King Rat

Hard to get more kino than this.

5* adaptation of a 4* book. As much as I liked the book, I felt that it wandered around too many topics. The film focuses simply on the principal issue.Other POW camp films tend to show the theory. Rank is respected and a sense of collegiality amongst the prisoners predominates. This version shows a distressingly credible breakdown of that theory. With a lack of scruple and a remarkable talent for trade, a mere corporal establishes a plutocracy within the camp. He buys loyalty and support from senior officers downwards.Corruption is also shown among the senior officers, who have been stealing from the desperately short supplies of food made available to the prisoners. The fanatically correct junior officer who uncovers this is frustrated in his attempts to expose it.The shock of the prisoners when they realise that the war is over is wonderfully conveyed.This is a harrowing film. One would so much like to believe in the theory, but the practice illustrated here seems all too real.

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.

This WWII prison camp drama set in the steaming Burmese jungle is a metaphor for the horrors of World War II and features what is easily George Segal's best dramatic performance, an even better one by James Fox, and lean, taut direction from Bryan Forbes. It also offers many insights on the British class system and takes a very grimly pessimistic view of the human condition. There is some humor but it is black and somewhat sadistic in nature. Segal's con artist extrodinaire Sergeant King is the dark side of Segeant Bilko and he employs bitter cynicism as opposed to wisecracking humor of Phil Silvers. It is based on a novel by James Clavell, and is a better film, if not more entertaining than the author's "The Great Escape," which was released a couple of years prior to "Rat." With the exception of Segal, the British cast members greatly outshine their American counterparts. Tom Courtenay, the always wonderful Denholm Elliott, John Mills, Gerald Sim, Leonard Rossiter, and Alan Webb all contribute memorable characterizations, but by far the best is James Donald as the compassionate, humane camp doctor, practically reprising his role of eight years earlier in "Bridge on the Rver Kwai' also set in a Burmese prison camp.

Enough has been said about this astonishing, seemingly forgotten movie in the other reviews. I saw it as a pre-teen when it was first released and it left a powerful impression on me. I did not see it again until I ordered it from Amazon over 40 years later. My wife had never seen the movie and her comment at the end was a simple "wow."The Combat Classics keepcase may be in color but the movie is the original B&W.You may be wondering how the movie looks on an HD system. It looks incredible. Shot in a screen filling 1.85:1 format the images on a Blu-ray player with DVD enhancing technology are almost Blu-ray perfect. The sharp shadows and lighting details are flawless, giving dramatic harshness to the intolerable conditions in the POW camp. Well deserved, the movie did receive Academy Award nominations for B&W Cinematography and for B&W Art-Direction/Set Direction."King Rat" is a movie that should be a favorite among B&W film fans, not only for the cinematography but for the compelling psychological drama that occurs in the camp's characters. Since it receives no cable or broadcast air time it's up to fans of this forgotten movie to spread the word again.

This is a great film. As it points out in the beginning, it is a POW story which is not about escaping: it is about survival. I read the book on which it is based many years ago and, as far as I can remember, the film is pretty faithful to it. It is character driven and aptly conveys the squalor and deprivation of the prison camp without laying it on with a trowel and it is also laced with black humour. Were it to be made again today I think the humanity would be lost in a welter of 'gritty realism' and foul language. As it is, it makes you more likely to concentrate on how people behave in such extreme circumstances. Morality is turned on its head. The most upright character is perhaps the least likeable and you can't help having a sneaking admiration for the out and out rogue. This is a film well worth watching.

Super wartime drama -set in a Japanese p.o.w camp with George Segal in one of his best roles was a American prisoner deterred to survive by any means available- black marketeering,, bribery etc. He is countered by a great performance by Tom Courtney as a by-yhe-book sergeant who is determined to bring the "king Rat to book. one of the best movies of its time written and directed by Brian Forbes from the book by James Clavel. cast members includeJohn mills and Denholm Elliot- A truly remarkable effort and very collectable.

Great book and one that is difficult to put down once started. This book isn't so much about the brutality of the Japanese rather the politics and power struggles within a very large prison camp where almost everything revolves around food and a man's ability to get it. It is fascinating to read how the various characters adapt in very different ways to their awful environment where Military rank has little meaning, and only the most cunning intelligent and adaptable survive.

I saw this film on its release many years ago when I was comparatively young. The fact of my youth probably contributed to the abiding memory of the anarchic spirit and somewhat intimidating character played by George Segal. The theme of the film is that of survival and Segal's character achieves this with style and aplomb in the most terrible of circumstances in a POW camp. His character clearly believes that the best way to survive is to wheel and deal and to exploit everything and everybody. It seems a clear parallel of how to survive in a competitive corporate world. The film has some stunning scenes which emphasise the differences between those who know how to cope with life's challenges and those beyond help. The filmwork also utilises some unusual tricks to add to the effect. The film is shot in black and white and this supports the starkness of the theme. A classic

The fact that this film is made in black and white seems to add to the grim reality of a Japanese prisoner of war camp. The whole story is gripping from start to finish. Really worth seeing.