Guns at Batasi

A British colonial garrison in Africa. Regimental Sergeant Major Lauderdale is an old-fashioned soldier who holds to the rules to the letter; even as the empire withdraws he keeps the drill in order. A coup breaks out in the country and the garrison finds itself in the middle of the fight. The men under Lauderdale, a member of parliament and a woman who has just arrived are inside with him. All the man has to lean on is forty years of military habit. John Guillermin's film squeezes the end of empire into one garrison. Richard Attenborough plays the sergeant major and was named best actor at the British film awards that year for it. Mia Farrow played her first significant screen role here. The telling neither defends colonialism nor turns the character into a caricature; it shows a man who cannot see that an order has ended.