King And Country

This brutally frank, thoughtful anti-war tract contains no battle scenes and little gunfire. Bogarde is a British captain assigned to defend a slow-witted soldier, Courtenay, who has been accused of desertion. Highly educated and a strict military disciplinarian, Bogarde approaches this assignment with distaste. Consequently, he accepts his superior's expedient suggestion that he ignore Courtenay's shell-shocked state and push for a quick conviction. While interviewing his client, Bogarde learns that Courtenay enlisted in the army on a dare from friends. Three years later, the uneducated soldier--having learned of his wife's infidelity and emerging from a battle as...