King Rat
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Movie Reviews of King Rat
Movie Review: Class struggles
Summary: 5 Stars
James Clavell is mainly known as a writer of superior pulp fiction set in Asia (Taipan, Shogun etc). His first book that came to fame, however, was a semi-autobiographical short novel about his experience as a Japanese POW in Changi, Singapore. The book was published in 1962 and was made into a strong film 3 years later.
The main story is about survival in near starvation conditions. Hero of the tale is an American underdog with entrepreneurial and most certainly criminal talents and potential. The prison camp comprises a large number of British soldiers and officers and a few Americans. The camp is largely self-administered, as escape via land or sea is a fairly hopeless project. The Japanese captors don't interfere much with daily life, except when it comes to suspected communication with the outside world. The prisoners starve slowly and die of dysentery, malaria, depression ... Some handle it better than others.
The best is King, an American corporal, whose power and influence raises him above his military status. He is the man with resources. His main contribution to survival in camp is the development of a rat breeding scheme, for protein supply. He is much admired and loved by the British officer class, for his skill to help them find little perks.
A young British officer, probably Clavell's alter ego, establishes a friendship with King, who saves his life when he mysteriously procures the medicine needed to help him survive gangrene in his arm after an accident.
When the war ends with a bang, literally (but off screen), the pows are as shocked as their captors. It takes a while for `normal' class relations to re-establish themselves. King realizes quickly that his special abilities have become useless and hence his status is back to corporal. His British friend is an upper class romantic who believes in friendship and so forth. What are you talking about? You have worked for me and I have paid you, says the King.
Even the camp's military police chief officer, a proletarian lieutenant with labor convictions and a Churchill hatred, owes his survival to the hated and suspected `criminal' King, in a way: he hated him with a fury that kept him alive for better days.
Movie Review: All Too Human Nature
Summary: 5 Stars
I spent 7 yrs in various Washington state prisons, including 4 yrs as a slave laborer in a forced work camp and while i can report that none of them, thankfully, were anywhere near as awful as the POW camps in the Pacific during WW2, i saw many men behave very much like the protagonist in KING RAT. This film, while perhaps not fully able to convey the degradation, filth and squalor of POW camp life(indeed, who could? who could make you smell it? who would want to?) it does tell one hell of a gripping story.
The acting is first rate, all around, with George Segal giving a complex and layered performance underneath his veneer of easy-going charm and effortless ease and finding stellar support from Tom Courtenay as the heartless and obsessive Provost Marshal and James Fox as the stiff-upper-lippy Brit boy who finally sees the humanity in the King, just as his world crumbles.
This is worthy film that plumbs the depths of human behavior and shows what thousands and thousands of men had to endure at the hands of the Japanese, who seem to have managed , as a country and in direct contrast to Germany, to avoid the blame and responsibility that is rightfully theirs for the atrocities committed by the Imperial Army during WWII. As such it is not just a ripping good story, told with authority and style, but an important piece of history. While this is not a true story, the prison camp and the Utram road jails both existed--and far worse camps were maintained by the Japanese. Because situations like the one depicted in the book and film do occur--as i can attest to personally--this film should be as well-known and discussed as SCHINDLER'S LIST. Truly, this is a film that every household should own.
Movie Review: Entertainment fit for a King!
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Anyone for an egg???
Summary: 5 Stars
There have been many great war movies and most people would surely agree that movies such as Patton, Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Paths of Glory should be included, but sad to say I have never seen "King Rat" on any greatest list (either war related or just generic great movies). Oh, but it should be! On the face of it, "King Rat" is the story of an American corporal (George Segal) imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp. He may be a corporal in actual rank, but he is the Commander-in-Chief of the entire camp when it comes to surviving. He is the instigator and beneficiary of every scheme immaginable to survive as best he can. He not only has to persevere against the Japanese, but also the other allied prisoners in the camp with him who consider him no better than the Japanese. I will not go into all of the schemes that he concocts for his personal survival and comfort, but there is one in which he is offhandedly (or so it seems) preparing lunch for himself and a fellow prisoner, that has to be seen "and heard" to be believed. I have probably 1,000 movies in my collection and have seen many more than that, which simply means that I have been exposed to hundreds and hundreds of memorable scenes: 2001: bone thrown into the air, Butch Cassidy: jumping off the cliff, Dr. Strangelove: riding the bomb, Doctor Zhivago: collapsing on the tracks with Lara almost in reach, and of course Psycho: the shower, but I defy anyone to watch the egg scene in "King Rat" and not be profoundly moved. It affects me deeply just thinking about it.Movie Review: Kurosawa in Khakis
Summary: 5 Stars
Something about the cinematography and pacing of King Rat kept making me compare it to Akira Kurosawa. Today, this is a mostly forgotten film, but it ranks with the best of them. Could it be that George Segal's incessant banjo playing on countless Tonight Show appearances degraded his status and by association, this movie? Thankfully, today's movie fans are largely ignorant of Mr. Segal and his infernal banjo. However, I confess, King Rat lingered on my shelf for months while I struggled to overcome the unreasoning dread that he might somehow produce that cursed instrument within the confines of Chang Gi prison. Thankfully, Mr. Segal's character far trancends his late-nite persona.
From the start, King Rat is first-class. John Barry's mesmerizing and surreal score sets the mood as if you are entering a bad dream. James Clavell (who I enjoyed in one of my other Forgotten Favorites-The Last Valley) creates another oriental masterpiece of a story. It is free of stereotypes, even though we are familiar with the personality types in prison movies. The characters are distinct and human-even the Japanese. Edward Fox stands out in an extraordinary Oscar worthy performance. I couldn't help comparing him to Paul Bettany. Put in Edward Norton for George Segal and you've got a remake. Of course, contemporary filmmakers wouldn't come near the quality of this piece. I agree that this is a better movie than Bridge on the River Kwai. It just doesn't have that catchy whistling. Maybe it needed a banjo sequence to make the Academy take notice.