A bombardier (artillery equivalent of a corporal) is posted in Germany, but is going back to Britain the following day where he is going to be commissioned as an officer. This is his last night of duty. He is in charge of the guard. Their duty is to guard a virtually obsolete Swedish-built (Bofors) gun. But can the bombardier last the night?
He has one particular gunner under his command: Dan O'Rourke: Southern Irish, Roman Catholic, about to hit the age of thirty at midnight, insubordinate, abrasive and unstable. O'Rourke sweet-talks the mild mannered bombardier into letting him go to the NAAFI to pick up his cigarette ration. Instead, O'Rourke goes to the bar, and is soon as drunk as a boiled owl. Then O'Rourke spazzes out big-time. He shouts insults at everybody - especially at the bombardier and at a Northern Irish gunner ("There speaks the Industrial Protestant.")He collapses. He vomits all over himself, and his mates clean his face up with urine, because the water pipes have frozen. But the bombardier dare not put him up on a charge: he will have to stay in Germany if he does. At midnight, O'Rourke kills himself; and that is the end of the bombardier's plans. As the father figure of a sergeant says when asked if he is going home: "Not for donkeys' years yet."
There is a hell of a cast in this film, which examines the pointlessness of conscripts in the military service, as well as the British class system and the British nation itself. Stalwarts include Peter Vaughan, Ian Holm and John Thaw. And above them all, Scottish actor Nicol Williamson as Dan O'Rourke. What a performance!
He has one particular gunner under his command: Dan O'Rourke: Southern Irish, Roman Catholic, about to hit the age of thirty at midnight, insubordinate, abrasive and unstable. O'Rourke sweet-talks the mild mannered bombardier into letting him go to the NAAFI to pick up his cigarette ration. Instead, O'Rourke goes to the bar, and is soon as drunk as a boiled owl. Then O'Rourke spazzes out big-time. He shouts insults at everybody - especially at the bombardier and at a Northern Irish gunner ("There speaks the Industrial Protestant.")He collapses. He vomits all over himself, and his mates clean his face up with urine, because the water pipes have frozen. But the bombardier dare not put him up on a charge: he will have to stay in Germany if he does. At midnight, O'Rourke kills himself; and that is the end of the bombardier's plans. As the father figure of a sergeant says when asked if he is going home: "Not for donkeys' years yet."
There is a hell of a cast in this film, which examines the pointlessness of conscripts in the military service, as well as the British class system and the British nation itself. Stalwarts include Peter Vaughan, Ian Holm and John Thaw. And above them all, Scottish actor Nicol Williamson as Dan O'Rourke. What a performance!