Bill's sexual awakening by giving him an opportunity to meet girls at a more appropriate age. The first are a pair of girls that he meets with Percy, mostly Sophie (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), a nurse in the local military hospital, but Bill gets caught up with the sight of a mysterious and elegant woman (Tamsin Egerton) with an obvious air of sadness about her. She refuses to give him her name, letting him call her Ophelia. At the same time, Bill's older sister Dawn (Vanessa Kirby) returns from Canada after having married her Canadian flyer beau from the previous film. It should be noted that the image used on all of the posters for the film shows the moment when Dawn comes home and has a playful moment with Bill on their island home called The Sphinx. It makes them look like lovers in the posters, but they're not. It's such a weird thing to focus on, probably trying to take advantage of the fact that Kirby is a slightly bigger star than Egerton. Anyway, Dawn and Percy get along together while Ophelia comes by the house to visit with Bill and his family.

Where the thematic focuses of Boorman's career peek through is around the class differences in English society (represented by Ophelia's true identity), something he touched on a lot through his career in different ways (the Eternals ruling the world in Zardoz or the prince and his relationships with the poor people around him in Leo the Last as examples), the brutality of power in the modern world (like in Point Blank and Where the Heart Is), and the thin veneer of civilization falling away to reveal the brutal nature of man (like in Deliverance or Excalibur). None of these ideas is front and center and the reason for the film, it's more purely autobiographical than thematic, but they are all present in different amounts, which I find interesting.

That last idea, the thin veneer of civilization falling away to reveal the heart of darkness in men is tied to a subplot about Percy, wanting to get back at his superior officers for their succession of little tyrannies against him, steals a prized clock from the officers' mess, a clock given to a commander of the regiment a hundred years ago by Queen Victoria. The loss of that clock turns the officers completely against the men, tearing apart the camp in search of it. It also extends to the treatment of Bradley, with the young men finding a way to hoist him by his own petard, which breaks him (touching on some PTSD he was dealing with after his service in WWII), leaving a power vacuum in the office for a short time, essentially a state of nature that Redmond ends up reveling in while Bill tries to reestablish order by giving orders to Redmond, that Redmond refuses. It's a small moment, but it obviously points to something that Boorman had been touching on since Catch Us If You Can.

The heart of the film is Bill's awakening into a changing world. It's not a coincidence that Boorman chose to tell this story of his around the death of King George VI and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, including a nice scene on his little island home with his family, including his father Clive (David Hayman, the only returning cast member with a bad black wig to hide his age), where they gather around the new television to watch the coronation, and a light debate comes as they all keep their eyes glued to the screen about the use of monarchy and tradition in the modern world. Bill himself comes softly on the side of the idea that the monarchy is an institution past its time, but it's more introspective, the kind of thing an older man facing his sunset years might say instead of one of youth, a young man filled with opinions he knows are right. I seriously doubt the real Boorman was this circumspect. I mean...I've seen Zardoz.

This really is the work of an older man looking back at his life and reflecting. There's a certain melancholy quality, even when focusing on more manic episodes like the stealing of the clock, that give the film this overall warm aura. The emotional journey that Bill takes through his burgeoning adulthood, seeing first romances rise and fall, friendships strained and strengthened, and the country around him changing, ends up being a nice testament not only to Boorman's youth but also to his entire career. It's definitely not his best work, but it's also definitely not his worst. It's nice.

Hope and Glory was delicious, sweet, sad and charming. This sequel, well, seems like a sequel in name only.

Some characters from the previous movie show up, but only in very, very minor and brief, non consequential roles.

The main story is a little boring and uneventful, like a bland episode of MASH. Pity, I really wanted to like this movie. There just isn't a lot of meat on the table.

Tasmin Egarton was GORGEOUS as was Vanessa Kirby. Callum Turner and Caleb Landry Jones did a very good job with what they had, there just wasn't much of a story.

The movie didn't just end as much as run out of script... I was actually surprised when the end credits appeared.

Sad. I wanted more.

This is a semi autobiographical sequel to Hope & Glory from writer/director John Boorman, dealing with his National Service years of the early 1950s.

Boorman like many others of his generation does not have any warm nostalgic memories of National Service. I always noticed it is only some right wing politicians and police chiefs that want to see National Service return. A supposed lazy fix to soaring crime rates, ignoring the fact the violent crime increased after World War 2 because of all those ex soldiers who had military training and use of firearms.

Bill Rohan the small 9 year old boy from Hope & Glory is now 18 years old and is doing his National Service. He is hoping to avoid seeing combat in Korea. Bill strikes up a friendship with the amoral Percy. Together they look to go out with girls and trying to survive two years of National Service.

Bill and Percy land on their feet teaching new recruits how to type. The fly in the ointment is by the book Sergeant Major Bradley, who is making everyone's life a misery looking for petty breach of the rulebook

Bill also strikes a relationship with a trouble attractive lady, Ophelia, however trouble arises over a missing clock that tests the friendship between Bill and Percy.

I have seen this film before. It was called Biloxi Blues, Neil Simon's semi autobiographical account of his time in basic training during the second world war. The movie has very little that was new here. Caleb Landry Jones has a mixed up English accent. David Heyman who reprises his role from Hope & Glory has been given a dreadful wig.

The problem is it lacks playfulness and fun coming across as anecdotal.

Absolutely loved this film! Was really funny too. There was some serious scenes but also a bit if humour here and there. Great acting from all cast. Must watch.