The High Bright Sun (1964)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Ralph Thomas

Writers:

Ian Stuart Black (novel)
Ian Stuart Black (screenplay)

Release Date:

November 1964 (UK)

Genre:

War | Adventure

Plot Keywords:

Colonial War | Greece | Based On Novel | Independent Film

Cast

Dirk Bogarde	...	Maj. McGuire
George Chakiris	...	Haghios
Susan Strasberg	...	Juno Kozani
Denholm Elliott	...	Baker
Grégoire Aslan	...	Gen. Stavros Skyros
Colin Campbell	...	Emile Andros
Joseph Fürst	...	Dr. Andros
Katherine Kath	...	Mrs. Andros
George Pastell	...	Prinos
Paul Stassino	...	Alkis
Nigel Stock	...	Col. Park
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Larry Taylor

Also Known As:

A Date with Death (USA) (video title)
McGuire, Go Home! (USA)

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (video rating) | UK:A

Filming Locations:

Manfredonia, Foggia, Apulia, Italy

Company:

Rank Organisation, The

Conflicting loyalties make for tough love between soldier & civilian in Cyprus.

Something of a romantic potboiler but strongly redeemed by two factors which stamp it as a thoroughly British rather than a Hollywood production. First, the gritty realism of its portrayal of the Cypriot independence struggle against British military rule in the 1950s. Second, its warts-and-all portrayal of everyday relationships and behaviour, instead of the typical Hollywood sanitized morality of the era.

All you need to know about Cyprus is that the locals ran a successful guerilla war against British rule in the 1950s. Against that background, the movie sets up a tangle of love and conflicting loyalties for a British officer and a beautiful Cypriot-American visitor, which generates plenty of action, suspense and tough moral choices. The characters are portrayed with refreshing realism - a few four and seven letter words pepper the script along with references to rape, divorce, alcoholism and extra-marital sex, which would have been fairly shocking for the era and probably even when the movie was made in the 1960s.

Despite a few improbable aspects of the plot (eg the officer lives in an unguarded apartment in town where his security is always at risk), the overall result is a convincingly bold, brassy, in-your-face portrayal of life and love in the middle of a dirty war - and a moderately good thriller into the bargain.