The Return of the Soldier is a 1982 British film starring Alan Bates as Baldry and co-starring Julie Christie, Ian Holm, Glenda Jackson, and Ann-Margret about a shell-shocked officer's return from the First World War.
It was directed by Alan Bridges and written by Hugh Whitemore based on the book The Return of the Soldier by British novelist Rebecca West. The film was entered into the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.[1]
Plot
In 1914, a group of British soldiers are preparing to leave to fight in The Great War in France led by Captain Chris Baldry (Bates). He appears at one final farewell party thrown by his wife, Kitty (Christie) - yet throughout he seems withdrawn and distant.
The story moves on to 1916, Kitty and her companion, Jenny Baldry (Ann-Margaret) are living in England. Jenny is concerned because they have heard nothing from Chris' regiment, but Kitty dismisses her fears - more concerned by the rising prices of commodities in wartime Britain.
Their quiet war is shattered by the unexpected visit of a Margaret Grey (Jackson). A former acquaintance of Chris Baldry who has been written to by him from his hospital bed. He is ill and has been brought back to England. She cannot say any more. Kitty refuses to believe the visitor, and has her thrown out. It is only when she consults the telegram carefully, that she realises it is genuine and that her husband is in fact in a London Hospital.
When they visit him, they see he is being treated for shell-shock, contracted on the Western Front. He doesn't remember his own wife, Kitty, and instead shouts that he wants to see Margaret Grey. Humiliated his wife departs, not entirely convinced he isn't shamming his illness.
After a few days, Captain Baldry returns home, into a house that seems alien to him. His former friends are strangers, despite their efforts to reach out to him. He is more amused by simple pursuits, such as walking and staring into the river. He shows little interest in his wife Kitty, and they sleep in separate rooms.
He sends for Maragaret, and the family car is sent to pick her up. She comes to visit him, several times - and both recall their past together. He had been in love with her despite the opposition of his parents to her working-class roots. Following a quarrel, they had been forcibly parted, and had both ended up marrying other people. Kitty is hurt and furious that he shows more interest in the plain Margaret than in herself.
An expert in such matters, Doctor Anderson (Holm) is summoned and examines the patient. He advises that they allow Chris and Margaret to see each other more - something agreed to by a reluctant Kitty and Margaret's understanding husband (Finlay). As their relationship blossoms, it becomes apparent that his attachment to her is one of a childlike nature.
Kitty desperately wants him to be cured, and to return to the authoritative pre-war man she had known. Anderson is less keen to cure the Captain, noting how happy he is now - carelessly happy like a child. To return him to the present, the horrors of the war and the memory of a young son he had lost to illness, would be cruel. He doesn't even remember the child.
Finally they resolve to tell him about the child, seeing that as a spur that will "cure him". As Kitty watches from a window, Margaret tells him. His body demeanor changes visibly and he starts striding towards the house looking as his cousin Jenny remarks "every inch a soldier".
Realizing that her husband has come back to her, even though he will likely now be sent back to the war, Kitty smiles.
Cast
References
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