The Contenders:
Captain Blood
The Informer (winner)
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Mutiny on the Bounty
Showing posts with label The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. Show all posts
Monday, February 25, 2019
Monday, August 20, 2018
Friday, August 11, 2017
Monday, October 15, 2012
Watching Oscar: The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Film: The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Format: DVD from Northern Illinois University Founders Memorial Library on big ol’ television.
Format: DVD from Northern Illinois University Founders Memorial Library on big ol’ television.
I sometimes wonder about the lives that may have been negatively affected by the Hollywood-ization of stories. Take for instance The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. This is very much in the old school tradition of the action film, featuring a trio of soldiers who take on ridiculous odds and rout the enemy with a single punch. A man doesn’t show emotion in this world, and certainly doesn’t break under pressure. I wonder how many men expected to act this way under pressure and didn’t, and thus had that added layer of guilt thrown on top of them. Of course, there’s also the possibility that several managed to hold out under duress trying to live up to this ridiculous ideal.
As the title implies, we’re deep in the heart of the British Raj for this one. The British are fighting against an insurgent named Mohammed Khan (Douglass Dumbrille, in a case of old school whitewashing), and are trying to get him to make a fatal mistake and thus capture him. The mastermind of this plan is Colonel Tom Stone (Guy Standing), the CO of the 41st Bengal Lancers. A brief skirmish backfires, and Lieutenant Alan McGregor (Gary Cooper) leads an attack against both Khan and his orders, for which he is reprimanded. It also teaches us that McGregor is a man of action.
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