It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, . . . but mostly the best of times. John Boorman’s counter-intuitive memoir of a suburban London childhood over the darkest days of WWII, emphasizes the horror, wonder, unanswerable questions and infinite excitement of a never-forgotten experience. With a uniquely playful tone emphasizing not the usual sacrifice & uplift, but positive outcomes landing almost by chance within one rather eccentric nuclear family amid the panic & localized deaths. Sarah Miles, making up for a lot of over-wrought dramatics, makes the most practical of moms, keeping a semblance of order with a husband off to war (for a bit), an old suitor she might have married, a newly sexually active 16-yr-old daughter, a girl about five and, in the middle, Bill, a roustabout boy and Boorman’s 10-yr-old alter ego who gives the film its main P.O.V. as he turns all but the very worst of events into occasions of adventuresome joy. Never more then when he’s suffering from Ian Bannen’s reprobate Granddad with his alarming freethinking ways. The stories, appalling & hilarious at the same time, hit one comic peak after another: A found tin of enemy jam; An unusually successful fishing excursion; A surprising schoolyard celebration (many more); OTT and completely believable. Not just youthful resilience, but national resilience; gilded with Boorman’s palpable love for his characters, giving the film unexpected warmth, depth, and the lived-in nap of history.
DOUBLE-BILL: Three decades later, Boorman made a coming-of-age followup taking ‘Bill’ thru compulsory military service in the pleasing, if not especially memorable QUEEN & COUNTRY/’14. It proved too little, too late, though not a bad sign-off for this great director.
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