For Queen & Country (1988)

Simply A Masterpiece

Pretty Good

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The front of the DVD case for the movie "For Queen & Country", plus what is written on the back of the DVD case, all suggest that this movie is some kind of revenge action/thriller. But that is not the case at all. For the most part, it's actually a kind of downbeat drama, illustrating the case of an individual (Denzel Washington) who little by little finds out that the country he has faithfully served has little to no use for him once he's outside the service. Though the movie is downbeat, it does remain interesting throughout, despite the fact that the story progresses at a very slow pace for the most part. (Also, you can see that this movie might possibly have planted the seed for the later Michael Caine movie "Harry Brown".) Washington is pretty good, and the supporting players also give solid performances. Just don't sit down to watch the movie if you are in a mood for an action thriller, however.

The choice of Reuben James as the name of Denzel Washington's character is surely not a coincidence. In 1804, during the Barbary Wars, US Sailor Reuben James, positioned himself between his captain, Stephen Decatur, and a pirate; taking the sword blows directed at Decatur.In October, 1941, before the US entered WW2, the first USS Reuben James, a destroyer on convoy duty in the North Atlantic, positioned herself between an ammunition ship and the known location of a German U-Boat. Struck by a torpedo which ignited her magazine, the Reuben James sank in five minutes. Two thirds of her crew perished. Woody Guthrie wrote a song "The Sinking of the Reuben James".Denzel Washington's character, Reuben James, likewise, positions himself in harm's way to protect others. ,

This film is a harsh reality of life after the army. The British Paras are an elite fighting force, but they are there to kill the enemy. You don't really have a trade when you leave, except how to jump out of planes & kill. However, the British Army today has an excellent support sytem, unlike the mid 1980s when this film was set. This is highlighted in the movie as we see Reuben returning after leaving the Paras, during which he did a tour in Northern Ireland and fought in the 1982 Falklands war. We see him struggling to get any meaningful employment until he links up with a criminal friend. His mate Fish, who was wounded in the Falklands, is living on disability allowance, and is suffering too, being in a wheelchair. It is a sad, gritty look at life at the lower end of the scale in a run-down urban council estate in London. Having served his country with pride as a British paratrooper, he is left with nothing except the prospect of drifting into crime.

"For Queen and Country" sticks Washington in the center of a bunch of characters as a deadpan British vet of the Falkland Islands war whose come home to find less than a hero's welcome. The film spends the first third fleshing out everyone but the centerpiece and then doesn't give him any depth as he stumbles through his thick cockney mumblings from one costar to the next. The film doesn't really begin to move until close to the end when it winds up and down in about 20 minutes with a less than desirable conclusion. Given the typically British austerity of the film, an illfocused and bleak story, an almost complete absence of passion, and what are by film standards rather sublunary events with no payoff in the end, this flick was barely tolerable. Not recommendable. (C-)Note - I watched this film back to back with another British film "The Fourth Angel" which didn't receive rave reviews but was still head and shoulders above "For Queen and Country".