Walter' War - 2008 (1 Viewer)

BLReed

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Nov 22, 2009
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Something a little different take on World War One. Worth watching.

Walter Tull, the Jackie Robinson of professional English football before World War I, and survivor of the worst racial slurs his opponents could hurl at him. When the game turns to war in 1914 and the playing field to the Battle of the Somme, Tull makes history again as the first mixed-race officer in the British Army.

The substantially true story of Walter Tull, a black man whose grandfather was a slave but who was born in Folkestone, Kent, in England, and who, in the years prior to the First World War, was a professional football player for Tottenham Hotspur. However, despite the odd flashback the film focuses solely on his prowess in the war. In 1916 he is a non-commissioned officer, heroically attempting to save comrades and is recommended for training as an officer at a military school in Scotland where he encounters prejudice because of his colour, as well as impressing and dating a local girl. His single-mindedness and desire to be the best impresses the fair-minded Captain Coombes and he ultimately attains his commission. However, he is killed in 1918 and a postscript informs us that, whilst he was recommended for the Military Cross, it was never bestowed upon him.

 

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