A strange, literate tale of mistaken identity during the opening salvos of the American Colonial War. The red coats are rounding up rebels & dissidents in a quiet colonial burg & when one is hung, his ne'er do well son, played by Kirk Douglas, comes to town to claim his inheritance. Enter the town's vicar, played by Burt Lancaster, who pleads to have the recent instigator buried. Fearing future reprisals, the British, led by a tyrannical yet likeable General, played Laurence Olivier, marks the vicar as a enemy so he sends his troops to make an arrest but Douglas happens to be at Lancaster's home & is taken in mistakenly id'ed as the holy man. Lambasting the propriety of war & rebellion, this film, based on a novel by George Bernard Shaw, is a call to arms for both sides to realize the gravity of conflict as past slights can no longer be forgiven & an enemy can not be underestimated. A strange yet vivid allegory for the world we live in today.
Review of The Devil's Disciple
