A Foreign Field

A Foreign Field is a 1993 BBC television film about British and American Second World War veterans returning to the beaches of Normandy as old men. It is more a drama than a comedy, although it combines aspects of both. It was directed by Charles Sturridge and featured an ensemble cast of American, Australian, British, and French actors and actresses. The title evokes the Rupert Brooke poem The Soldier.

Cyril McKern and Waldo Randolph, who are British and American, respectively, have both returned to France in search of the same woman Moreau with whom they each had a rendezvous in 1944 unknown to the other. Cyril is accompanied by fellow veteran Amos Guinness, while Waldo has his petty daughter Beverly Chaplin and her henpecked husband Herrmann in tow. Amos is childlike and carries an empty jam jar as if it is a favored toy. The two groups encounter one another, and after some conflict find common ground in old sorrows. Along the way they meet the recently widowed Lisa Bacall, who has come in search of her brothers grave.Eventually it is revealed that Amos saved Cyrils life during the battle of Normandy in 1944 but sustained a severe headwound in the process. The wound has left Amos permanently braindamaged and Cyril has been his carer ever since. Cyril also confides in the others that Amos does not have long left to live and this will be the last chance for the two men to come to Normandy to pay their respects to their close friend Briggs who was killed in action. Waldo has come to France for a similar reason, to visit the grave of a close buddy who was killed on DDay. The trip helps put Beverlys problems into perspective and gives a new lease of life to her marriage. And it is revealed that Lisas brother was in fact a German soldier but instead of showing hostility, the veterans instead pay their respects at his grave, in tribute to the bravery of the German forces who took part in the battle. The frame is completed via Amos jam jar with the final image of the jar holding a handful of wildflowers and placed in front of Briggs gravestone on Omaha Beach. ........

Source: Wikipedia