For Queen and Country

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For Queen and Country is a 1989 crime thriller from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United International Pictures and produced by Working Title Films and Zenith, starring Denzel Washington. Washington stars as Reuben James, a Black British former-Para, who joined the British Army to escape the poverty of inner city London. For Queen and Country was rated R by the MPAA for violence, language, and adult situations, and was released in theaters on January 1, 1988.

[edit] Plot synopsis

Reuben (Washington), although having grown up in London, is of St. Lucian descent, and joined the British Army to escape the poverty of inner city life. He serves with the Parachute Regiment, doing a tour in Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles in the late 1970s, and fighting in the Falklands War.

Denzel Washington as Reuben and Bruce Payne as Colin from "For Queen and Country"

After leaving the army, Reuben returns to civilian life in London but receives far from a hero's welcome, no-one caring about his time in the army, while many of his childhood friends have turned to crime and drug-dealing to support themselves. He finds his old community is still beset by the crime, poverty and racism that made him leave. In particular, he suffers abuse and brutality at the hands of racist police officers. He struggles to adjust to everyday life, but with increasing difficulty, losing his girlfriend (Amanda Redman). With changes in British nationality law, Reuben can also not claim British citizenship and finds himself unemployed and unable to find work despite his military service. He drives a taxi for a short time, but is soon brought into business with a criminal friend played by Bruce Payne.

Reuben is able to regain his British citizenship and gets two tickets to return to St. Lucia since he won't be able to go to Paris as he had planned to with his former girlfriend who sees him only as a bloody product of an old era. Two of Reuben's friends have been killed by police, one, Lynford (played by Geff Francis), is shot for killing a policeman, but another, an old army friend of Reuben's who had saved his life in the Falklands and lost his leg is shot by a corrupt and racist policeman who first started the harassment in the first place. Reuben sets about avenging his friends' deaths and is able to during a riot, shooting the policeman who killed his friend. Reuben is shot by a police sniper, another army friend, but he survives his wounds and walks out into the night.

[edit] External links

For Queen and Country at the Internet Movie Database