JoeKulik Joseph Losey's King And Country (1964) Is a very good film. Although one might justifiably place it in some such genre as War I Films, such a taxonomic pigeon hole really doesn't do justice to this rather complex film.This is clearly a film about class divisions in Great Britain, with the much educated, upper class officers passing judging on a lowly private charged with desertion, a lowly private who tells his upper crust military defense attorney that he quit school at 12 years old to become a cobbler, just like his father and grandfather before him.It is a film about a long ago war when the full nature and extent of combat PTSD was not known, nor so much a concern of the officers in charge.This is a film about a lowly working class stiff who volunteered for the army for love of country, very early on the war and, after enduring three years of relentless battle amidst the horrors of the trenches, wasn't given a "break", a second chance after the first blemish on his record.This is a film about a military defense attorney, portraying the staid and "proper" British upper class demeanor, and just assuming that his client is guilty even before the trial has begun who, in the course successive personal contacts with his client undergoes somewhat of a transformation of personality and character, as the story of his client's "desertion" becomes an analogue in his mind for the futility of the Great War, a futility that neither side was willing to admit, while more and more young men were sent to their slaughter in a vain attempt to just to obscure the obvious truth of that futility.This is a film about "just following orders", of "just following the rules", even when such blind obedience to such verbal prescriptions blinds us also to the utter humanity of the situation at hand.The sober BW cinematography in this film relentlessly grinds these themes into our souls, as it gives us unrelenting shots of a mud drenched, claustrophobic environment, where it never stops raining, and where this bleak, hopeless atmosphere is punctuated by archival still photos that give us a close up, "in your face" look at the actual horrors of trench warfare.This film is a quite compelling, and thought provoking portrayal of not only WW I, but also of the utter senselessness of fighting any war whatsoever.

sijoe22 .....My cable company gave this three and one half (out of four) stars, and I don't know why.Sort of a poor man's Paths of Glory or Caine Mutiny with none, and I mean NONE of the charm or depth.Movie didn't change much, from the first few minutes to almost the end.Didn't learn a great deal about WWI, either.Yeah, yeah, we get it, soldier leaves post due to either shell shock or cowardice and is put on trial, facing a possible death sentence. Boy, how many movies have had THIS plot before? Yawn.I thought the only thing that could rescue this crappy film was a surprise or happy ending, but I got neither.

Prismark10 King & Country is directed by the American Joseph Losey and stars Tom Courtenay as a young soldier in the Great War, shell shocked and facing a court martial for desertion.Dirk Bogarde plays the officer whose duty is to defend him, at first he seems to be reluctant in his dealings with him, viewing him as a working class imbecile and cowardly to boot. However once he gets to know him a little, Bogarde discovers that many of Courtenay's friends and comrades in his battalion have died, he takes the case more seriously especially as he will be executed if found guilty.The film is very much a stage play but is also arch as well as having a stylistic template with actual photos of dead bodies from the Imperial War Museum. The set tries to recreate the trenches with a cold, damp, dank setting.The film has a grim atmosphere as displayed by the foot soldiers and Courtenay is one of them, a soldier who does not realise what he has done and the trouble he is in.The film highlights the class aspect of the war as the officers have little compassion for the lower ranked soldiers and show no mercy for those driven to despair or madness.

st-shot Like the incessant rain King and Country mired in mud and military litigation is a non stop emotionally powerful film of human spirit crushed by mechanized war and the necessity to maintain order. It's a chaotic Paths of Glory closer to the front and just as unjust.After repeated shellings and engagements with the enemy Pvt. Hamp (Tom Courtnay) is arrested trying to walk back to England from the battlefields of Europe. Put on trial for desertion he and his lawyer Captain Hargreaves (Dirk Borgarde) devise a plan to attempt to save him from the firing squad. With shelling in the distance court convenes.A filmed play with much shot in close-up along with a smooth and unobtrusive camera movement within the claustrophobic confines of the trenches ( with some telling stills) King and Country is an unrelenting depiction of absurd sacrifice stopping only for a moment to exterminate one with those around him scheduled for the same per order to immediately move out.Director Losey's anti war tract is one of the most sober and ultimately powerful of an era when anti-war films flourished with wild absurdities from King of Hearts to How I Won the War. His inquisitors drab bureaucrats instead of ogres his stage a rat infested quagmire instead of a chess board floor of a French Château the film resonates with a callous, hopeless and to add insult to injury clumsy rush to justice. Bogarde's Hargreaves is measured and restrained, his pauses and glances masking incertitude brilliantly. Coutrtnay is outstanding as the born to lose Hamp. Both touching and frustrating he states his case with a warped benign logic. Leo Mc Kern's hostile doctor also register's in a gruff way.King and Country may not match the scale of All Quiet on the Western Front or Paths of Glory but Losey's deft and tight handling within it's limited confine packs every bit as an emotional punch.