For Queen & Country (1988)

Instant Favorite.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The front of the DVD case for the movie "For Queen & Country", plus what is written on the back of the DVD case, all suggest that this movie is some kind of revenge action/thriller. But that is not the case at all. For the most part, it's actually a kind of downbeat drama, illustrating the case of an individual (Denzel Washington) who little by little finds out that the country he has faithfully served has little to no use for him once he's outside the service. Though the movie is downbeat, it does remain interesting throughout, despite the fact that the story progresses at a very slow pace for the most part. (Also, you can see that this movie might possibly have planted the seed for the later Michael Caine movie "Harry Brown".) Washington is pretty good, and the supporting players also give solid performances. Just don't sit down to watch the movie if you are in a mood for an action thriller, however.

This film is a harsh reality of life after the army. The British Paras are an elite fighting force, but they are there to kill the enemy. You don't really have a trade when you leave, except how to jump out of planes & kill. However, the British Army today has an excellent support sytem, unlike the mid 1980s when this film was set. This is highlighted in the movie as we see Reuben returning after leaving the Paras, during which he did a tour in Northern Ireland and fought in the 1982 Falklands war. We see him struggling to get any meaningful employment until he links up with a criminal friend. His mate Fish, who was wounded in the Falklands, is living on disability allowance, and is suffering too, being in a wheelchair. It is a sad, gritty look at life at the lower end of the scale in a run-down urban council estate in London. Having served his country with pride as a British paratrooper, he is left with nothing except the prospect of drifting into crime.

I really didn't know what to expect when some friends and I hired this DVD. Denzel Washington plays Rueben James, a retired English Paratrooper, returning home to the housing estate he grew up in as a child. Here he finds that not much has changed since he left about 10 years beforehand. Many of Rueben's friends are still involved in 'less than legal' occupations, and the poverty and wretchedness of the estate seems even worse than when he lived there before. He needs to decide just where he fits in back home, and what direction his life will take. Despite trying to make a new life for himself, obstacles from past and present seem to always get in the way. While I did find this movie slow paced, it captured the dismal feel of this community excellently. It also avoided using simplistic general stereotypes (for example, police are portrayed both in a very positive and very negative light). I would recommend this movie if you're in the mood for a bit of gritty realism, but don't expect to feel particularly upbeat afterward!

The first time I saw this film was back in the early Nineties, and I hadn't really heard of Denzel Washington either, therefore I presumed I was watching a low budget film about a Falklands Veteran returning to life in Civvy Street.What I actually got was an eye opener about Life within Her Majesty's Armed Forces versus Life on the outside. Reuben, having been discharged from 2 Para, returns to London after a tour of duty in Northern Ireland and the Falklands, where he was decorated as a war Hero. However, given his vocation to his country, he finds interviews for jobs surprisingly difficult to arrange, even though they were sorted out by his careers officers in the army. Within time, he realises his illustrious army record holds no sway in everyday life.This film makes you realise how easy it is to fall into the criminal side of life as Reuben becomes a body guard to a drug dealer. The ending is as grim as his life has become, therefore don't expect a smart, streetwise, cocky character to race through the film avoiding trouble. This is a Gritty urban Drama. I felt that as you watch Reuben's hopes for the future fade away, there truly is no justice for the little man.Washington's British accent is impeccable, you would believe he was born, and lived his life in Milwall or Bermondsey. I read an interview that he learnt the native accent by getting drunk for a fortnight in London.