King Rat (1965)

“[while preparing meal] If you don’t want to eat it, you can sit and watch, it’s a free prison!” – Cpl. King

Number of Times Seen – 1 (4 Nov 2013)

Brief Synopsis – A group of Allied POW’s during WWII must deal with the enemy during their internment in the POW camp.  The problem is knowing who the enemy is the Japanese or the allied officers.

My Take on it – I was expecting this movie to actually be very good and was sorely disappointed at how boring and empty the story was.

This movie seems to try and portray a movie like The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) as a moderately brutal movie in the way that the Japanese treated their allied POW’s by showing the harsh ways that they were treated.

Unfortunately, George Segal is no William Holden or even Sir Alec Guinness and it’s very hard to sympathize with his characters attempts to make life work in the camp.  The truth is that the character of Corporal King is closer to Holden’s Septon from Stalag 17 (1953) than Commander Shears from Kwai.  He is a soldier who does his best to stay alive and in control and knows how to work both the other prisoners and the guards to get what he needs and wants to do so.

None of the other characters are memorable in any way and the movie just drags on for slightly more than 2 hours.

I say skip it and watch The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) instead if you want to see a great WWII Pow movie.

Bottom Line – Terrible and boring movie that tries to eclipse previous POW movies in it’s portrayal of the hardships in a Japanese POW camp

Rating – Razzie Worthy