King and Country

Tom Courtenay and Dirk Bogarde are trapped like rats in King and Country

Joseph Losey's King and Country, from 1964, is a First World War court martial film with Dirk Bogarde defending Tom Courtenay, who has been charged with desertion. The tragic denouement is predictable, as is condemnation of war with a capital W and the indifference of upper crust officers. Whereas Kubrick, in the similar Paths of Glory, pictures soldiers as sacrificial pawns amidst an indifferent universe, Losey is more interested in picturing the squalor of life in the trenches. The prevalence of vermin, mud, and puddles reduce the troops to the level of the scurrying rats that plague them, searching for warmth or comfort where there is none to be found.

Instead of opening up the play upon which it is based, Losey closes up and confines the action of King and Country to stress the claustrophobia of trench warfare. Visual memories of home and family are inserted, but only to emphasize the characters' isolation. King and Country is a minor triumph, its pessimism and anti-establishment tone a good match for the tortured psyche of Losey.