Let's face it: The British like to talk. Nine times out of 10, that's what their movies are. For a such stodgy group, they sure talk a lot in their movies.
This one concerns a prison camp full of British twits being manipulated by an American psychopath. This is a movie where people operated under the pretense of civilization but act more like animals that walk upright. In this, the movie is accurate about the Europeans and their colonials, ready to turn on each other in an instant. The Japanese, of course, are presented as fanatical inferiors, even though they allow the prisoners a degree of freedom they don't deserve.
It's clear from the movie that this is meant to be some kind of deep introspection about the human spirit. But that's too pat. We don't see all of humanity here but a desperate group of men, some White, some Asian, stuck in the jungle in a situation that doesn't make much sense otherwise.
The cast is good. Lots of recognizable faces from the era, including James Donald, who seems to be playing the same part here as he did in the much better The Bridge on the River Kwai.
George Segal is appropriately slimy as the cold and calculating businessman, the titular King Rat. Tom Courtenay plays a fine uptight jerk of a lieutenant, holding to rules that make little sense in a place where nothing except survival makes sense. John Mills plays the part Trevor Howard would have in another movie. Patrick O'Neal shows some range, and James Fox looks like the prototype for David Bowie's similar turn in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.
This one concerns a prison camp full of British twits being manipulated by an American psychopath. This is a movie where people operated under the pretense of civilization but act more like animals that walk upright. In this, the movie is accurate about the Europeans and their colonials, ready to turn on each other in an instant. The Japanese, of course, are presented as fanatical inferiors, even though they allow the prisoners a degree of freedom they don't deserve.
It's clear from the movie that this is meant to be some kind of deep introspection about the human spirit. But that's too pat. We don't see all of humanity here but a desperate group of men, some White, some Asian, stuck in the jungle in a situation that doesn't make much sense otherwise.
The cast is good. Lots of recognizable faces from the era, including James Donald, who seems to be playing the same part here as he did in the much better The Bridge on the River Kwai.
George Segal is appropriately slimy as the cold and calculating businessman, the titular King Rat. Tom Courtenay plays a fine uptight jerk of a lieutenant, holding to rules that make little sense in a place where nothing except survival makes sense. John Mills plays the part Trevor Howard would have in another movie. Patrick O'Neal shows some range, and James Fox looks like the prototype for David Bowie's similar turn in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence.