Sword of Honour (2001) (TV)

Calificación de los usuarios:

6.6/10   

Director:

Bill Anderson

Escritores:

William Boyd (writer)
Evelyn Waugh (novel)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

2 enero 2001 (UK)

Género:

Drama | Guerra

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Premios:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Comentarios de los usuarios:

A gloomy war for Waugh

Reparto

Will Adamsdale	...	HOO headquarters officer
Nick Bartlett	...	Popforce soldier
Christopher Benjamin	...	Doctor
Jane Bertish	...	Mme Kanyi
Peter Blythe	...	Gen. Graves
Nicholas Boulton	...	Bertie
Monica Brady	...	Hotel receptionist
Tim Briggs	...	Sgt. Glass
Selina Cadell	...	Angela Crouchback
Rebecca Cardinale	...	Italian woman
Katrin Cartlidge	...	Julia Stitch
Simon Chandler	...	Maj. Irvine
Josh Cole	...	Sapper Capt. Beech
Richard Coyle	...	Trimmer McTavish
Daniel Craig	...	Guy Crouchback
Graham Crammond	...	Bellamy's barman
Abigail Cruttenden	...	Kerstie Kilbannock
Robert Daws	...	Maj. Hound
Megan Dodds	...	Virginia
Christoph Dostal	...	Blackshirt #1
Dan Fredenburgh	...	Radio operator
Pier Gardini	...	Blackshirt #2
Adam Godley	...	Apthorpe
Peter Gunn	...	Sgt. Tozer
Patrick Hannaway	...	Drill sergeant
Barry Harrison	...	Squad Sergeant
Guy Henry	...	Ludovic
William Hope	...	General Clayton
Richard Huw	...	Captain Fremantle
James Innes-Smith	...	Landslide Lieutenant (as James Innes Smith)
Sidney Kean	...	Capo blackshirt
Chris Lennard	...	Dakar Beach soldier
Joseph Long	...	Italian priest
Nick Lucas	...	Halberdier lecturer
Clunie Mackenzie	...	Mrs. Tickeridge
Stephen Mangan	...	Frank De Souza
Ivan Marevich	...	Bakic
Lloyd McGuire	...	Mugging victim (as Lloyd Maguire)
Sean McKenzie	...	Sgt. Smiley
Oliver Montgomery	...	Sergeant Woods
Euan Morton	...	Wounded Soldier
Ruaraidh Murray	...	Messenger
Richard Norton	...	Australian sergeant
Robert Paterson	...	Stratton concierge
Edward Petherbridge	...	Perigrin Crouchback
Leslie Phillips	...	Gervase Crouchback
Robert Pugh	...	Brig. Ritchie-Hook
Nick Reding	...	Squadron Leader Cape
Julian Rhind-Tutt	...	Ian Kilbannock
Serge Soric	...	Partisan General
Yuri Stepanov	...	Partisan Minister
Craig Stokes	...	Destroyer nurse
Malcolm Storry	...	Maj. Tickeridge
Geoffrey Streatfield	...	Eddie
Rafferty Tellett	...	Little Gervase
Rupert Vansittart	...	Commander-in-Chief
Mark Wakeling	...	Halberdier sergeant
Damian Warren	...	Australian Sergeant
James Weber-Brown	...	Tommy Blackhouse
Simon Williams	...	Maj. Sprat
Tom Wisdom	...	Ivor Claire

También conocida como:

En busca del honor (Argentina) (DVD title) [es]

Duración:

191 min (2 parts)

País:

UK

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color

Sonido:

Stereo

Clasificación:

Argentina:13 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Australia:M | UK:15

Compañía:

TalkBack Productions

Conexiones de Película:

Version of "Sword of Honour" (1967)

A gloomy war for Waugh

Once again a substantial literary work (3 novels) has been shoehorned into 200 minutes or so of television but this time without the gross omissions that usually occur in exercises of this kind. Partly this is because of the fair amount of action which takes up a lot of literary space but which can be economically depicted on the screen.

Evelyn Waugh had a pretty scrappy Second World War, but he used his illegally kept diary to good effect. His semi-autobiographical hero, Guy Crouchback goes into what he thinks is a God - ordained crusade against evil, only to discover that the war is the ideal environment for liars, cheats, cowards and phonies of all varieties. His egregious acquaintance Trimmer becomes a war hero by accident and is promoted to Colonel. The evil Corporal Ludovic who murders his C O gets commissioned while good men die everywhere. Every attempted noble act by Guy misfires, and only at the end does he finally achieve some nobility as the putative father of Trimmer's child.

Guy's position is not helped by the fact that his once and later wife Virginia (Megan Dodds) is a vain little tramp who uses men so obviously it's a wonder they are taken in. Guy's emotional IQ is so low he manages to fall for her twice. Well, perhaps the second time around he was after some nice redeeming suffering - he did have some insight - but in retrospect Virginia's demise seems a blessed relief.

Generally though, this was a decent effort. Highlights included the Crete and Croatian sequences and the great portrayals of Ludovic, Major Hound and Brigadier Ritchie-Hook the truly crazy brave military idiot, who was at least able to admit that he enjoyed all that killing'n stuff. Daniel Craig's Guy is also a very measured performance. He has a face on which one can read inner suffering like one reads a weather dial. It was also nice to see that perennial lightweight Leslie Phillips (of 'Carry On' fame) bringing some gravitas to the role of Guy's aristocratic father.

I haven't read the books in this case, but if the portrayal of Mrs Stitch, the society grand dame in the production is anything like that in the trilogy it's a wonder Lady Diana Cooper, who was still alive when they were published, didn't sue. Lady Diana is thought to be the real-life model for the character, who cheats on her absent husband with a young war hero, destroys Guy's mail and pulls strings to get him transferred back to England so he can't blow the gaff on what her 'hero' really did in Crete (desertion).

Anyway, I am now inspired to read the books, which on previous experience should be no hardship. Evelyn Waugh was an intriguing character who started out as an angry young literary man in the 1920s and finished up a reactionary old fart in the 1960s, his time long gone. Yet he was one of the greatest English literary stylists of the 20th century, equally adept at satire ('Decline and Fall', 'Scoop') and serious work ('Brideshead Revisited', Sword of Honour'). This production suitably honours his memory and isn't a bad bit of television in its own right.