PG-13 |1h 35m | Drama | 2024
Considering its shameful history during World War II, Ireland should celebrate a hero like Artie Crawford. Not only did the Irish Free State maintain strict neutrality, it also prosecuted and blacklisted Irish military personnel who left their posts to fight with the Allies.
Crawford is technically Northern Irish, but that’s close enough for most Irishmen. The 92-year-old veteran of the Royal Ulster Rifles escapes from his nursing home to reunite with his comrades at the 75th anniversary ceremonies of the Normandy landing. However, when he arrives, he discovers that he is the last of his band of brothers, in director Terry Loane’s “The Last Rifleman.”
“The Last Rifleman” is the second film based on D-Day veteran Bernard Jordan’s real-life “escape” from his rest home to the Normandy anniversary festivities. The first, “The Great Escaper,” still hasn’t had a proper American release, even though it represents the final film of now-retired Michael Caine’s illustrious career.
Similarly, “The Last Rifleman” holds the distinction of being the final film of John Amos, best known as the dad on the 1970s sitcom “Good Times.” In “The Last Rifleman,” he is Lincoln Jefferson Adams, an American D-Day vet Crawford meets during his journey.
Memories of War
As the film opens in 2019, Crawford (Pierce Brosnan) devotedly watches over his frail and dementia-stricken wife, Maggie (Stella McCusker). When she passes, it leaves him with little purpose. It also prompts memories of his WWII service, when a friend’s sacrifice made their life together possible. Clearly, the grieving rifleman still carries guilt over the death of Charlie Lennon (Joseph Loane), who was trying to settle young Crawford’s (James Keating) fears when a bullet cut short his life.
Despite his expired passport and a regimen of pills that would confuse a second-year medical student, Crawford quietly slips out of his nursing home in a laundry truck. From there, he improvises his way to France.
Naturally, he relies on the kindness of strangers, particularly Rory (Samuel Bottomley), who is a kindhearted working-class teen with a passion for the music of composer Ennio Morricone, and Juliette Bellamy (Clémence Poésy), a French single mother returning home from holiday to commence her cancer treatments. Even bottom-feeding tabloid journalist Tony McCann (Desmond Eastwood) rallies to Crawford’s cause (thereby prolonging a good story).
Kevin Fitzpatrick’s screenplay is unabashedly sentimental, especially the ending, which wouldn’t feel out of place as the conclusion to a Nicholas Sparks novel. However, he and Loane always respect the gravity of Crawford’s wartime experiences. There’s very little humor in this film, except for some gags involving Tom Malcolmson (Ian McElhinney), Crawford’s opportunistic fellow resident. Malcolmson tipped off McCann (for a fee, of course).
Ring of Truth
Throughout it all, Brosnan is achingly dignified and often quite poignant as the mournful and ruminative Crawford. He convincingly portrays a man more than 20 years his senior. More importantly, viewers vividly see how he still bears the tragic weight of his wartime experiences.There are times when the film is also refreshingly realistic about the emotional implications of war, as when Crawford meets Friedrich Mueller (Jürgen Prochnow), who had been a young SS draftee at Normandy. They are polite, but there is no hugging, which is why their candid conversation carries the ring of truth.
The late Amos is terrific in his brief appearance as Adams, who immediately shares an understanding kinship with Crawford. Poésy portrays Bellamy with keen sensitivity and disciplined restraint, while Bottomley is likably earnest as Rory. But this film is all about the “Greatest Generation.”
Clearly, all involved intended the film to serve as a tribute to the few D-Day veterans still surviving. Brosnan and Amos do their characters justice, but Loane’s direction regrettably often looks rather modest. “The Last Rifleman” takes great care in its depiction of both the veteran experience and the realities of aging, which is admirable.
Frankly, the finely tuned performances deserved better realized wartime flashbacks and a more cinematic treatment in general, but the film should stoke further respect and empathy for veterans’ service.
“The Last Rifleman” is perhaps worth considering when it eventually hits ad-supported streaming services because of its refreshing sincerity.
