Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

King and Country Blu-ray Movie Review

Paths of Glory 2.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 26, 2014

The vagaries of film fame are often hard to fathom, as any performer who has failed to attract sufficient attention will probably aver. But a more literal interpretation of the phrase “film fame” also offers some interesting and maybe even inexplicable disparities in the renown individual releases receive, even when in both content, style and even general quality different offerings can be considered at least similar. Case in point: the kind of odd disconnect between Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 film Paths of Glory, an anti-war screed of sorts set in the nefarious trenches of World War I which examines aspects of supposed cowardice against a subtle interplay of class and culture; and Joseph Losey’s quite comparable 1964 King and Country, a film which explores many of the same issues in much the same setting, but which never really ignited much interest in the global film going community beyond its native England, where in fact the film received considerable acclaim and received several BAFTA nominations in 1965, including Best Film and Best Actor for Tom Courtenay. Anyone who has seen Paths of Glory will probably immediately recognize many of the parallels between that film and this one. Once again the viewer is thrust into the almost unimaginable insanity of men attempting to survive in the rat infested alleyways of World War I trenches, and once again there is a trial of a supposed coward (in this case, a lone one) at the core of the story. If in this particular instance the attorney representing the accused isn’t quite the semi-rabid provocateur that Kirk Douglas’ Dax is in the Kubrick film, there’s certainly an analogous tone in the Losey film, one which is perhaps even more remarkable in that the very real horrors of war are depicted with nary a real battle scene making it to the screen. Instead, Losey fills the film with disturbing stills culled from the Imperial War Archives, seguing for example from an unsettling view of a corpse rotting in the dirt to a scene of rain pelting the landscape into an inchoate mud field where the body just disappears through the magic of a lap dissolve. Playing out against this visual conceit is a tense drama involving a naïve working class British private named Arthur Hamp (Tom Courtenay) who has been accused of desertion after he numbly walks away from the front lines, thinking (perhaps irrationally) that he can make it back to his home in England on foot. Hamp is facing a firing squad for his trouble, something he doesn’t quite seem to understand despite the efforts of his patrician defender, Captain Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde).

King and Country plays its cards—or at least its official charges—close to its vest, taking around 20 minutes of fairly discursive exposition before Hamp’s desertion is finally referred to more or less expressly. Instead, Losey and scenarist Evan Jones (adapting an original novel by J.L. Hodson and a subsequent play by John Wilson based upon Hodson’s work) offer subtle but telling vignettes which depict both the camaraderie of the troops as well as the unspoken but obvious class differences between many of the grunts and those who command them. This is especially obvious once Hargreaves sits down to begin conferring with Hamp. The eloquent, understated Hargreaves initially has a hard time really connecting to the seemingly simpleminded Hamp, though he at least attempts to ferret out some salient reasons why Hamp simply wandered away from the battlefield one day.

There is at least one more odd coincidence that links Paths of Glory and King and Country. Both films posit major supporting characters who pooh-pooh the idea of “shell shock”. In this film, it’s the imperious and narrow minded Captain O’Sullivan (Leo McKern), a no nonsense type whose go to remedy for any situation is laxative pills. O’Sullivan has a couple of fantastic verbal sparring matches with Hargreaves which provide high points in this dialogue heavy film. As the relationship between Hargreaves and Hamp deepens, an interesting evolution in Hargreaves’ thinking and approach toward defending his client develops.

In other ways, though, there are some telling differences, though those difference may blanch in the light of further introspection. Dax in Paths of Glory is a participant in the farce which ultimately leads to the courts-martial of several men. In King and Country, Hargreaves stands apart, both contextually and culturally, from Hamp, and in fact it’s the fact that his status changes from observer to participant (in an absolutely chilling chain of events which caps the film) that provides the main dramatic impetus.

Losey’s film is probably a bit less subtle than Kubrick’s, including in its aforementioned use of stills dissolving into live action. Pay attention, for example, to how Losey “introduces” Hamp, having him fade in over a particularly devastating image. It’s an over obvious bit of foreshadowing, but it is undeniably disturbing.

King and Country Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

King and Country is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.77:1. This is a generally solid looking transfer that nonetheless has some issues that will bother some viewers. Whatever restorative efforts have been done here have not eliminated all of the damage, and the elements still have noticeable scratches (some quite prominent) and other blemishes. However, these same restorative efforts do appear to have utilized at least moderate denoising. Brighter scenes actually do reveal a fine layer of grain, easily visible if one freeze frames at various moments, but the jet black sequences—which are far more numerous—have a kind of shiny smooth video appearance at times. Contrast is somewhat variable, but this often quite dark film boasts quite good shadow detail most of the time. Blacks are similarly inconsistent, though when they're good, they're very good. At other times, though, they vary from milky gray to having an almost purplish sheen. Losey and DP Denys N. Coop play with light and shadow quite effectively in the film, delivering a chiaroscuro ambience that typically has veils falling over the faces of Hamp and Hargreaves, obviously indicating the ambivalences found in both characters. The overall image quality here is quite soft, evident even in things like the credits, which are almost blurry looking. However, fine detail can be excellent—note in the final scene between Bogarde and Courtenay how the right side of Bogarde's face and cheek clearly display fine down poking out from his skin.

King and Country Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

King and Country's LPCM 2.0 mono mix has no overt damage and clearly delivers dialogue and effects. Though there are some "off stage" explosions and the like, this is by and large a more intimate dialogue driven film, and this serviceable track presents things with excellent clarity and bursts of good dynamic range.

King and Country Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only supplements on this disc are trailers for other Dirk Bogarde films (the sort of things that I typically do not count as scorable material), but at least VCI has provided HD versions of the trailers for two of the Bogarde films it has already released on Blu-ray (trailers which were also included on those individual releases). It's perhaps worth noting that these older releases (and their trailers) were encoded via VC-1.

• Campbell's Kingdom Trailer (1080p; 2:34)


• Agent 8 3/4 Trailer (1080p; 2:56)


• More Dirk Bogarde Movies (1080p; 4:32) offers a brief overview of Bogarde's filmography, replete with a few seconds of clips from several films.

King and Country Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

King and Country covers a lot of the same territory, both geographically and philosophically, that Kubrick's legendary Paths of Glory does, and it's notable that this 1964 film compares quite well with that earlier masterpiece. If it's a bit more on the nose and screed like, it also contains what is arguably a much more visceral climax than what is a pretty devastating summation in Paths of Glory. Bogarde and Courtenay are superb in the starring roles, and the film develops a really unexpectedly powerful emotional impact as it careens toward its horrifying conclusion. This Blu-ray has occasionally problematic video, but otherwise comes Recommended.