Private Potter (1962) Directed by Caspar Wrede

(Review originally written at 9 February 2007)

Hard to put a label on this movie. The movie begins as a (rather poor) non-serious comedy but slowly turns into dramatic war movie about morals and belief.

This in my opinion was a very poor and even odd movie to watch. The movie as a whole made a very redundant impression and it seemed like the filmmakers themselves weren't even sure what kind of movie they wanted to make and in what style.

The story is about a young soldier, who during a raid, during the The Cyprus Emergency, suddenly starts screaming, causing the death of a fellow solider. The young solider later claims he saw a vision of God, which ultimately leads to his superiors questioning his sanity. How do writers come up with these sort of things?! Later one they more start to believe and protect him and the movie gets multiple layered with themes such as morals and belief. Problem that none of the subjects ever get fully lighted and developed, which causes the movie to make an incomplete and unsatisfying impression.

I like movies that handle fairly unknown and sort of forgotten subjects regarding human history, especially military one's. This movie concentrates on The Cyprus Emergency but it doesn't do much with this subject and backdrop unfortunately. I mean, if this movie had been about WW II the movie would had just been the same and certainly not any better or worse.

Tom Courtenay really did poorly in this movie. He never made the character sympathetic or likable enough and on top if that, his acting was just below par. But oh well, it's his first ever movie role, so it's sort of explainable. Thanks goodness that the other actors in this movie do know how to act.

Some scene's and dialogs seemed to be endless, until they reached the point that they became irritating and tiresome. The movie is only 89 minutes short but it really shouldn't had been any longer!

The movie obviously didn't had a very high budget but they did a good job with it. The movie isn't cheap looking, which is also thanks to the fine looking locations and environments of the movie.

Awkward little movie, that does't really have any redeeming qualities.

4/10