Film Forum

The hilarious highlight of John Boorman’s HOPE AND GLORY (1987), nominated for 5 Oscars: 9-year-old Bill Rohan rejoices in the destruction of his school by an errant Luftwaffe bomb.  QUEEN AND COUNTRY picks up the story nearly a decade later as Bill (Boorman’s alter-ego) begins basic training in the early Fifties, during the Korean War. Bill (played by a charming Callum Turner) is joined by a trouble-making army mate, Percy (Caleb Landry Jones). They never get near Korea, but engage in a constant battle of wits with the Catch-22-worthy, Sgt. Major Bradley -- the brilliant David Thewlis. Richard E. Grant is their superior, the veddy, veddy, infinitely put-upon, aptly-named Major Cross. A superb ensemble cast limns a wonderfully funny and often moving depiction of a still-recovering postwar England.

NOTE: Film Forum is presenting a one-week tribute to John Boorman, February 11-17, featuring the director’s key works, including POINT BLANK, HELL IN THE PACIFIC, DELIVERANCE, EXCALIBUR, and HOPE AND GLORY. Click here for a full schedule.

GREAT BRITAIN / IRELAND / FRANCE / ROMANIA • 2014 • 115  MINS. • IN ENGLISH • BBC WORLDWIDE NORTH AMERICA

Reviews

“CRITICS’ PICK”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times
– David Ehrlich, Time Out New York

“BEAUTIFULLY BITTERSWEET…A JOY TO WATCH. The final passages (of the film) are among the most moving Boorman has ever directed.”
– Keith Uhlich, The L Magazine

 “Achingly romantic. A moving portrait of a nation that couldn’t account for all it had lost in a war that it won.”
– David Ehrlich, Time Out New York

“The film of an old master who still has one of the most magical eyes in the business… (with) the ability to draw bold, vivid performances.”
– Stuart Klawans, The Nation

“A portrait of the artist as a sly young man. Boorman, now 82, has rarely directed more fearlessly. He displays masterly command and élan. Confirms the intuitive brilliance that has marked Boorman’s filmmaking since (his first film) some 50 years ago. It’s wise, unpretentious, and funny in a tough-minded way. Boorman remains one of the cinema’s last great mystics.”
– Michael Sragow, Film Comment

“SPECTACULAR…are the veteran actors who show up in the two great stereotypes of British service comedies: David Thewlis as the foul-tempered, by the book sergeant major, and Richard E. Grant as the elegant, quietly vexed superior officer. A LOVELY MOVIE…achingly bittersweet…marked by surprising moments of commonplace beauty. It takes us into another world.”
– Stephen Whitty, The Star-Ledger (NJ)

“To a passionate Anglophile like me, QUEEN AND COUNTRY is A FUNNY AND NOSTALGIC PORTRAIT .”
– Rex Reed, New York Observer

“ENTERTAINING, ACCESSIBLE, AND BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED. Steadily engrossing due to Boorman’s surpassing skills as both a storyteller and a director.  There are endless pleasures to be found in the film’s performances.”
– Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com

“An upstart army comedy in the vein of MISTER ROBERTS, STRIPES, SGT. BILKO, and M*A*S*H.”
– Noel Murray, The Dissolve

“A hugely pleasurable follow-up to the director’s autobiographical 1987 HOPE AND GLORY. David Thewlis is in top form. I found the film deeply moving, perhaps because… Boorman’s nostalgia and gentle sense of loss are so unabashed and sincere, and his filmmaking still so vital.”
– Gavin Smith, Film Comment

“4 STARS! David Thewlis delivers a truly year’s best, Oscar-worthy performance. Q&C is blessed with an embarrassment of riches when it comes to its supporting cast. Richard E. Grant is a delight… doing his usual sly, sophisticated thing, except even more so. Q&C is old-fashioned, but it is wholly satisfying… a lovingly crafted period production that perfectly recreates the still-distressed look of postwar Britain.”
– Joe Bendel, The Epoch Times

“A pleasing return to form for the 82-year-old British director. (The film) benefits from a vividly realized sense of time and place and a gallery of colorful supporting characters burnished with the warm glow of memory. (With) the wonderful David Thewlis (and) a major played with great, sardonic exhaustion by Richard E. Grant. Caleb Landry Jones has the wiry, electric intensity of the young Brad Dourif (and) is a particular delight to watch as he exults in his own anarchic glee.”
– Scott Foundas, Variety