The Purple Plain (1954) on Netflix
Burma, 1945. Canadian pilot Bill Forrester, flying with the RAF, has grown reckless and bitter since his wife died in the Blitz. The squadron physician, Dr. Harris, tries to help him.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.5/102,809 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
Bill Forrester is a Canadian pilot serving with the RAF in Burma in the last months of the Second World War, flying Mosquito fighter-bombers. Grief over his wife's death in the Blitz in London has made him self-destructive, and the risks he takes endanger his flight crews, so other airmen are reluctant to fly with him. His commanding officer wants him grounded, but that decision rests with the base flight surgeon. Dr. Harris examines him and persuades him to visit a village, where he meets Anna, a Burmese woman. The two become friends and keep meeting. Forrester tells her about losing his wife and about his wish to die in action, and with her support he begins to recover.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Purple Plain (1954)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The first choice to play Anna was June Rose, a Burmese royal princess of Australian descent who pulled out during shooting in Ceylon, calling the film "so Hollywood" and an insult to Burma, and saying a Buddhist would never do the things shown in the pagoda.
- Rose was replaced by Win Min Than, born Helga Johnston, the Australian-Burmese wife of politician Bo Setkya, in her only film role; in 1964 she shaved her head and became a Buddhist nun in Rangoon, adopting the name Daw Wanthalamar.
- The film came out a "hybrid": cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth shot the Ceylon locations in Eastmancolor and the Pinewood Studios interiors in 3-strip Technicolor, as the British industry was switching from one process to the other.
- H. E. Bates, who wrote the 1947 novel the film adapts, had been commissioned into the RAF in the Second World War; the book was one of three he wrote after traveling to Burma and India in 1945 to report on the Burmese war for American readers.
- The film was shot in Sigiriya, in what was then Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and used several locations that were later used again in The Bridge on the River Kwai.
