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GENUINE charm is remarkably rare in films. So three cheers for writer-director John Boorman for his delightful, funny and unexpectedly perceptive rites-of-passage sequel to his 1987 classic Hope and Glory.
Boorman instantly sets the tone when, in 1943, the nine-year-old Bill Rohan, delighted by the nazi bomb that destroyed his school, shouts: “Thank you, Adolf.”
Nine years later the 18-year-old Rohan, perfectly played by Callum Turner, is called up for two years’ national service during which he learns the hard — and frequently hilarious — way about real life in the ’50s.
Boorman never puts a frame wrong.
His army game is both funny — imagine Carry on Sergeant with real people or M*A*S*H without the need to suck up to the stars — and credible.
Casting and performances are spot on. The story, melding army hell, teenage love, hormonal nurses and the unhappy prospect of having to fight in the Korean war, is consistently pleasurable and sharply satirical.