84
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThis film is a gruelling experience and Dirk Bogarde’s coup de grâce is the most horrible effect of all.
- 91Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThis riveting drama takes courageous stands against the senselessness of war and the brutality of capital punishment, leading to one of the most ironic climaxes in British cinema. [17 Apr 1997, p.12]
- King and Country is an uncompromising film. Some of its scenes are so strong they shock. Those who can take it will find it a shattering experience.
- 90The story of Private Hamp, a deserter from the battle front in World War I, has already been told on radio, television and the stage, but undeterred by this exposure, director Joseph Losey has attacked the subject with confidence and vigor, and the result is a highly sensitive and emotional drama, enlivened by sterling performances and a sincere screenplay.
- KING AND COUNTRY is a grim indictment of the arrogant, simple-minded mentality of the men who send their fellow citizens off to war.
- 80EmpirePhil de SemlyenEmpirePhil de SemlyenCourtenay is heartbreaking as a broken man crushed under the wheels of a callous system.
- 40Time OutTime OutThis recasting of The Servant as a war film, with Courtenay playing the working-class deserter whose helplessness traps the liberal middle-class officer (Bogarde) assigned to defend him at his court-martial, fails precisely because the sexual element in the relationship, so explicit in The Servant, is so repressed.