Brutalised, Broken and Betrayed

Abstract

This article examines how the British Falklands veteran was depicted in three late 1980s films: Resurrected (1989), Tumbledown (1988) and For Queen and Country (1989). Like many contemporaneous depictions of American Vietnam veterans, all three productions explore the difficult homecoming of the “returning soldier”, paying close attention to questions of health, well-being, national identity, class and race. To this extent, all three films “use” the figure of the veteran for pointed social and political commentary, with the mores and values of 1980s Britain the subject of engaged critique: from unemployment and the collapse of class solidarity, to the pettiness of government bureaucracy, to the racism of the State and its agents. In doing so, 1980s era depictions of the Falklands veteran established a powerful template which continues to shape and inform perceptions of the “stigmatized veteran” in contemporary British culture.