Tuesday, 11 March 2014

Class when confined

King Rat (1965)

Directed by Bryan Forbes this film based on the novel of the same name stars George Segal, James Fox and Tom Courtenay. In Malaysia during WW2 a British officer befriends an American enlisted man who is king of the black market in their POW camp.

The key themes of this film are class differences (as always in British cinema) and what people will do to survive in terrible conditions. At times things are kept ambiguous which does a good job of leaving the audience to decide if the characters actions are justifiable or not and in general the story works really well. There is a great supporting cast which includes John Mills as well as Denholm Elliot and there are some nice moments of direction such as an early scene that highlights how King's actions make him resented by even those that work for him.


4/5

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