Guns At Batasi

Guns at Batasi (1964)

Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: John Guillermin

Starring: Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins, Flora Robson, John Leyton, Mia Farrow

From: 20^th Century Fox

Tarantino approved.

While it was released a few weeks ago, it was just this past Sunday night that I listened to The Empire Film Podcast where Edgar Wright and QT spent three hours discussing both the cinema experience and unheralded British film, inspired by a list that Scorsese compiled for Wright. I haven't loved everything either has done and QT has apparently done some bad things on set-although plenty of great directors fit into that category-it was still a fascinating listen. Both went down their own rabbit holes of exploring other UK works; Tarantino discovered this John Guillermin film starring Richard Attenborough.

Richard plays a Sergeant Major at a base in what is implied to be Kenya shortly after it becomes independent. He is rather uptight, fussy and obsessed with the pomp & circumstance of his position. Others mock him and in essence think he's a real dork. When things go bad, though... he is not an incompetent dunce way over his head but rather his knowledge and abilities will be quite useful in this scenario. As what happens often in modern Africa, governments are overthrown in cops on a seemingly frequent basis and because of circumstances, the Sergeant Major is in charge that night and suddenly he proves himself to be worthy. Complicating matters is that in the hall is both a member of Parliament (Flora Robson) and a UN secretary (Mia Farrow).

Naturally, there is talk of colonialism and how “right” it was that Europeans went to Africa, exploited it, and caused all sorts of problems, which is a big reason why there have been so many coups on the continent. This is more drama than action, but no complaints there as it was all riveting seeing how each of the Sergeants reacted to the siege while the Major was the most adept and kept his cool the entire time when the chips were down and clearly the others would have made a mess of things. The widescreen cinematography (from Douglas Slocombe) was quality but Attenborough was

On the podcast, both Wright and QT noted that after they went through Scorsese's suggestions, they went down their own avenues and saw other British obscurities. That was how Quentin came across this; through this and other pictures, not only did he reassess the career of Guillermin, he now finally appreciated Attenborough as an actor. Even filmmakers can change their mind on others in their field after increased knowledge. This was what QT's favorite British discovery from 2020; it is as of now available in 1080p on YouTube; it'd be something I would have been happy to pay for beforehand, and after last night, I would not have regretted the cost.