While I've seen John Boorman's Hope and Glory it was a long time ago. I know it's an autobiographical film about his childhood during the Blitz and World War II in general, that's about it. So I can say with some authority that even though Queen and Country is a sequel to the earlier film, you don't need to have seen one to understand and enjoy the other.
This is also a film around war, specifically concerning a training camp in the British army during the Korean War. It's late in the war, as references to Eisenhower and the coronation of Elizabeth II attest. That means that the horrors of war don't come into play as much. Bill, the Boorman stand-in, apparently is never shipped off, nor is his closest friend on the base. There is some, due to other soldiers having to fight in Korea, and also some traumatic memories from WW2, but it's not like you really have to strap in.
Three performances really stand out. David Thewlis always meets pretty high standards, and exceeds them here as a brittle disciplinarian of an officer, moreso than he initially seems. Caleb Landry Jones plays Bill's friend Percy, who is epically unsuited to army life. I wasn't much familiar with Jones, and he does working class Brit so well that I was shocked to learn that he's Texas born and Bred. And the Welsh actress Aimee-Ffion Edwards brings life to all her scenes as a nurse who starts out with one of the young men but really has eyes for the other. If you don't know her now you will, if there's any justice in the world.
Odd note. Bill mentions in a lecture to junior cadets that Korea is bitter cold so have families send jumpers, long underwear, etc. I may have heard this before, but it's never penetrated. As with many people, my familiarity with the Korean War mainly comes from MASH, which was filmed in the sub-desert of Southern California and thus made the country look like just one big wave of dry heat.
2 comments:
I must admit we haven't seen either of these movies although they both sound interesting enough that I hope we can watch them. Hope and Glory sounds especially good. When I read the brief plot synopsis I was reminded of Christian Bale's early appearance in Empire of the Sunwhere his experience in a POW camp was more adventure than the terror felt by his parents. Queen and Country looks like a good follow-up. Thewliss is always worth watching - his villain in one of the Fargo series was a very frightening persona. I don't know the other actors you mentioned but your opinion about performers is generall accurate in my experience.
One film we both really liked a lot about ww2 was Mrs. Henderson Presentsstarring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins based on the true story about the Windmill Theatre in London during the Blitz. At the time it was illegal for showgirls to be bare on stage so she had the idea of setting up tableaux of naked girls because nudity was allowed in museum statues. It sounds kind of weird but it did work and there are lots of great moments - like this one: Laura Henderson: If we are to ask our youth to surrender their lives, then we should not ask them to surrender joy - or the possibility of joy! And, if along the way, we cause too many people to congregate in the street, who gives a fiddler's fuck?
I know you're right about MASH being set in Korea but the odd thing is that it was such a sly criticism of what was going on in Vietnam at the time it never occurred to me to wonder about the obviously hot climate.
I thought I had seen Hope and Glory with you. Of course, like I said, I don't remember it very well, so it could go either way. Jones has been in other things, just nothing else I've seen. Edwards has mostly done British television and has been engaging in everything I've seen her in.
Mrs. Henderson Presents sounds like it could be a good watch. Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins are both always worth watching, although I wouldn't have necessarily associate them with each other. I'd heard about the loophole for naked girls in tableaux being considered statues (?) or some such and thus they wouldn't be shut down. I think Flo Ziegfeld may have utilized a similar law in the states. But yeah, the line about "cause too many people to congregate in the street" feels oddly timely.
Yeah, I guess MASH can be understood more as a product of the Vietnam War. Which was of course still very much going strong when Robert Altman's movie came out. And still a fresh memory in the TV show's time.
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