For Queen & Country

(1989) For Queen and Country POLITICAL THRILLER

Co-written and directed by Martin Stellman with Denzel Washington as Reuben James, an African British man who has retired from serving his country, once back home he begins to witness more mistreatment to his fellow African British mates both by the law and by government. That the British law is indeed racist.

Denzil Washington was convincing as a Englishman attempting to adjust, except that much of his fellow mates are continued to be mistreated. It's more of a pessimistic outlook in which I did not care too much for the ending. It's like, where is the optimism!

This film is a harsh reality of life after the army. The British Paras are an elite fighting force, but they are there to kill the enemy. You don't really have a trade when you leave, except how to jump out of planes & kill. However, the British Army today has an excellent support sytem, unlike the mid 1980s when this film was set. This is highlighted in the movie as we see Reuben returning after leaving the Paras, during which he did a tour in Northern Ireland and fought in the 1982 Falklands war. We see him struggling to get any meaningful employment until he links up with a criminal friend. His mate Fish, who was wounded in the Falklands, is living on disability allowance, and is suffering too, being in a wheelchair. It is a sad, gritty look at life at the lower end of the scale in a run-down urban council estate in London. Having served his country with pride as a British paratrooper, he is left with nothing except the prospect of drifting into crime.

The choice of Reuben James as the name of Denzel Washington's character is surely not a coincidence.

In 1804, during the Barbary Wars, US Sailor Reuben James, positioned himself between his captain, Stephen Decatur, and a pirate; taking the sword blows directed at Decatur.

In October, 1941, before the US entered WW2, the first USS Reuben James, a destroyer on convoy duty in the North Atlantic, positioned herself between an ammunition ship and the known location of a German U-Boat. Struck by a torpedo which ignited her magazine, the Reuben James sank in five minutes. Two thirds of her crew perished. Woody Guthrie wrote a song "The Sinking of the Reuben James".

Denzel Washington's character, Reuben James, likewise, positions himself in harm's way to protect others. ,

I have to disagree with the previous commentator's opinion. Washington's accent was about as spot on for a "Yank" as was we'll say Pitt's was in "Snatch" to an Irish tinker's. The movie while obviously low-budget (no different than we'll say "My Beautiful Laundrette" or "Mona Lisa" at this particular time in UK productions), yet its concentration on the inherent drama of a confused and conflicted ex-Para in a non-empathetic society totally over-rode its budgetary limitations.

This was an above-average movie (and a rare one) of its genre and adequately displays Washington's versatility as an actor.

Denzel Washington's early career was a test of his accent range. He played a South African in "Cry Freedom," a Jamaican in "The Mighty Quinn," and a Brit in "For Queen & Country." As a Brit he wasn't half bad.

Denzel played Reuben, a recently retired paratrooper getting on with the next part of his life. He lived in a shabby flat and didn't have much going for him. He still had ties to his old life before the army which was the wrong side of the law. He couldn't quite shake that part of his life though his opportunities for doing better for himself legally were infinitesimal.

For all that was going on with Reuben it all boiled down to being marginalized and castaway as a veteran the government has no more use for. Here are your shiny medals, now figure out the rest. It is a movie with universal appeal, or at least U.S.A. appeal because the same treatment happens here. Reuben's situation was relatable for any ex-soldier on the margins of society, and doubly relatable for any Black ex-soldier.

"For Queen & Country" could've used a little touch up to be better. One of the trouble spots was the relationship between Reuben and Stacey (Amanda Redman). It started strangely and ended strangely as well. The character development was somewhat lacking. It may seem like nitpicking, but these are all the things that need to be tight to be considered a topflight movie.