For Queen and Country

For his debut as a director, Stellman (script-writer on Quadrophenia, Babylon and Defence of the Realm) has produced an ambitious but disappointing piece about class and race in 'Thatcher's Britain'. His storyline concerns Reuben, a Falklands war hero whose return to a dreadfuly run-down South London council block is marked by rejection from white cops and the blacks with whom he grew up. When the immigration authorities inform Reuben, who was born in St Lucia, that he's no longer officially a British citizen, something snaps. Stellman's script contains an intelligent appraisal of a country divided more subtly by loyalty and habit than the media often realise. But the choice of Washington doesn't help: he isn't bad in the part, but his accent strays absurdly. More worrying is the often corny plotting, the by now tired-looking exploitation of Broadwater violence, and a preposterous shootout ending. Stellman's direction is often as sluggish as the daily routines of his protagonists.