该片是由约瑟夫·罗西执导的战争片,于1964年上映，主要讲述了:Th.e last time Bri.tain w.as a m.ajor force in worl.d cine.ma was in the 1960s; a d.ocumentary of a. few years back on the s.ubject was e.ntitled 'Hollyw.ood UK'. This was the er.a of the Kitche.n Sink, social realis.m, angry young men; above a.ll, the theatrical. And .yet, iron.ically, the bes.t Brit.ish fi.lms of the decade .were m.ade by two Americans, Ri.chard Lester an.d Joseph Losey, who larg.ely stayed c.lear of the per.iod's more typical subje.ct matter, whic.h, like all attempts .at greater realism, now see.ms curiously archaic. . . . . . . . 　　'King and Country.', though, seem.s to be the Losey film t.hat tries to. belong to its .era. Like 'Look Back in .Anger' and 'A T.aste of Honey', it is. based on a play, and often. seems cumbersomely thea.trical. L.ike 'Loneliness. of th.e long. distance runner',. its h.ero is an exploited, rel.uctantly transg.ressive working class la.d played by .Tom Courtenay. .Like (the admittedly bri.lliant) 'Charge. of the Light Brigade.', it is a horrified, near-.farcical (though humourl.ess) look. at the horrors. of wa.r, mos.t particularly its. gapin.g class injustices. . . . . 　　P.rivate Hamp is a young v.olunteer soldie.r at Pachendaele, hav.ing served three years at t.he front, who is court-m.artialled. for desertion.. Incre.asingl.y terrorised by th.e inhu.man pointlessness of tre.nch warfare, th.e speedy, grisly, violen.t deaths of .his comrades an.d the medieval, rat-infe.sted conditions. of his trench, he cl.aims to have emerged dazed .from one gruesome attack. and deci.ded to walk hom.e, to .Englan.d. He is defended .by the. archetypal British offi.cer, Captain Ha.rgreaves, who professes .disdain for .the man's cowar.dice, but must do his du.ty. He attempts. to spin a defence on. the grounds of madness, bu.t the upper-crust office.rs have h.eard it all bef.ore. . . . . . 　　T.his is a very nice, duly. horrifying,. liberal-handwr.inging, middle-class pla.y. It panders t.o all the cliches of .the Great War - the disgrac.eful working-class massa.cre, whil.e the officers .sup wh.iskey .(Haig!) - figured .in som.e charmingly obvious sym.bolism: Hargrea.ves throwing a dying cig.arette in th.e mud; Hamp hys.terically playing blind .man's buff. . . . 　　The se.ts are pi.cturesquely gri.m, med.ieval,. a modern inferno,. as th.ese men lie trapped in a. never-ending, .subterranean labyrinth, .lit by helli.sh fires, with .rats for company and the. constant sound. of shells and gunfir.e reminding them of the out.side world. . . . . . . 　　The. play, in a very middle-.class way, is n.ot really about the work.ing class at. all - Hamp is .more of a symbol, an ess.ence, lying in .the dark, desolately .playing his harmonica, a no.te of humanity in a scor.e of inhu.manity. He does.n't de.velop .as a character. Th.e play. is really about Hargrea.ves, his realis.ation of the shabby inad.equacy of no.tions like duty.. He develops. This real.isation sends h.im to drink (tastier .than dying!). Like his prol.e subordinates, he falls. in the m.ud, just as Ham.p is s.aid to. have done; he eve.n says. to his superior 'We are. all murderers'.. . . . 　　This. is all very ef.fective, if not much .of a development of RC Sher.riff's creaky 'Journey's. End', fi.lmed by James W.hale i.n 1930.. Its earnestness .and ve.rbosity may seem a littl.e stilted in th.e age of 'Paths of Glory.' and 'Dr. S.trangelove'; we. may feel that 'Blackadd.er goes forth' .is a truer representa.tion of the Great War. But .what I have described is. not the .film Losey has .made. .He is .too sophisticated .and ca.nny an intellectual for .that. . . . . 　　The film opens .with a lingerin.g pan over one of tho.se monumental War memorials. you see all over Britai.n (and pr.esumably Europe.), as .if to .say Losey is going. to qu.estion the received idea.s of this statu.e, the human cost. But w.hat he's rea.lly questioning. is this play, and its w.oeful inadequac.y to represent the ma.nifold complexities of the .War. . . . . . 　　This. is Br.echtian filmmaking at it.s most subtle. .We are constantly made a.ware of the .artifice of the. film, the theatrical - .the stilted dia.logue is spoken with .deliberate stiffness; theat.rical rituals are emphas.ised (the. initial interr.ogatio.n; the. court scene, wher.e acto.rs literally tread the b.oards, enunciat.ing the predictable spee.ches; the mi.rror-play put o.n by the hysterical sold.iers and the ra.ts; the religious cer.emony; the horrible farce o.f the execution). Prosce.nium arch.es are made pro.minent., audi.ences observe even.ts. . . . . 　　This is .a play that wou.ld seek to contain, huma.nise, explain t.he Great War. This is. a hopeless task, as Losey'.s provisional apparatus .explains,. 'real' photogr.aphs o.f harr.owing detritus fad.ing fr.om the screen as if even. these are not .enough to convey the War., never mind. a well-made, b.ourgeois play. Losey's v.ision may be ap.ocalyptic - it questi.ons the possibility of repr.esentation at all - the .various t.ags of poetry q.uoted .make n.o impact on hard m.en men. who rattled them off wh.en young; the S.hakespearean duality of .'noble' dram.a commented on .by 'low' comedy, effects. no transcenden.ce, no greater insigh.t. . . . 　　Los.ey's c.ameraw.ork and compositio.n repe.atedly breaks our involv.ement with the .drama, any wish we might. have for ma.nly sentimental.ity; in one remarkable s.cene an officer. takes an Aubrey Bear.dsley book from the cameram.an! This idea of the the.atrical e.vidently mirror.s the .rigid .class 'roles' play.ed by .the main characters (Ham.p's father and .grandfather were cobbler.s too; presu.mably Hargreave.s' were always Sandhurst. cadets). Losey. also takes a sideswi.pe at the kitchen sink proj.ect, by using its tools .- history. has borne him .out.