The Good Soldier (1981)

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Wow...the current reviews for this one are all over the place--with two 10s, a 9 and a 1! As for me, I think it's neither as wonderful as several folks think but it certainly doesn't seem like it deserves a 1.The film is about two couples at the early part of the 20th century. One couple is American and the other British. Each year, these folks vacation together in Germany at a health spa. During these times together, apparently the British hubby (Jeremy Brett) has been having an affair with the American wife. Oddly, however, you never really see any of this. In fact, almost everything that occurs is talked about...again and again. Heck, it's all talk--and often large and important parts of the story are simply explained through narration--a strangely disconnected sort of storytelling. While there are a couple deaths and a few twists, none of it is particularly interesting. Well acted, yes, but not terribly interesting. Worth seeing if you can stand the slow pace and style.

I saw the Granada production of The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford when it screened on Masterpiece Theatre in the early 80s. It was stunning then, and now out on DVD, it has held up as a fine piece of ensemble acting. A story of "screaming hysterics," duplicity, infidelity, and madness, the superior cast of Jeremy Brett as Edward Ashburnham, a good man, his equally good wife, Leonora (Susan Fleetwood), the American cuckold husband, John Dowd (Robin Ellis), his deceptive wife, Florence (Vickery Turner), and "the girl," Nancy (Elizabeth Garvie) is situated in 1904 and follows the upper-middle class lifestyle set in a German spa town and English country. It is an orderly, polished, and genteel setting of women dressed in white, men in flannels, an altogether civilized arrangement of two married couples John describes as a 'minuet.'That having "a heart" describes not a positive situation but the opposite, Edward is unable to control his romantic sexual urges, a 'condition' that nearly wrecks his good name and that of his wife, who takes over the husband's finances to keep them from total ruin and disgrace. In voice-over narration, the tale of recriminations and thwarted love affairs is told through John in a non-chronological reverie. It leaves the state of marriage a demolished failed situation of lies and stiff upper lip British hypocrisy. Not wanting to create a scandal by divorcing Edward, Leonora tortures him with Nancy's virginal innocence, and reveals to Nancy the truth of Edward's affairs. When faced with the truth about Edward, Nancy offers herself to Edward, but he rejects her instead of corrupting the one pure individual he's ever loved. Summoning the widower, Mr. Dowd to their home, he is ready to marry Nancy, but she is shuffled off by Edward to Ceylon to join her abusive father instead. It is Edward's one unselfish act which his heart is capable. He later tells John that he's gotten over Nancy, she was only a passing flirtation. When Nancy sends back a cable that she is "having a good time," the news pushes Edward to commit suicide, and drive Nancy insane. In the end, John, living in the former home of his first wife's people, as well as the Ashburnhams, finds himself again the caretaker of Nancy, another sick woman, who instead of being John's wife, is sadly, a broken "shuttlecock" from her own sickness of the heart.Adult, very British, and slowly paced, it is one of the finest performances by Jeremy Brett before his Sherlock Holmes days.

Not sure what they other reviewers were watching but the editing was bad; the acting was boring and the screenplay itself was confusing; actually restarted about 5 minutes into the film because scenes suddenly started to repeat... it was tough to figure out if it was present or past... do not waste time... There was one interesting person who was pretty good... for the most part the scenes were very contrived and the actors did little to make me believe that they believed in the storyline... not sure where the title came from... Have no idea why the American male lead even wanted to remain friends with the English wackos... stay away

This made-for-TV film gets high marks all around: lucid and intelligent cinematography, breathtaking performances, and visually strong direction. It's a great film, based on great source material. The film addresses how a man, by re-examining several years in his life, realizes that he was totally clueless regarding what was happening around him, as his wife and friends schemed and had affairs while he thought they were all happy and content. The novel moves back and forth in time, and so does this film: a complex yet totally engrossing narrative that leaves other time-shift ideas such as *Pulp Fiction* in the dust.Among all the great performances in here, special mention must be made of Susan Fleetwood, whose layered performance is both sensual and calculating.I've turned on many friends to this film. Definitely one of my desert-island videos.Highest accolades!!