# The Bofors Gun
**The Bofors Gun** is a 1968 British drama film directed by Jack Gold, written by John McGrath from his 1966 stage play *Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun*, about a night guard detail of British soldiers in occupied Germany who are assigned to watch over an obsolete Second World War anti-aircraft weapon.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) The film stars [Nicol Williamson](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicol-williamson), Ian Holm, and David Warner, and it was Jack Gold's first feature film.[2](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | UK April 1968; USA September 1968[2](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/) |
| Director and writer | Jack Gold (his first feature); screenplay by John McGrath from his play *Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun* (1966)[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) |
| Setting | One night of guard duty at a British Army base in Northern Germany in 1954, during the National Service era[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) |
| Principal cast | Nicol Williamson (O'Rourke), Ian Holm (Flynn), David Warner (Terry Evans), Peter Vaughan (Sgt. Walker), John Thaw (Featherstone)[2](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/) |
| Runtime | 105 minutes[3](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/24301/ereignisse-beim-bewachen-der-bofors-kanone) |
| Budget | An estimated $800,000, funded through Universal's London office[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) |
| Recognition | Ian Holm won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor; the film was reportedly banned from several British army bases[2](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/) • [4](https://time.com/archive/6632933/cinema-battle-with-boredom/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and setting
The story covers a single night in 1954, when a group of British soldiers on a military base in Northern Germany is placed on guard duty over a Bofors gun.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) Lance-Bombardier Terry Evans (David Warner), a National Serviceman who has been in the army for seven months, learns that he is to attend a War Office Selection Board in London, which he hopes will bring a commission as a 2nd [Lieutenant](https://www.edgepedia.org/lieutenant) and an escape from barracks life. He is due to travel to the UK the following day, but that night he leads the guard detail: six gunners patrolling in pairs on a freezing February night while the rest of the guard shelter in a hut. Evans knows that if anything goes wrong he will not get to the selection board.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/)
The central conflict pits Evans against Gunner O'Rourke (Nicol Williamson), an embittered Irish gunner determined to humiliate him and destroy his hope of a commission.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062746/) Gunner Flynn ([Ian Holm](https://www.edgepedia.org/ian-holm)), a reserved Ulsterman, tries in vain to talk sense into the young NCO, while the mouthy Londoner Featherstone (John Thaw) shows him no respect.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) The group deliberately mixes regular soldiers and National Servicemen, each with a different perspective on military life, and the script identifies the men by region and social class in the tradition of British barracks narratives.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) The gun itself, shrouded in canvas and never seen in its entirety, orders the soldiers' lives while remaining irrelevant to them as they fight boredom through the night.[4](https://time.com/archive/6632933/cinema-battle-with-boredom/)
## Production
Production began in 1967 with funding from a scheme put together by Jay Kantner at Universal's London office, which invested around $30 million in a dozen British films over several years; most were either expensive flops or critically praised low-budget films that failed to find audiences. *The Bofors Gun* fell into the latter category.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) The production company was Everglades/Universal, with Robert A. Goldston and Otto Plaschkes as producers.[3](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/24301/ereignisse-beim-bewachen-der-bofors-kanone)
**A deliberate choice of unfamiliar faces.** Gold decided to cast actors unknown to cinema audiences, reasoning that unfamiliar faces would help viewers identify with the characters.[2](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/) Three of the leads were nevertheless established [Royal Shakespeare Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-shakespeare-company) performers: Williamson, Warner, and Holm, with Williamson and Holm new to the screen.[2](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/) Gold later recalled that friends had made him fearful about working with Williamson, who had a reputation for a dangerous disposition combined with what Gold called staggering talent; the part of the near-psychotic squaddie had been written by McGrath with Williamson in mind.[2](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/)
The creative team drew on McGrath's own National Service experience in Germany in the mid-1950s.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) The crew included the cinematographer Alan Hume, the composer Carl Davis, and the editor Anne V. Coates.[2](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/) • [1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/)
## Reception
The film opened at the Odeon St. Martin's Lane in London in August 1968, a slot distributors traditionally used for titles in which they had little faith, but it and *The Graduate* were both acclaimed by critics that month.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) *TIME* praised the film's tight construction while judging that its literal, scripted quality left the viewer feeling more as if a script had been read than a film experienced; the same review reported that the film had been banned from several British army bases for its record of the brutalizing effects of military routine.[4](https://time.com/archive/6632933/cinema-battle-with-boredom/) [Pauline Kael](https://www.edgepedia.org/pauline-kael), writing in *The New Yorker*, took a harsher view of Williamson's performance, arguing that his flamboyantly outsized portrayal of the Irish gunner shifted the audience's sympathy to Warner's corporal.[6](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/01/17/the-current-cinema-english-bull) A veteran writing in *Soldier* magazine in 2010 nominated it as a realistic picture of what soldiering in Germany was like for many British troops in the 1950s and early 1960s, while warning that the ending is quite shocking.[7](https://soldier.army.mod.uk/media/h0lnps3h/soldier-june-2010.pdf)
Ian Holm received the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Flynn; Williamson did not win a BAFTA that year.[2](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/)
## The gun behind the title
The Bofors gun of the title is the 40 mm automatic anti-aircraft gun designed by the Swedish firm AB Bofors, developed from a 1928 request by the Swedish navy for a light anti-aircraft gun and later adopted by the British.[8](https://www.antiaircraft.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Take_Post_2001.pdf) It became the most widely used anti-aircraft gun of the Second World War, used by nearly all protagonists, and several thousand were built in the UK and Canada under license.[9](https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AUPress/Books/B_0028_WERRELL_ARCHIE_TO_SAM.pdf) • [1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) The British Army introduced it in 1938, and it soon formed the standard equipment of light anti-aircraft units dealing with low-flying aircraft.[10](https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/TWI/TWI-39-11-25.pdf)
By the time of the film's 1954 setting the weapon was largely obsolete: after the Second World War it became clear that the 40 mm gun was not suitable against the new jet-powered aircraft, and a redesigned version served in various guises into the 1990s.[11](https://www.saab.com/newsroom/stories/2020/feburary/the-bofors-gun-that-revolutionised-air-defences) • [1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) Reviews of the film consistently describe the gun as a piece of obsolete kit, which is the point of the absurdity at the story's center: soldiers guarding a weapon with no purpose.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/)
## Availability
The film was not easily available for many years until a UK Region 2 DVD appeared in 2012 from Odeon, restored and distributed by Screenbound Pictures, with a Jack Gold interview and commentary.[1](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/) • [12](https://www.brownsbfs.co.uk/Product/Bofors-Gun/5060082518102) Universal has since made it available digitally.[13](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/the-bofors-gun)
## References
1. [The Bofors Gun (UK 1968), Roy Stafford, itp Global Film](https://itpworld.online/2021/07/05/the-bofors-gun-uk-1968/)
2. [The Bofors Gun, Peter Viney's Blog](https://peterviney.com/film-the-60s-retrospectives/the-bofors-gun/)
3. [Ereignisse beim Bewachen der Bofors-Kanone, Filmdienst](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/24301/ereignisse-beim-bewachen-der-bofors-kanone)
4. [Cinema: Battle with Boredom, TIME (4 October 1968)](https://time.com/archive/6632933/cinema-battle-with-boredom/)
5. [The Bofors Gun (1968), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062746/)
6. [English Bull, Pauline Kael, The New Yorker (17 January 1970)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/01/17/the-current-cinema-english-bull)
7. [Soldier magazine, June 2010, letters page](https://soldier.army.mod.uk/media/h0lnps3h/soldier-june-2010.pdf)
8. [Take Post! The 40-mm Bofors Gun, antiiaircraft.org.au](https://www.antiaircraft.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Take_Post_2001.pdf)
9. [Antiaircraft Defense Through World War II, Air University Press](https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AUPress/Books/B_0028_WERRELL_ARCHIE_TO_SAM.pdf)
10. [The War Illustrated, 25 November 1939](https://www.ibiblio.org/pha/TWI/TWI-39-11-25.pdf)
11. [The Bofors gun that revolutionised air defences, Saab Stories](https://www.saab.com/newsroom/stories/2020/feburary/the-bofors-gun-that-revolutionised-air-defences)
12. [The Bofors Gun DVD, Browns Books](https://www.brownsbfs.co.uk/Product/Bofors-Gun/5060082518102)
13. [The Bofors Gun, Universal Pictures At Home](https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/the-bofors-gun)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1963 to 1998*
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