FOR QUEEN AND COUNTRY

UK, 1988, 105 minutes, Colour.
Denzel Washington, Amanda Redman, Bruce Payne.
Directed by Martin Stellman.

For Queen and Country is the directing debut of Martin Stellman, co-writer of this film and writer of the very interesting nuclear, journalist, cover-up conspiracy thriller, Defence of the Realm, directed by David Drury (1985).

This is a portrait of the ugly side of Thatcher England in the '80s. Denzel Washington portrays a West Indian British citizen who has served in Ireland, the Falklands, Africa and Central America who returns back to England with no prospects. Even under the 1981 British Nationality Act, those born in St Lucia? are no longer considered British citizens. He wanders squalid city landscapes, encounters racist police, drug-dealing, terrorist bomb-making, petty thievery. He becomes involved as a bodyguard for a drug deal. In the meantime, he meets a sympathetic woman whose daughter has been involved in robberies. There is a possibility of friendship and love - and making some future. However, with the combination of his friend going berserk, the lack of prospects for employment, the pressure by the police, he gives information to the police which builds up to a violent showdown and his death. The film is grimly pessimistic.

Denzel Washington brings dignity and strength to his performance. The rest of the cast is not well known except for George Baker as a more sympathetic detective.

Small budget, intensely felt, perhaps a jaundiced look at Thatcher England - but a strong critique.

1. Impact of the film? Drama? Social comment? Pessimism?

2. Small-budget production, a slice of British life in the '80s? The background of the Irish troubles, Kenya, the Falklands? East London as a new war zone? Location photography, the slums of the east? Style of film: darkness, shadows, ugliness, landscapes, human isolation? Editing and pace? Effects and stunts? The atmospheric score?

3. The title and its irony, especially for Reuben? For all soldiers? The quotation from Cromwell about his soldiers? The 1980s and England?

4. Denzel Washington as Reuben: how persuasive? Credible West Indian in London? The background in Ireland, the heroics, the rescue? The Falklands and action? Drinking in Ireland, the ambush, the shooting, the reliance on Fish?

5. 1988 and his discharge, his background, hooligan, transformed by military service? His hopes? British citizenship, birth in St Lucia. The changing of the laws in 1981? His passport, the bureaucracy, the frustrating visits, using his army connections and not being understood? The final resolution of the bureaucracy and his passport?

6. His flat, dinginess, settling in, making it his own? Making contacts for jobs? No possibilities? Visiting Fish and establishing friendship? The Estate and its ugliness, the building, slums? The pub? Robberies and stealing? Aimlessness? The racism? The police and their brutality, harassment?

7. Reuben and his past, racial issues, the army, the possibilities? Depression? Army buddies? Meeting Stacy after the episode with Haley? Enjoying her company, out? The fair? Witnessing the concrete dropping and the death of the policeman? Silence? The frustration, the police wanting information? Stolen goods? His decision to be the bodyguard for the drug transaction, his behaviour, caution? The arrest and his breaking of the contract? The pressure by Kilcoyne? Linford, the deals, the making of the bombs in the tunnel? The confrontation with Fish, trying to get him to go to St Lucia? The attack of Linford, the gun, Fish talking him into giving up the gun, his death, shot by the bigoted policeman? Bob, the army marksman, shooting Reuben? Hopelessness?

8. Fish, his injuries, the background in Ireland, his pregnant wife, his leg, his angers and his drinking, remembering, the bond with Reuben, the collectors and the thugs, the night with the girl? His wife and the birth? Her leaving? His angers, the final confrontation, his death? Trapped in London?

9. Colin, friendship with Reuben, their talks, job prospects, contacts, the possibility of working as a bodyguard, the drugs and the protection? The people involved in the drug deal, the restaurant and the toilets? The Indian's arrest?

10. The atmosphere of crime on the Estate, the pub, the kids robbing the gangs, the stolen goods, the making of the bombs?

11. The picture of the police, Challoner and his racism, harassing Reuben? The interrogations? The final confrontation and Reuben killing him?

12. Kilcoyne, decent, the question of harassment, law and order, trying to get information, surveillance, the questions of Reuben and Stacy? Keeping up the pressure, Reuben finally giving him the information?

13. Stacy and Haley on the Estate, the encounters, the friendship, the outings, Reuben telling the truth, their being harassed, refusing to give evidence? Stacy and the story of her husband and the guns?

14. Images of Thatcher England, poverty, inequality, racism, loss of opportunity? Elitism? Military, drugs and bombs? Reuben's death and the hopelessness?