Image via StudioCanal
King and Country from director Joseph Losey is a searing indictment of inhumanity during the First World War built on two understated powerhouse performances from Dirk Bogarde (Captain Hargreaves) and Tom Courtenay (Private Arthur James Hamp). Adapted from a play by John Wilson, which itself drew inspiration from a story by James Lansdale Hodson, this claustrophobic character study of desertion under duress still feels surprisingly fresh. With this resplendent Blu-ray restoration making sure to draw drama from every cramped close-up and waterlogged wide shot, Losey only needs to capture his exceptional ensemble in situ acting out a morality play where regulations trump human rights, and doing your duty may include delivering a death sentence.
Image via StudioCanal
Where this award-winning diatribe on the inhumanity of man really lives and breathes is in those extended monologue moments between Captain Hargreaves and his young defendant, as Losey focuses in on the face capturing every minute flicker of emotion from both men. As counsel for the defence this army appointed lawyer knows that his mission is futile, since abandoning your position irrespective of the carnage was a firing squad offense. In a time when post-traumatic stress was put down to a lack of stiff upper lip, what stops King and Country turning into a by-the-numbers war picture rests squarely with Tom Courtenay, who won best actor at the Venice Film Festival for this performance.
That sense of unwavering duty in the face of a potential firing squad is heartbreaking, just as the subtle shades that Dirk Bogarde brings to his role as Captain Hargreaves only add to an air of inevitability. Facing off against a courtroom of high-ranking officers who have already decided the fate of Hamp seeks to openly criticise an engrained class system, where privates were deemed to be dim-witted dolts who resorted to cowardice, and simply lacked the gumption to face down a hail of bullets from an unseen enemy. On every level this is a film that would rather be direct in its criticisms of war and those affected, rather than going down the road of metaphor and allegory to prove a point.
Image via StudioCanal
Despite being almost sixty years old, King and Country could sit alongside Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory or Sidney Lumet’s The Hill in its unflinching attitude towards killing. That lack of moral centre in everyone aside from the accused, that indifference towards death still hitting hard irrespective of the time period. That is why this intimate two-hander belongs in every Blu-ray library alongside those other examples of anti-establishment cinema, that sought to challenge the status quo and make a mockery of those who considered films were only there for entertainment purposes.
King and Country is available from 6 November on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download from Vintage Classics.
