https://www.amazon.c...sword of honour
I've always liked this and the uncut version is definitely the one to go for.4.0 out of 5 stars
Evelyn Waugh's masterly - and partly autobiographical - Second World War trilogy has the supreme merit of offering an often blackly satirical view of military life both on, and behind, the front lines with an ultimately moving portrait of a decent man (and, like Waugh himself, a Catholic) who desperately wants to acquit himself honourably in the war but who is constantly thwarted by events outside of his control. William Boyd's three-hour plus adaptation inevitably compresses what is very much a sprawling narrative and alters the emphasis of some of the characters (e.g. the rather sinister Corporal-Major Ludovic) but it does more than a decent job. The Crete and Croatia scenes (particularly the former) come off best, whereas there is less interest in the scenes on the home front, which in any case offer a rather partial and upper-class view of the reality - no 'millions like us' in Waugh's narrative. Daniel Craig is excellent as the central character, Guy Crouchback, in what in some ways is a rather passive role but a quartet of supporting actors do well with the author's distinctly oddball characters : not just Ludovic, but the slippery and opportunistic Trimmer, the crazy Brigadier Ritchie-Hook and the pompous and ineffectual Major Hound (who in Boyd's script is murdered by Ludovic in cold blood).
