I haven't seen many movies that depict the military outside of wartime. This one is set in Scotland in 1948, so only the freshest soldiers wouldn't have seen action a few years earlier.
Maj. Sinclair (Alec Guinness) has had significant successes and honors, but instead of getting promoted to colonel, he learns that he will no longer be acting commanding officer of his regiment in peacetime. His replacement is Lt. Col. Barrow (John Mills), who's much bigger on discipline and thus less popular with the men. Sinclair finds himself under more stress than any of those men, not least when he illegally takes his anger out on a corporal piper (John Fraser) who's dating his daughter (debutante Susannah York) on the sly.
As brief as that summary is, it almost gives away too much, given how late the last part happens. I wouldn't have included it if Netflix hadn't. The 106-minute plot is simply very slow to progress, preferring to let the pressure build with one little event conversation after another.
Fortunately, I didn't find ToG boring, if only because it's too well acted for that. I can see why Guinness was invited to play Barrow but chose Sinclair, who almost comes across as a Sgt. Bilko by contrast except that nothing much is played for laughs. Meanwhile, Mills made sure I would never forget him again. The rest of the actors aren't bad either; they just don't get much of a chance to stand out.
I imagine that the screenplay barely deviates from the 1956 novel, since James Kennaway wrote both. The screenplay has received mixed reviews, especially for an ending that might feel overwrought. I for one didn't mind the depiction of a loosened grip on sanity; in a somewhat ugly way, it gets poetic. I certainly didn't mind a few defied expectations.
ToG isn't for all fans of British classics. Of course, I have trouble enjoying some other British classics. See it if you want a highly masculine drama that flirts with comedy but never quite gets there.
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