1960 dramaRating: 17/20
Plot: Colonel Jock Sinclair drank with his men and sang and danced with them until that day when a shot rang out and he stood alone!
Man, oh, man! Bagpipes galore! I guess your liking of this movie would depend on your tolerance for wheezing. The bagpipe is to Tunes of Glory as the zither is to The Third Man. But like that zither, I think the bagpipes add flavor to this yarn. The characters involved in the conflict, played wonderfully by Alec Guinness and John Mills, are both flawed to the point where you really don't want to like or root for either of them. But as their characters develop, you really start to feel sorry for both men, especially since you know that things aren't going to turn out well, probably for either of them. Both actors give terrifically nuanced performances; there's burbling beneath the surface--subdued rage, exhausting pasts, wounded pride, and wiry scars. You catch these characters in the middle of their lives, but the characterization and acting is so strong that you don't even really need to know anything that happens to these guys before the movie or after the movie. This is simple storytelling, dialogue and character driven, and although everything that happens makes perfect sense, it's the depth and ambivalence that makes it most rewarding. That and the bagpipes! Bagpipe fever! Grab it while it's hot!
A Cory recommendation.