Un caïd

I saw "King Rat" on television shortly before going to Vietnam. A few months later I was reading the James Clavell novel while serving on DaNang Air Base with air force communications intelligence. It struck me that this book and this movie, which was "researched" by James Clavell when he was a POW in a camp near Singapore during World War II, have the real feel of what it is to be surrounded by enemy forces one almost never sees while being kept isolated on a hot, humid, dusty encampment It's an environment that brings out the best and the worst in mankind. The novel, the movie, and my own war zone experience also point out that adapting to a war zone and mastering the skills that enable one to survive and even prosper there do not necessarily mean that the individual will subsequently be adaptable to "civilization" when he returns to it. The novel, the movie, and my own experiences also raise the questions that are raised in "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" (and even in "Rambo" for that matter): Which is more of a challenge and which is the "real" life: adapting to the war zone as a youth or the expectations by "civilization" that you readjust to life back in "the world" as if nothing had happened?

We all wonder what happens when we die, this movie is about what happens when we live at any cost, put in the context of a Japanese prison of war camp in WWII. A serious film with enough action to keep it alive while delivering a message. You won't be bored.

George Segal plays his greatest role, tough, smart, without shame. How he became a banjo player I don't know. (jmho)

It has always bothered me that King Rat is so underrated. On one list of top the thousand films in history, it gets no mention. I think it's because George Segal's character, Corporal King wasn't a totally likable person. He is not the standard Hollywood hero. But he is a hero of mine. Were I in that prison camp, I guarantee you, I would have been Corporal King's best friend. One thing I learned in life was how to survive, and everyone around Corporal King survived. The movie misses a very important point that was in James Clavell's novel on which it is based. In case the war turned bad for the Japanese and they started taking revenge on the prisoners, King had planned an escape route. Not just for himself, for everyone close to him. Put that in the film and you've got a major American hero. The movie is totally cliché free. One never knows where it is going or how it is going to end. Winning the war, you see, will not guarantee the safety of the prisoners. How it ends is perfectly logical in retrospect, but difficult to predict. It is a near perfect motion picture.

King Rat is the oddball among James Clavellfs novels, but in my opinion is the best story. The stage is a Japanese Prisoner of War camp where allied officers are forced to literally eat dirt. The horrors of these camps are well documented and in Forbes adaptation of the book little is left to our imagination. That is not to say this is a vividly violent film. It most certainly is not, nor does it need to be as the sheer look of these poor wretched creatures is vivid enough.

While the backdrop is a prison camp, this is not a war movie. It is a tale of humanity and suffering. It centres around one character played brilliantly by Segal, who when outside the barbed wire fences is an ordinary corporal, while inside he is king. He shows ingenuity in obtaining supplies and living well while those around him starve. Soon the high-ranking officers are calling his shots and hence the title King Rat. The movie shows how far man will go, how much pride he can eat and how much dignity he can lose to survive.

The final scene when the prisoners are liberated could have been stronger but you have to realize the date the film was made. Even so, the look of disappointment on Corporal Kingfs face contrasting with the delight of the freed prisoners is quite incredible. An excellent film, highly recommended.

I don't know exactly what I expected from "King Rat," but what I got definitely wasn't it, and I liked what I got much more than whatever it was I thought I was going to get.

I guess I thought "King Rat" was going to be something along the lines of "Stalag 17," a serious story in a serious setting, but with a buddy movie vibe and a lot of comedy thrown in. That is most certainly NOT what this movie is. "King Rat" is instead a bleak, haunting, and rather strange film about the simple act of survival in a Japanese prisoner camp during the last days of WWII. It's episodic in nature, detailing one grueling incident after another. It explores the degree to which imprisoned military men will impose a hierarchy one way or another, one that either does or doesn't always match the hierarchy of their military lives when free men. For example, at the top of the pecking order in this prison camp is George Segal, the eponymous king rat, who will stop at nothing to ensure his own comfort and who's an object of awe and even fear to those around him, even officers who outrank him. But then the war ends, the prisoners are set free, and everything goes back to the way it was. Where does that leave things like friendship, community, and just simple camaraderie, and where does that leave the conscience of men like King Rat, who exploited his brothers for all they were worth when times were tough.

The movie is tremendous, the performances are all uniformly fine, and director Bryan Forbes gives everything a naturalistic tone that makes the film feel like a product from a later date.

"King Rat" received Oscar nominations for its truly impressive art direction and cinematography, both in the black and white categories back in the days when distinctions were made between B&W and color films.

Grade: A