King & Country (1964)

Essential Viewing

UK

Feature Film

Director: Joseph Losey

Writers: Evan Jones, John Wilson, J.L. Hodson

Cinematographer: Denys Coop

Composer: Larry Adler

Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Tom Courtenay, Leo McKern, Barry Foster, Peter Copley, James Villiers, Jeremy Spencer, Barry Justice, Vivian Matalon

Based on John Wilson’s play Hemp, itself based on J.L. Hodson’s semi-autobiographical novel Return to the Wood, Losey’s class-conscious, anti-war film – detailing the court-martial of a 23-year-old working-class private, accused of deserting during the First World War, from first meeting with his upper middle-class defender to the case’s inevitable conclusion – is a tense, intriguing, and terribly moving masterpiece. Iain.Stott