Entertainment fit for a King!
Added 9/17/2009
I have always found this story fascinating from the first time I saw this film many years ago. The amazing thing is that the movie holds up so well over the years and still plays so well, showing men enduring the worst of times and finding unexpected things within themselves. The era of WWII simply fascinates me because of the heights and depths man can attain. It was a time of incredible cruelty and amazing courage and both are seen in this story. George Segal was primarily a television actor prior to 1965 although he had appeared in several films including "The Longest Day" but this was his first leading role. He is stellar in every respect in a performance worthy of an Oscar nomination, though he wasn't nominated until 1967 for "Virginia Woolf". The rest of the main cast is British and is uniformly excellent...Tom Courtenay, James Fox, John Mills, and James Donald who played a doctor in just about every British war film of the 50's and 60's. The book was written by James Clavell based on some of his wartime experiences and the film wisely follows the book closely. Director Bryan Forbes also wrote the screenplay and did a great job. John Barry shows his excellent musical skills again with a brooding score. TV fans will delight in seeing Richard Dawson in a dramatic role for a change (he's quite good too).
This may be a war film but it isn't about combat. It's about survival, as the opening of the movie tells you, and Segal's Corporal King is great to watch as he lives by his street smarts and thrives. This is compelling drama and one of my favorite films.
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The film is as good as we remembered; however, some key and humorous scenes have been deleted which detracted from our overall enjoyment.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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A good movie and very well acted. I never even knew that this movie existed until I saw it at the grocery store in the DVD section. The only issue I have wit this movie is that it went a little too slow for my taste. Other then that, a keeper.
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Survival under unthinkably brutal conditions
Added 4/13/2008
"King Rat" is a faithful rendition of James Clavell's fine novel of the same name. British soldiers (with a sprinkling of American Gis among them) in Singapore were ordered to surrender, and were placed by the Japanese in the Chinga prison camp. The Japanese completely disrespected the Geneva Convention, and conditions in the camp quickly deteriorated to a very low order of existence in which one's daily caloric intake was at a starvation level, sanitation was nonexistent, and the level of brutality by the Japanese against the Allied prisoners was unconscionable.
Within the camp, an American corporal, against all odds, has managed, through his savvy, intelligence, and trading prowess, to survive and thrive. He has the officers in the camp on his "payroll" and he seeks to survive by pitting his wits against the Japanese, the officers in the camp, and his fellow prisoners. "Corporal King" ("the King") comes to dominate the camp, and this is the story of his struggle.
And a great story it is. George Segal is unforgettable as Corporal King. This is an engaging film that deserves more recognition than it has received. Highly recommended.
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Classic POW film
Added 2/5/2008
This film made a tremendous impact on me when I saw it as a young adult. Many years later, I saw the film again, and it held up quite well. I would rank it with All Quiet on the Western Front as a war movie, although of a different sort. The impressive cast is superb in their roles, and George Segal is outstanding in the lead role of the opportunistic and roguish wheeler/dealer, especially since he was a comparative unknown at the time. In this movie, there are few uplifting lessons to be gleaned amidst the interminable ennui and misery of prison camp life, in contrast to The Bridge Over the River Kwai, with which it shares some similarities. But in the latter movie, the prisoners triumph through sheer discipline, hard work, and stiff-upper-lip stoicality (to coin a horrible neologism, but I couldn't think of any other way to put it) over their power-crazed, cruel, venal, and lazier Japanese captors, in contrast to King Rat, where all we have are the ignoble oppressors and the miserable oppressed, and the brutal reality of prison camp life is omnipresent. Overall, one of the best POW movies and one which presaged Clavell's later and even greater success with the miniseries, Shogun.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Entertainment fit for a King!
Added 9/17/2009
I have always found this story fascinating from the first time I saw this film many years ago. The amazing thing is that the movie holds up so well over the years and still plays so well, showing men enduring the worst of times and finding unexpected things within themselves. The era of WWII simply fascinates me because of the heights and depths man can attain. It was a time of incredible cruelty and amazing courage and both are seen in this story. George Segal was primarily a television actor prior to 1965 although he had appeared in several films including "The Longest Day" but this was his first leading role. He is stellar in every respect in a performance worthy of an Oscar nomination, though he wasn't nominated until 1967 for "Virginia Woolf". The rest of the main cast is British and is uniformly excellent...Tom Courtenay, James Fox, John Mills, and James Donald who played a doctor in just about every British war film of the 50's and 60's. The book was written by James Clavell based on some of his wartime experiences and the film wisely follows the book closely. Director Bryan Forbes also wrote the screenplay and did a great job. John Barry shows his excellent musical skills again with a brooding score. TV fans will delight in seeing Richard Dawson in a dramatic role for a change (he's quite good too).
This may be a war film but it isn't about combat. It's about survival, as the opening of the movie tells you, and Segal's Corporal King is great to watch as he lives by his street smarts and thrives. This is compelling drama and one of my favorite films.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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The film is as good as we remembered; however, some key and humorous scenes have been deleted which detracted from our overall enjoyment.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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A good movie and very well acted. I never even knew that this movie existed until I saw it at the grocery store in the DVD section. The only issue I have wit this movie is that it went a little too slow for my taste. Other then that, a keeper.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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