Rent Yesterday's Enemy (1959)

A hard hitting film which deals with total war. - Yesterday's Enemy review by TG

I think this film is an unpleasant reminder of the horror of total war. It is not a spectacular display of glory or of national pride but it deals with the personal experiences of a group of ordinary soldiers and the consequences of their actions. It is appropriate near to Rememberance Sunday to remind us all of the cost of conflict and maybe why veterans sometimes do not want to talk about their experiences. There is no music , just the sounds of the jungle and in black and white.  A war film which I will always remember.

A superb war film set in Burma, with issues of morality on each side covered - Yesterday's Enemy review by PV

This is an old film BUT really very modern in its dealing with the morality of war - on both the British and Japanese side.

Based on a true story; a memorial shown at the end. I do not know much about it or how accurate it is. The war in Burma was hell, to be sure.

Burt Kwouk in here with great actors like Stanley Baker (who fought for years to make ZULU 5 years later); Leo McKern, so many more.

It does not matter that it is clearly shot in studios and well done to the sound guy - the constant buzzing tropical insect humming makes it so authentic.

Watch with MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE maybe. And IT AIN'T HALF HOT MUM!

5 stars. Brilliant war film

Burma War. - Yesterday's Enemy review by Steve

Wordy WWII drama about the ethics of combat, which can’t quite escape its origins as a television play. The set designer creates an impressively dense swamp jungle, but it still all looks artificial and the action is static. It’s more instructive than spectacular.

Stanley Baker plays the inflexible, pragmatic leader of a dwindling and exhausted British army brigade which takes a Burmese village off the Japanese and gathers crucial intelligence by ruthless means, including the murder of civilians. When the enemy recovers the camp, the captain has to answer for his methods.

The brief moments of battle are well staged, and the situations- based on actual events- are tense. But this is mostly conversation, initially between the captain, a priest (Guy Rolfe) and a journalist (Leo McKern) attached to his tiny fighting force. And then Japanese intelligence (Philip Ahn).

The diverse assembly of archetypes feels like a Hollywood war film, though the constant moral debate doesn’t at all. But it is still interesting with a fine British cast, including Gordon Jackson as an extremely compliant sergeant. And Baker is superb. It’s a minor UK war film worthy of rediscovery.