GUY X

Canada/Iceland/UK, 2005, 101 minutes, Colour.
Jason Biggs, Jeremy Northam, Natasha Mc Elhone, Michael Ironside.
Directed by Saul Metzstein.

Decades after M*A*S*H and Catch 22, we think we are used to satire on the American military, but this one takes us somewhat by surprise. It looks as if it is serious. It opens with a young man being dropped in Greenland for a tour of duty. But there is something askew. He is dropped from the plane which takes off – and then we find he should be in Hawaii and authority will not accept he is who he is. And what is going on in this base – in Greenland? We are in Catch 22 territory.

The original novel by John Griesemer is called No One Thinks of Greenland. That should give some clues and tone.

The base is filled with eccentrics and misfits – and holds a very dark secret which makes the latter part of the film and the destruction of the base all the more sinister in the light of American troops and the war in Iraq and the wounded and the veterans.

The cast is also unusual. Jason Biggs has grown out of American Pie films and has appeared with Woody Allen in Anything Else. Here he has to hold interest as the centre of the film, which he does well. Jeremy Northam sporting a broad American accent is the commandant. Natascha Mc Elhone is his assistant who gets caught up with our hero. Michael Ironside the veteran of so many action films has a very different role as a maimed and wounded patient.

The trouble after Catch 22 and M*A*S*H is that what seems patently absurd up there on the screen is replicated at times in real life – and that isn’t funny. Which is, probably, the point of the film.

1. The title, the focus? The book title and No One Thinks of Greenland?

2. A military satire, in the tradition of M*A*S*H, Catch 22? The development of this kind of satire by the 1990s?

3. The Greenland setting, geography, weather? The army base? The islandt? The hospital, the interiors, secret world? The musical score?

4. Rudy in himself, in the military, his experience, dropped in Greenland, the mistake, not Honolulu? His response, trying to explain to the authorities, to Woolwrap, no explanations accepted? His having to stay, his tasks? The paper, editing it, the propaganda? His reaction? The absurdity of the situations?

5. The other men at the base, offices, soldiers, the way of life, the management, the mission of guarding?

6. Woolwrap, in command, mad intensity, his orders, his relationship with Irene, his reaction to Rudy, giving him orders, the paper, his intentions? The discovery of the hospital, the soldiers, his mission – to what purpose? Rudy confronting him?

7. The soldiers, the Vietnam experience, the injuries, physical, psychological? Prosthetics? The experiment? Rudy and his interaction with the soldiers, the discoveries? Guy X and his injuries, character, communication with Jason? The importance of the conversations at the effect of Rudy and his wanting to unravel the truth?

8. Irene, her character, place of the base, her work, with Woolwrap, with Rudy, his attraction? The consequences?

9. The film as a satiric experience?