Guns at Batasi (1964)

Waste of time

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

A British army base in Africa encounters a coup against the African commandant and has to use his experience to help his men through it. On the face of it, it doesn't sound particularly riveting and I hadn't heard of this film before chancing upon it and therefore had very few expectations. Guns at Batasi although essentially a war film has very few fight scenes and is more a character driven drama. The film is easy to follow and never less than entertaining. The dialogue and speeches are superb, there is some good humour and some tense scenes as the film progresses. What really elevates this film above other films of it's genre is the outstanding cast. Richard Attenborough is outstanding as the Sgt Major and he is given fine support from Flora Robson ( as an MP) Jack Hawkins as the Colonel and Errol John as the Lieutenant Boniface the face of the Coup. It also features a very young and an attractive looking Mia Farrow in a rather superfluous love subplot. This is a well made and highly enjoyable film that is recommended for fans of old war films.

About the only British war film I can think of that was more tension-filled than "Guns at Batasi" is "Zulu"--and that puts it in awfully good company. In addition, Richard Attenborough has a terrific performance as a very rigid and very traditional Sergeant Major.The film is set in Africa in one of the nations that is still a member of the Commonwealth--though it has achieved the distinction of finally having its own government. However, like so many nascent African nations, it's unstable--and soon after the film begins there is a coup and the government topples. The problem is that a group of British soldiers are stationed there and the new leaders want the Brits to give up their weapons as well as surrender a man to them. But, the tough-as-nails Sergeant Major isn't about to do either of these unless he has a direct order to do so. And, it doesn't matter if there is a know-it-all member of Parliament (Flora Robson) telling him to do this--she is not his superior officer and he is not about to break the chain of command.As I said, it's a very tense little film. You may not appreciate the Brit-focus (after all, they were a Colonial nation until just before the film took place) nor casting an unnecessary sex interest (why include this--isn't there enough action already--plus who stops to have sex when they are facing what appears to be certain death?!). I could look past these things and just saw it as a darn fine action-adventure film. Worth seeing.

Lord Attenborough is not my favourite actor nor my favourite director. Most of his movies are,to my view, overlong and over keen on pointing out the blindingly obvious.However,in the early 1960s he produced two outstanding performances,"Seance on a wet afternoon" and this one"Guns at Batasi". The characters couldn't be more different,from a gentle anxious husband of a woman mad with grief to a tough vastly experienced senior N.C.O in the British Army at the time the Empire was becoming the Commonwealth. The film is set in a military outpost in a small African country about to become independent.The British as the outgoing colonial power have no exit strategy,wham,bang,thank you ma'am appears to be their style and they are surprised to find that not all the members of this new nation are singing from the same hymn sheet. "If you can keep you head when all others about you are losing theirs and blaming you...."could be Lauderdale's byword. As a representative of the Old Guard he is a prime target for the left wing Labour M.P. on a "fact - finding" mission,i.e.seeking to confirm her prejudices.Miss Flora Robson has her part down pat as the knee - jerk bomb - banner,fellow - traveller,a type that flourished in the Wilson government. Despite the august presence of Mr Jack Hawkins as the senior officer,it is Lauderdale who holds things together. Attenborough never sounds a wrong note in the whole movie.It is a performance richly deserving of its BAFTA. Mr John Leyton,a pop singer of the time appears in a small role that did not presage a hugely successful career in movies.His love interest,Miss Mia Farrow,hot on the heels of the TV series "Peyton Place" on the other hand,was destined for greater things. Colonialism is of course now a dirty word and Commonwealth a meaningless one clung to by few outside Buckingham Palace and Whitehall. That the British Army is as effective as it is today is the legacy of men like Regimental Sergeant Major Lauderdale who soldiered selflessly to protect whatever the government of the day considered to be the best interests of the country.His was not to reason why.

I enjoyed this film considerably. The production values were nice, the acting good, and it had a good sense of humor I wasn't expecting. The Sergeant Major's character was obviously clichéd, but they rounded him out enough to save him from being a mediocre character. There are some really nice touches in the script, and many of them are humorous. I though that the wounded captain's collapse just as he's giving himself up to his African countrymen is a bit coincidental, but dramatically speaking, he needs to be kept in the mess hall. And for what it's worth, and although I've never been a big fan of hers, Mia Farrow has never looked hotter.