Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Rupert Everett | ... | Guy Bennett | |
Colin Firth | ... | Tommy Judd | |
Michael Jenn | ... | Barclay | |
Robert Addie | ... | Delahay | |
Rupert Wainwright | ... | Devenish | |
Tristan Oliver | ... | Fowler | |
Cary Elwes | ... | Harcourt | |
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Frederick Alexander | ... | Menzies |
Adrian Ross Magenty | ... | Wharton | |
Geoffrey Bateman | ... | Yevgeni | |
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Phillip Dupuy | ... | Martineau |
Guy Henry | ... | Head Boy | |
Jeffry Wickham | ... | Arthur (as Jeffrey Wickham) | |
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John Line | ... | Best Man |
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Gideon Boulting | ... | Trafford |
Based on the award winning play by Julian Mitchell, the film explores the effect of Public School life in the 1930's on Guy Burgess as his homosexuality and unwillingness to "play the game" turns him eastwards towards communist Russia. Written by Craig Wood <cew@jiffi.demon.co.uk>
I saw this movie again the other day and am impressed at how well it has held up. Though it's a little hard to follow the arcane hierarchies of 1930s British public school life, that is precisely the point-- these people are suffocating in the meaningless rituals of their class. Rupert Everett and Colin Firth give outstanding performances as the openly gay and communist members of their school, and the unfolding of the relationship between Everett and Cary Elwes is some of the most romantic footage I've ever seen. Though very few of us live in such a stratified social climate these days, we would do well to understand the webs of hierarchy and ritual that bind us all in one way or another.