Guns at Batasi
| Guns at Batasi | |
|---|---|
Cinema poster
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| Directed by | John Guillermin |
| Produced by | George H. Brown |
| Written by |
Screenplay: Robert Holles Original Adaptation: Leo Marks Marshall Pugh C.M. Pennington-Richards |
| Based on |
The Siege of Battersea 1962 novel by Robert Holles |
| Starring |
Richard Attenborough Jack Hawkins Flora Robson |
| Music by | John Addison |
| Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
| Edited by | Max Benedict |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox |
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Release date
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September 1964 (UK) 16 November 1964 (US) |
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Running time
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103 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Guns at Batasi is a 1964 drama film starring Richard Attenborough, Jack Hawkins, Flora Robson, John Leyton and Mia Farrow. The film was based on the 1962 novel The Siege of Battersea by Robert Holles and was directed by John Guillermin. Although the action is set in an overseas colonial military outpost during the last days of the British Empire in East Africa, the production was made at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom.
A group of veteran British sergeants, headed by an ultra-correct, order-barking Regimental Sergeant Major (Richard Attenborough), are caught between two dissident factions in an unnamed newly created African state (most likely Kenya, since the character of RSM Lauderdale mentions that the Turkana people live in the north, which is where they live in Kenya. The African soldiers also speak amongst themselves in Kiswahili, the lingua franca of the region). The story neatly exposes the feelings of the professional NCOs, their officers and the African soldiers and officers, who are still painfully new to both guns and political slogans.
When the post-colonial government of the unnamed African country is overthrown by a populist uprising, troops loyal to the new administration take over the barracks, arrest the commanding officer and seize weapons. With the British NCOs cut off in the Sergeants' mess during the mutiny, the action boils down to the initiative and confusion of the griping, duty-hardened British soldiers in defending Captain Abraham (Earl Cameron) (a wounded African officer), and themselves, against the mutineers. The mess situation is further complicated by having to temporarily accommodate Miss Barker-Wise, a female British MP (Flora Robson) and Karen Eriksson, a UN secretary (Mia Farrow), the latter providing some love interest.
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Wikipedia