Themes: Traitorous Spies/Double Agents, Boarding School Life, Sexual Awakening
Main Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frederick Alexander, Michael Jenn, Robert Addie, Philip Dupuy, Crispin Redman, Rupert Wainwright
Release Year: 1984
Country: UK
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
A pair of British lads, one gay and one socialist, chafe at the restrictions of boarding school life in this period piece, which was adapted from Julian Mitchell's novel and play of the same name and loosely based on the Burgess-Maclean spy scandal of the 1950s. In the 1930s, upper-class scions Tommy Judd (Colin Firth) and Guy Bennett (Rupert Everett) are both nearing the end of their careers at an unnamed public school that bears a striking resemblance to Eton. Tommy, a Marxist intellectual, refuses to participate actively in the school's rigid social hierarchy. But Guy, when not mooning after pretty boys, angles for a position next term as one of the "gods," or master prefects, of his house. When a faculty member stumbles onto the homosexual fumblings of a pair of students, one boy commits suicide and a scandal erupts. The administration and senior students do their best to ensure nothing of this sort ever sullies their reputation again. Considering that homosexual experimentation is rampant and that Guy has slept with most of the prefects in his house, the strict new rules leave a bad taste in his mouth. They also put a damper on his Wildean lifestyle, especially after he falls hopelessly in love with James Harcourt (Cary Elwes), a dreamy boy from one of the other houses. Things come to a head when autocratic prefect Fowler (Tristan Oliver) intercepts a letter from Guy to James and sentences Guy to a savage beating. By film's end, Guy's complicity in the power games of the British class system has been challenged, and his friend Tommy's communist dogma has made a lasting impression; a framing device portrays Guy as an elderly former spy living in exile in Soviet Moscow. Another Country was shot at Cambridge, Oxford, and Althorp Hall (Princess Diana's childhood home) after the producers were denied permission to shoot at Eton. Everett and Firth both appeared in the original London theater production alongside Kenneth Branagh and Daniel Day-Lewis; on-stage, it was actually Firth who played Guy. For a more factual account of the Burgess-Maclean affair, see the TV movie An Englishman Abroad. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
Although the protagonist of this measured, elegiac coming-of-age story is loosely based on Guy Burgess, an Englishman who spied for the Soviets and defected in the '50s, the events of the film are almost wholly fabricated. They're also deeply moving -- an alternately brutal and tender examination of class, status, disillusionment, and longing. Set to a mesmerizing, subtly mournful score by Michael Storey, Another Country deftly introduces its audience to the complicated world of British public schools, then methodically exposes the cracks in the system of oppression that holds such institutions together. Rupert Everett and Colin Firth give strong, economical performances as the homosexual dandy and the fervent Marxist who, for different reasons, chafe at the restrictions of their society. Both characters are callow and self-absorbed, but Firth's principled thinker and Everett's ambitious romantic undergo subtle transformations that make them ultimately sympathetic. The rest of the cast is uniformly fine, especially Anna Massey as Bennett's propriety-minded mother. Cary Elwes doesn't have to do much besides look exceptionally handsome and blush a lot as the dashing young man who steals Bennett's heart. But the restrained love scenes -- shot in the same wistful style as the rest -- are a lot hotter than the more explicit ones that have become the standard in years since. Julian Mitchell's witty, nostalgic script may not do enough to connect the dots between the main action and the framing device that establishes Bennett's later career as a spy. But the prologue and epilogue do set the film's melancholy tone and provide Everett with an absolute corker of a closing line. In short, the tart and thoughtful Another Country may not stick to the facts, but its sustained sense of yearning gives it a compelling emotional power. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Tristan Oliver - Fowler; Ralph Perry-Robinson - Robbins; Cary Elwes - Harcourt; Adrian Ross-Magenty - Wharton; Anna Massey - Imogen Bennett; Betsy Brantley - Julie Schofield; Gideon Boulting - Trafford; Arthur Howard - Waiter; Tristram Jellinek - Nicholson; Llewellyn Rees - Senior Chaplain; Ivor Roberts - Chief Judge; Nicolas Rowe - Spungin; Martin Wenner - Batsman; Jeffry Wickham - Arthur; Tristam Wymark - Henderson; Guy Henry - Head Boy; Christopher Milburn - Batsman; John Line - Best Man; Kathleen Saint John - Ivy; Geoffrey Bateman - Yevgeni
Credit
Clinton Cavers - Art Director, Celestia Fox - Casting, David Garfath - Choreography, Penny Rose - Costume Designer, Alison Thorne - Continuity, Andy Armstrong - First Assistant Director, Marek Kanievska - Director, Gerry Hambling - Editor, Robert Fox - Executive Producer, Julian Seymour - Executive Producer, Ross Carver - Hair Styles, Michael Storey - Composer (Music Score), Pat Hay - Makeup, Sarah Monzani - Makeup, Aaron Sherman - Makeup Special Effects, Brian Morris - Production Designer, Peter Biziou - Cinematographer, Simon Bosanquet - Production Manager, Alan Marshall - Producer, Robert Fox - Producer, Brian Morris - Set Designer, Ken Weston - Sound Mixer, Julian Mitchell - Screenwriter, Eddy Joseph - Dubbing Editor, Christopher Figg - Second Assistant Director, Michael Zimbrich - Second Assistant Director, Pip Newbery - Costume/Wardrobe, Kenny Crouch - Costume/Wardrobe, Penny Rose - Costumes Supervisor, Ray Potter - Electrician, Clive Barrett - First Assistant Editor, Jeremy Strachan - First Assistant Editor, Tony Wright - Storyboard Artist, Julian Mitchell - Play Author, Christopher Knowles - Third Assistant Director
Another Country is loosely based on the life of the spy Guy Burgess, Guy Bennett in the play, and examines the effect his homosexuality and exposure to Marxism has on his life, and the hypocrisy and snobbery of the English public schools.
The setting is an 1930s Eton-esque public school, where Guy Bennett and Tommy Judd are friends because they are both outsiders in their own ways. Bennett is openly gay, while Judd is a Marxist.
One day a teacher walks in on Martineau (Philip Dupuy) and a boy from another house engaged in mutual masturbation. Martineau subsequently kills himself because of the shame of having been found, and chaos erupts as teachers and the senior students try their hardest to keep the scandal away from parents and the rest of the outside world. The gay scandal however gives the army-obsessed house captain Fowler, who dislikes both Bennett and Judd, a welcome reason to scheme against Bennett to keep him from becoming a "God" - a school name for the elite pupils of the school. Fowler is able to intercept a love letter from Bennett to James Harcourt. Bennett agrees to be punished so as not to compromise Harcourt. (On an earlier occasion he had simply blackmailed the other Gods for their own "experiences" with him.)
Meanwhile, Judd is reluctant to become a prefect, since he feels that he cannot endorse a "system of oppression" such as this, and has a memorable, bitter speech about how the boys oppressed by the system grow up to be the fathers who maintain it. He however eventually agrees to become a prefect in order to prevent the hateful Fowler from becoming Head of House. This never comes about, however, because Devenish agrees to stay at school and become a prefect if he is nominated to become a god instead of Bennett.
Devastated at the loss of his cherished dream of becoming a god Bennett comes to realize that the British class system strongly relies on outward appearance and that to be openly gay is a severe hindrance to a career as a diplomat. The epilogue of the movie states that he emigrated to Russia later in his life, after having been a spy for the Soviet Union. Judd has died fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
The title refers not only to communist Russia, which is the "other country" Bennett turns to in the end, but it can be seen to take on a number of different meanings and connotations. It could be a reference to the first line of the second (or third, depending on the version) stanza of the hymn I Vow to Thee, My Country, which is sung in both the play and film, as well as referring to the fact that English public school life in the 1930s was indeed very much like "another country".
The Go-Between is a novel by L.P. Hartley (1895 – 1972), published in London in 1953. The novel begins with the famous line:
"The past is a foreign country (often misquoted as 'another country')...: they do things differently there."
The most direct reference is to several well known lines from British literature, originating from Christopher Marlow's play The Jew of Malta
Friar Barnadine: "Thou hast committed--" Barabas: "Fornication-- but that was in another country; / And besides, the wench is dead."
Here "the wench" may refer to Martineau. Most of the students are more interested in covering up a potential scandal than worrying about the actual death. If so, the "adultery" may refer to what is done to Martineau and perhaps all students by the school, rather than his actual sexual liaisons.
Awards
The film was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best Artistic Contribution.[1]
