patrick powell For English of a certain age - and possibly for those from other countries - the phrase 'the third man' and the triumvirate of Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Donald McLean (until the eventual flight to Moscow of Philby, it was simply Burgess and McLean) have a certain resonance.In later years the trio expanded to include a knight of the realm who eventually rose to become the Queen of England's art expert - something of an about-turn for a traitor - and is also said to have included one John Cairncross as 'the fifth man', although that is still in dispute.Over the years, of course, and with changing geopolitical obsessions and problems the Cambridge spies attract less interest if only because Islamic State/Isil/IS/Isis and various other offshoots of Al Qaeda have been passed the mantle of 'the enemy' and, well, it was all 55 years ago. We have new 'spies' and their stories to get excited about.All four (or five) spies have an interesting story to tell and to this day it is difficult to establish quite why the products of England's privileged class should have decided to bite the hand which fed them. Blunt, certainly, will have wanted to undo his past, if only because the social position he attained as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures was one which the old queen enjoyed a great deal. Philby seems, since his childhood in India where until the age of five he spoke both English and Urdu fluently and daily played with the children of his parents servants, to have suffered from a kind of split personality - I don't mean that in any medical sense - and had no difficulty hobnobbing with wealthy colleagues down in the club before meeting his controller and sending other colleagues to certain death. He was said to have been a real charmer so perhaps he was simply a sociopath who could not empathise.Anther Country is about Guy Burgess, also like Blunt homosexual, and if you don't know much about him, the film's rather too neat explanation of why he became a traitor seems a tad glib. But in fact Burgess was nothing if not superficial. He seems to have been the least ideologically inspired of the Cambridge Four and, being a huge drinker, was a constant source of concern to the others and his Soviet controllers that he would while drunk give the game away.He and McLean were the first to break cover and head for Soviet Russia when it seemed likely that McLean, a diplomat in Britain's Washington embassy, was about to be unmasked. It has often been suggested that Burgess need not have fled: no one was onto him and his treachery was only discovered once he had hightailed it to Moscow.Some even suggest that he fully expected to return to Britain, though what he thought might be made of his actions back in London only the Lord knows. Certainly, he didn't take to Moscow life and (according to Wikipedia) had all his clothes tailored in London's Savile Row and shipped to him in Moscow.The other notable aspect of Another Country is its portrayal of life at an English public school (the name, helpfully for Americans we give some of our private schools). The film takes place in the Thirties so I can't comment on whether aspects of such a school are exaggerated. But I attended a Roman Catholic public school (as a boarder) for five years in the Sixties and I can confirm that many of the absurdities prevailed, as did the rigid hierarchy of boys. We were still being caned for the silliest of reasons - though we called it being beaten - though in the more enlightened Sixties this could no longer be done by prefects.The film takes place in the summer term when the air was sufficient balmy for the boys to take midnight walks or meet for midnight trysts. I remember many pleasant afternoons lying in the sunshine under a tree, doing nothing but gazing through the leaves into a blue sky. But I also remember the sheer misery of having to bathe and shower in cold water - not for any character building but because the school was too tight-fisted to get the hot water system modernised and repaired. I remember the goddam awful pigswill which we were served up as 'food', and the almost frightening speed with which violence could erupt for no very good reason. Oh, and I also remember all the talk of 'minnows' and boys that someone 'fancied' though not of it, thank God came my way.So I suspect Another Country holds a certain attraction for its portrayal of the kind of life lived at such a school, although a portrayal now long outdated - corporal punishment is no longer legal at any school. The story is rather slight, the boys rather too articulate, speaking as they do as characters might in a play or a film. Or perhaps as I am now well beyond the age they were, I simply can't remember how young folk talk and talked.The explanation as to what decided Guy Burgess/Bennett to choose the dark side and betray his country - because he had been cheated out of the bauble he craved more than any other - was, perhaps, a touch to pat. There again the real Guy Burgess was such a loose cannon who didn't seem to believe much for very long anyway, perhaps it really was like that. The film is, perhaps, best viewed as a well-made period piece.

Sebastian (sts-26) Another Country was one of those films that both captured the spirit of an era and helped define it - in the best possible sense. While one can easily lump all 80s pop music and fashion together as over-styled and kitschy, it is not possible to do so with the films of that decade, certainly not the British ones, not with Chariots of Fire, Educating Rita, My Beautiful Launderette and Another Country so vividly remembered. These were works of art, perfectly weaving style and substance together. Another Country presents a complex tale with - what was/is to some - unpalatable subject matter, and indecipherable detail (the life of the British upper class is, and always was, amusing, bizarre, implausible. Gilbert and Sullivan built careers on this fact). Yet, there is no sign of attempts to simplify, or strip out the seemingly unnecessarily intricate, or to moralize - either way - beyond the context of the story, the homosexuality depicted. The result is a film that is detailed, rich, compelling and (in a strange way, despite the historical facts upon which the story is based) apolitical.

adkmilkmaid Forget the premise that homosexuality was the reason Burgess became a spy... a dubious conclusion. This movie is about ambition and how far one is willing to sacrifice one's principles to achieve it. The premise is explicitly stated in the opening frames with the voice-over from the aged Guy Bennett (fictionalized Burgess): "You've no idea what life in England in the 1930s was like. Treason and loyalty... they're all relative, you know. Treason to what? Loyalty to whom? That's what matters."It is the 1930s in a famous public school in England. Rupert Everett is the star turn as homosexual Guy Bennett, who longs to become a "God" (head boy) as a senior; Colin Firth plays the supporting role of his best friend Tommy Judd, a devout Communist. It was the first film for each actor and they're both terrific right out of the box. While Guy (RE) is self-consciously theatrical (he refers grandly to a "tumescent archway") the dialogue between the two roommates is simple and real. In one scene Guy puts a quick move on Tommy (CF). He comes up behind Tommy, puts one hand over his eyes to pull his head back and with the other rapidly starts unbuttoning Tommy's pajama shirt.G: Alone at last! T: (bored/amused) Get OFF. G: I'll get you one day. T: No you won't. G: Yes I will. Everyone gives in, in the end. It's Bennett's Law. T: I won't give in. G: Well, you're not normal. (later) G: The reason everyone gives in in the end is they get lonely, doing it on their own. They long for company. T: Well, I don't. Not your sort, anyway. G: (insisting) That's why my mother is marrying this awful Colonel person. T: It couldn't just possibly be that she loves him? G: Out of the question. He's got one of those awful little mustaches. Ghastly. Almost as much of a loather as my father was. T: (amused) You mean even you would draw the line? G: Don't be revolting. He's a grownup. T: Of course. And it's all just a passing phase. G: Exactly. Just like you being a Communist. T: (sarcastic) Ha ha. G: (pause) Judd-- T: Hmm? G: You and your usherette -- T: What about her? G: Is it really so different? T: From what? G: BOYS. T: Well how would I know? I've only ever had a girl.The whole scene takes place as the boys are changing the linens on their bunks, going down to the laundry room, folding sheets, getting new ones. It's a great, understated scene. Tommy Judd is calmly not threatened by Guy's flamboyance and homosexuality. What resonates throughout the movie is the feeling of genuineness and honesty between these two in a cavernous school where everything is about power, leverage, and bullying.The struggles in the movie concern ambition vs. principles. Guy is determined to be a God. Will Tommy sacrifice his principles for his friend's ambition? Will he sacrifice them simply for his friend? Meanwhile will Guy sacrifice his boyfriend for his own ambition?T: I can't do it. I just cannot be a prefect. G: Why not? T: I do have my reputation, you know. G: (snorts) Your what? T: I'm a school joke, I quite realize that. But I am, don't you think, a respected joke? I do at least stick to my principles. People appreciate that. I abandon them now --and he winds himself up into a passionate speech about how people will think he's a fake, Communists are fake, and Stalin's a fake! He's almost in tears -- and then the head boy comes and he has to dive under a table (he and Guy are out of bed after hours)! Finally: G: (speaking of the head boy): My God, that man is really cracking up. T: Liberals always do under pressure. G: You know, you're a really hard man, Tommy. T: I've no time for him. He just wants a nice easy life and a nice easy conscience. And he's got no right to either.There are a lot more great exchanges. G: (sarcastically, about Communism) Heaven on Earth? T: (calmly) Earth on earth. A just earth.The friendship between Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd seems far more touching and real -- far more the heart of the movie -- than the sketched-in affair between Guy and James Harcourt, the character played by Cary Elwes.The whole production is filled with dewy, beautiful boys, starting with Everett, who at 24 is painfully gorgeous with his big eyes and ripe, petulant mouth. Firth at 23 has the sweetness of youth but otherwise is allowed to appear rather skinny and plain. (No eyebrows, hair standing on end, and 1930s round spectacles.) But his eyes glow with intensity and commitment. You totally believe his passion. Very tough to believe it was his first time in front of a camera.The movie itself is far from perfect. Some might think it slow and rather precious. But the messages about ambition and loyalty are timeless, and the Everett/Firth scenes are wonderful.

hugh1971 This film is both visually and dramatically impressive. From the outset, we are treated to lavish cinematography of Eton College and its grounds and the surrounding countryside. This is contrasted with the drab scenes of Moscow from where Guy Bennet recounts his story. Everything is bathed in a golden glow, backed up by the sound of boyish voices singing hymns (the title itself comes from popular school hymn 'I vow to Thee my Country'; which was sung at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997).This contrasts starkly with the brutality of the school's disciplinary system, where one boy is so ashamed of being caught in a homosexual act that he hangs himself in the school chapel. Those who question the school's code become outcasts, such as Bennet and Judd, unless they are 'useful' in some way - ie when Judd is needed to prevent an unpopular boy becoming head of house.One important fact I noticed is that you hardly ever see a master in the school, and you never see the boys in lessons: this shows Eton not as merely a school, but as a microcosm of society with its own specific hierarchy.There is interesting character development: Bennett, initially a philanderer who takes nothing seriously, eventually realises that he is a confirmed homosexual and begins to understand Judd's vision of a perfect society possible through communism ('not heaven on earth, but earth on earth - a just earth')Similarly Judd realises that sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice one's principles for the greater good.There is a lot about this film that is hackneyed - the bullying, sadistic prefects, the angelic boys with floppy fringes singing chapel anthems, the stock rebellious phrases etc, (and I won't even mention Guy Bennet's ludicrous old-man makeup)but overall it is a beautiful piece of cinematography with some good acting from the young Mr Everett and Mr Firth.