Laurie Lee's evocative tale of an idyllic childhood capturing traditional life in a remote village in the Cotswolds soon after the First World War.
Award-winning novelist and screenwriter William Boyd brings Evelyn Waugh's classic trilogy of the Second World War vividly to life in this epic two-part drama starring Daniel Craig Megan Dodds Leslie Phillips Julian Rhind-Tutt Robert Pugh and Katrina Cartlidge. At the heart of the story is one man's heroic quest: Guy Crouchback (Daniel Craig) returns from his self-imposed exile in Italy in 1939 and joins the army to fight for a deep moral cause and reclaim his self-respect following a shattering divorce from society beauty Virginia Troy (Megan Dodds). But as his encounters with the absurd reality of life in the armed forces in his training at Southend-on-Sea and the Isle of Mugg and in his postings to Dakar Alexandria and Crete prove to be more of a challenge than facing the enemy itself. Virginia has also returned to London from America at the start of the war having parted with husband number three. As Britain's fortunes dwindle so do Virginia's until Guy appears to be her only hope. On his return to London she tracks him down. In strong contrast to the darkly comic nature of his military experience his renewed and passionate acquaintance with his dangerously beautiful ex-wife provokes a personal and moral crisis that tests - to the limits - both his love for Virginia and his profound sense of duty. Sword of Honour is both a war story and a love story - as well as a biting satire on the emergence of the world we live in today.
Based on a memoir of English writer Laurie Lee and featuring narration by Lee himself, this made-for-television adaptation begins in wartime 1918 with Lee's family moving to the Gloucestershire countryside. Juliet Stevenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply) shines as the matriarch of this large blended family, a compassionate and distracted woman who pines for the brood's missing father. The movie takes Lee from a young boy sleeping in his mother's bed through his girl-obsessed adolescence, fondly dealing with an assortment of relatives, schoolmates and villagers along the way. Lee doesn't actually have cider with girlfriend Rosie until a few minutes before the 82-minute movie ends, but in the meantime Charles Beeson, directing from an adaptation by John Mortimer, has offered up a gentle homage to long-passed era. --Kimberly Heinrichs, Amazon.com
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