Another Country (1984)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Marek Kanievska

Writer:

Julian Mitchell (play)

Release Date:

June 1984 (UK)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

The smash hit London play now a big screen event . . . not to be missed! [Australia theatrical]

Plot:

Based on the life of the young Guy Burgess, who would become better known as one of the Cambridge Spies.

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Communist | 1930s | Scandal | British Army

Awards:

Nominated for 3 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Rupert Everett	...	Guy Bennett
Colin Firth	...	Tommy Judd
Michael Jenn	...	Barclay
Robert Addie	...	Delahay
Rupert Wainwright	...	Donald Devenish
Tristan Oliver	...	Fowler
Cary Elwes	...	James Harcourt
Frederick Alexander	...	Jim Menzies
Adrian Ross Magenty	...	Wharton
Geoffrey Bateman	...	Yevgeni
Philip Dupuy	...	Martineau
Guy Henry	...	Head Boy
Jeffrey Wickham	...	Arthur
John Line	...	Best Man
Gideon Boulting	...	Trafford

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Althorp House, Althorp, Northamptonshire, England, UK

Company:

Castlezone

Trivia:

Eton College reportedly declined to allow filming at the school.

Quotes:

Tommy Judd: You know... What I really hate about cricket, is that it is such a damned good game.
Guy Bennett: Ah! Judd's Paradox. Of course, cricket is a fundamental part of the capitalist conspiracy.
Tommy Judd: Of course.
Guy Bennett: One only has to observe the two of them seen. There's the Proletariat forced to labour in the field, while the Bourgeoisie indulges in the pleasures of batting and bowling.
Tommy Judd: Quite.
Guy Bennett: I mean, there's every reason to suppose
[pause]
Guy Bennett: ... that the game ultimately derives from the wholly unjustified right of the medieval lord to the unpaid labour of villains and serfs at haymaking and harvest.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Schau mir in die Augen, Kleiner (2007)

The Etiology of Rebellion

In 1983 Julian Mitchell wrote a play based on fact about a young man (Guy Bennett) who, seeing the constraints of British society circa 1930, embraces his sexuality in a time when even the words were criminal, sees through the sad folly of the British class and empire system, and eventually abandons England to become a spy for Russia. The played starred a young 21-year-old Rupert Everett and a 20-year-old Kenneth Branagh as Guy's heterosexual roommate Tommy Judd, an obsessed Marxist as ready to leap out of the norm of British society as Guy - but for different reasons. Director Marek Kanievska adapted Mitchell's challenging play for the screen, and in 1984 ANOTHER COUNTRY became a sterling recreation of the play and a controversial film introducing the extraordinarily talented and continuingly popular Rupert Everett (who remains one of the few 'out' actors enjoying success in Hollywood). Colin Firth assumed the role of Tommy and Cary Elwes became the gay love interest for Everett's Guy Bennett. The film is one of the finest examinations of the rigid, archaically proper British schools for young men (Eton) where class is paramount in importance, rank reigns, and medieval views of sexuality and out of line thought are treated with public corporal punishment and (worst of all!) the inability to rise in the ranks of the 'important' lads. Throughout the film there is a powerful parallel between Guy's striving to become the head of the class being thwarted by his pursuing is passion for his love of men, and the 'religious zeal' approach of Tommy's absorption in Marxism, seeing Communism as the only way to correct the 'vile sickness' of current British politics and social strata. The undercurrents of bigotry are brought into focus when a fine young lad (Martineau) is caught in a sexual act with one of his classmates and is shamed into hanging himself. And when Guy's sexual tryst with James Harcourt is 'discovered', Guy is beaten in front of his compatriots, prompting him to see (with Tommy in agreement) the dead-end of British society and leave the remnants of a once glorious empire behind.

As a delightful Special Feature on this very well made DVD there is a scene from the stage production in the year prior to the film, and the dialogue between Rupert Everett and Kenneth Branagh is incisive and brilliant. This film is a masterpiece, not only in the screenplay, but also in the sensitive direction, the exquisite cinematography, and the amazingly superb acting of not only Everett and Firth, but of the entire large cast. An absolutely brilliant film.