|
''Tunes of Glory'' is a 1960 British drama film directed by Ronald Neame, based on the novel and screenplay by James Kennaway. The film is a "dark psychological drama" focusing on events in a wintry Scottish Highland regimental barracks in the period following the Second World War.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Tunes of Glory )〕 It stars Alec Guinness and John Mills, and features Dennis Price, Kay Walsh, John Fraser, Susannah York, Duncan MacRae and Gordon Jackson. Writer Kennaway served with the Gordon Highlanders, and the title refers to the bagpiping that accompanies every important action of the regiment. The original pipe music was composed by Malcolm Arnold, who also wrote the music for ''The Bridge on the River Kwai''.〔 The film was generally well received by critics, the acting in particular garnering praise. Kennaway's screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award. ==Plot== The film opens in a Battalion officers' mess of an unnamed Highland Regiment in the early post-war era. Major Jock Sinclair (Alec Guinness) announces that this will be his last day as Commanding Officer. Sinclair, who had been in command since the battalion's colonel was killed in action during the North African campaign in Second World War, is to be replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Basil Barrow (John Mills). Although Major Sinclair led the battalion through the rest of the war, Brigade HQ considered Barrow to be a more appropriate peacetime commanding officer. Barrow arrives early and observes the battalion's officers (including Sinclair) dancing rowdily. Barrow and Sinclair briefly swap their respective military backgrounds. Sinclair joined the regiment as an enlisted bandsman and rose through the ranks, winning the Military Medal and Distinguished Service Order in the war. Barrow by contrast came to the regiment directly from Oxford University, his ancestors having been colonel of the regiment before him – although he served only for a year with the regiment back in 1933 before being posted to "special duties". When Sinclair humorously tells of the time he was briefly thrown in Barlinnie Prison for being drunk and disorderly (also in 1933), Barrow rather reticently mentions his own experience as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp. Sinclair dismissively presupposes Barrow received preferential treatment being an officer ("officer's privileges and amateur theatricals") and sat out the war. But in fact Barrow is deeply psychologically scarred after being tortured by the Japanese but does not tell this to Sinclair who privately resents the fact that he is being replaced by a "stupid wee man". Meanwhile Morag (Susannah York), Sinclair's daughter, is observed illicitly meeting an enlisted piper. Barrow immediately passes several orders designed to instil discipline in the battalion that Sinclair had allowed to slip. Particularly controversial is an order that all officers take lessons in Highland dancing in an effort to make their customary rowdy style more formal and suitable for mixed company. However the unchanged energetic dancing of the officers, led by a drunken Sinclair at Barrow's first cocktail party with the townspeople, incites his anger. An outburst by Barrow only further damages his own authority. Tensions come to a head when Major Sinclair publicly assaults the uniformed piper he discovers with his daughter – "bashing a corporal" as he put it. Barrow decides an official report must be made, meaning an imminent court-martial, even though he is aware the action will further erode his popularity and authority within the battalion. Barrow is eventually persuaded to back down by Sinclair, even though he was guilty of striking an NCO and deserved to be court-martialled. The decision further undermines his authority, Sinclair along with other officers, notably Captain Alec Rattray (Richard Leech), treat him with a renewed lack of respect. Barrow then discovers other senior officers believe it is Sinclair who is really running the battalion, because he forced Barrow to dismiss the charges against him. Realising that his authority will never be accepted, Barrow shoots himself in the head. With the colonel's death, Sinclair realises he is to blame. He calls the officers to a meeting and announces plans for a grandiose funeral fit for a field marshal, complete with a march through the town in which all the "tunes of glory" will be played by the pipers. When it is pointed out how out disproportionate the plans are to the circumstances, especially given the manner of the colonel's death, Sinclair insists that it was not suicide but murder! He tells everyone he himself was the murderer and the other senior officers were his accomplices with the exception of the colonel's adjutant. Minutes later, Sinclair suffers a nervous breakdown and is escorted from the barracks while the officers and men salute as he passes. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tunes of Glory」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|