georgewilliamnoble Review of The Virgin Soldiers

The Virgin Soldiers (1969)

Now somewhat dull memory of national service

[5/10 · 1 April 2016]

I remember well this popular film from 1969, following in the wake of a very popular book by Leslie Thomas.I was just young enough to miss national service so the comic episodes that mingle through the muddled rambling army barracks story now as then sort of fly past me. I remember long queues when this film came out and the howls of laughter from that first screening, somehow time has not been very kind to the film which now seems very false and the tragic moments bad bed fellows with the carry on humour of the gags. Perhaps i just have a very unrealistic impression of army life from seeing to many war films. Perhaps national service was just as up surd as presented here and the book certainly spoke to many,but times and attitudes change with time and 1969 is a long way from Malaya 1951.Yet history tells us 519 British personnel were killed and 2500 wounded during that now forgotten foot note to the twentieth century.