From kilian@pbsvax.DEC (Michael Kilian) Wed Jun 125
Subject: _Return_of_the_Soldier_ (Spoiler)
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
I was suprised by Kelvin Thompson's review of _Return of the Soldier_. He
seemed very pre-occupied with the fact that despite the fact that the people
in the story were very well off, they had the gall to be unhappy.
Well, that's exactly one of the points of the story. Happiness and unhappiness
quite often have nothing to do with how well off a person is. I found _The
Return of the Soldier_ an interesting probing of what is happiness and whether
happiness in illusion (Bates as the amnesiac) is wrong or not.
What Thompson has missed in the movie is the whole question that the movie
leads up to. We have a man who has amnesia and who is happy. Should this
man be released from his amnesia to a known fate of unhappiness (a stuffy
wife and the knowledge that his son is dead) or should he be left in the
his world. The psychologist and women of the story decide that he must know.
The result (we are left to infer from the shot heard at the end of the movie)
is that Bates' character has killed himself after having been "cured."
I found the movie wonderfully photographed, taking advantage of the beautiful
English countryside. Thompson's pre-occupation with the class orientation
seemed to be not entirely relevant to the movie and it certainly didn't
get in the way of my pleasure.
I recommend _The_Return_of_the_Soldier_ as long as you are willing to watch
a movie which is not based on action but works on a more emotional level.
-- Mike Kilian
From iltis@ucsbcsl.UUCP ( ) Wed Jun 12 11:48:00 1985 Subject: Re: _Return_of_the_Soldier_ Organization: U.C. Santa Barbara Here Here. I haven't seen Return of the Soldier, because I assumed it would be exactly the sort of movie this review indicates it to be. However, I don't think that the problem with this film is that the central characters are wealthy,aristocratic Englishmen. Rather, the problem might lie with the utter pretentiousness of this kind of movie, and the arrogant demeanour of the actors (Glenda Jackson, ughhh! if you think this movie sounds bad, watch for "The Romantic Englishwoman") There is nothing inherently bad about the plot or theme of this film, as a matter of fact, it sounds like a ripoff of "Random Harvest" with Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson, which also concerned a soldier returning from World War I with "shell shock" and amnesia. The plot of "Random Harvest" was certainly not as "sophisticated" as that of return of the soldier, but with Ronald Coleman in the leading role, who cares. The problem with "Return" lies not with an unworthy theme or unsympathetic characters, but probably with a director who's attended film school and actors who've been on the Merv Griffin show too often. -- All opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my employer Ronald A. Iltis
[Back to the review]
[Home page]
[Contact Info]
(Updated December 8, 1995.)