Guy X
1979: Qangattarsa - Top Secret US Military Hospital - The Vietnam war ended four years ago. Reagan has just announced his intention to stand for President with George Bush as his running mate on a ticket of "Peace through Strength".
The U.S. military kicks into action with a huge injection of finance and the U.S.S.R is about to lose the cold war. Meanwhile on Qangattarsa military base, Rudy Spruance is lost. Dropped off in the middle of nowhere in the frozen wastes of the Arctic. No one comes. The Army doesn’t make mistakes. As he comes round in an Army hospital that doesn’t officially exist, Rudy understands what it is to be on the sharp end of a ‘small clerical error’. Rudy joined up to escape a little prison time for burglary. His fellow soldiers are a rag-tag bunch of misfits and eccentrics who seem to have been on the base for a considerable time. Rudy is determined to get off the base. Until he meets Sergeant Irene Teale - beautiful, intelligent and most importantly, sane. Unfortunately, she’s the Colonel’s girlfriend. Then Rudy discovers the secret of The Wing: a hospice for American casualties from Woolwrap’s maverick raids in the Vietnam War. Guy X is an ex-Vet who comes out of his coma whenever Rudy talks to him. As a bond forms between them, Guy X charges Rudy with telling the story of the Wing to the outside world. As Colonel Woolwrap begins to suspect Rudy’s love for Irene, and his interest in The Wing, he grows more and more ruthless towards his protégé. And as the Stark Raving Dark of the permanent Arctic night begins to descend, the atmosphere at the base lurches from benign boredom to frantic insanity. The fate of Qangattarsa’s patients becomes increasingly doubtful, and Rudy realises he must risk all to save himself and the people he now loves. A biting black comedy in the tradition of ‘Catch 22’ and ‘M*A*S*H’, with a smattering of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ thrown in for good measure.
Awards
- Best Achievement in Production, British Independent Film Awards, London, UK, 2005
- Best Actor and Best Director, Taormina International Film Festival, Messina, Sicily, 2005
Festivals
- Taormina Film Festival (June 2005)
- Motovun Fillm Festival (July 2005)
- Edinburgh Film Festival (Aug 2005)
- Film By The Sea (Sep 2005)
- New Montreal Film Festival (Sep 2005)
- Iceland International Film Festival (Nov 2005)
Links
- Buy this Movie
- Offical website
- www.screendaily.com
- Interview with Saul Metzstein
- Variety.com website review
- Guardian website: film synopsis and reviews by Peter Bradshaw and Philip French
- BBC Movie Website: review by Nev Pierce
- Tiscali Website: film review and Jason Biggs interview
- The Times Online Website: film review by Wendy Ide
- dvdtimes website: review by Eamonn McCusker
- Empire website: film review by Rob Fraser
- Exclaim! Website: film review by Stephen Broomer
- FilmExposed website: film review by Chris Thornton
- FilmFocus website: film review by Joe Utichi
- Shadows on the Wall website: film review by Rich Cline
- The Red Right Hand website: film review by Matthew Stogdon
- Cinema Clock website: film synopsis and user reviews
- Box Office Prophets website: film synopsis
- Cinema.com website: articles on cast, crew and production
- Coming Soon film database: film synopsis and trailer
- Moviecentre.net website: film synopsis
- MovieMeter website: film synopsis and user reviews (in Dutch)
- Buzzcinema Guy X photo gallery