The hilarious highlight of director John Boorman’s 1987 Hope and Glory was nine-year-old Bill Rohan rejoicing in the destruction of his school by an errant Luftwaffe bomb.
Queen and Country, showing Monday by the Vernon Film Society, picks up the story nearly a decade later.
Newcomer Callum Turner is Bill Rohan, just old enough in 1953 to be conscripted for the Korean War. He fears combat, but instead is made an instant sergeant and is sent to the typing pool, where he suffers under a tyrannical noncom played by David Thewlis.
The barracks banter is entertaining, especially once Bill’s scallywag friend Percy, played by Caleb Landry Jones, enters the picture as a draftee who pushes the bookish Bill into more risky behaviour.
Some of this is with working-class lasses at a nearby nursing school, but Bill sets his hopes on a posh “bird” who repeatedly warns him off.
However, in his heart, Bill remains a little boy with big dreams. But when he is faced with war once again, he begins to see the facts from a different perspective. When problems escalate, he must choose what is more important – love, friendship, or his beloved Queen and country.
The beautiful soundtrack clearly reflects the mood and environment of the film, making the movie even more sentimental and sad. Queen and Country is a solid drama which successfully avoids the clichés and does not allow the story to become boring and predicable.
Queen and Country screens Monday, May 25 at the Towne Cinema at the regular times of 5:15 and 7:45 p.m. Tickets are $7 (cash only), available at the Towne Cinema and the Bean Scene coffee house.
