THE TRIPLE ECHO

UK, 1972, 94 minutes, Colour.
Glenda Jackson, Brian Deacon, Oliver Reed.
Directed by Michael Apted.

The Triple Echo is not an outstanding film but it is quite enjoyable and satisfying - apart from the over-melodramatic ending. It is based on an H. E. Bates' story (as was Dulcima, with Carol White and John Mills, with which this film can be compared) and communicates the feel and atmosphere of rural England.

The atmosphere of The Triple Echo is World War II, its disruption of ordinary people's lives and the unlikely things that might happen. The details of this film seem improbable and yet the film makes them plausible enough - the disguising of an army deserter as a woman to conceal his identity whilst living on a farm.

Glenda Jackson is excellent as a very plain and ordinary woman this time (after Negatives; Women in Love; The Music Lovers; Bequest to the Nation). Brian Deacon carries the role of the deserter very well.

1. Discuss the meaning and tone of the title of the film?

2. How important was the location photography to the film? Creating the atmosphere of the farm, the countryside and of England?

3. How was the war atmosphere of the film created?

4. Who was the central character of the film? Why?

5. Alice Charlesworth - what kind of a woman was she, and why did she hide the army deserter?

6. Barton - what kind of a person was he? Why did he desert?

7. The Sergeant - how typical a military man was he? What motivated him?

8. Discuss Sam as a foil to the sergeant.

9. Was the ending plausible or was it too melodramatic? Did it fit in with the unusual and almost improbable story?

10. What comment did the film make on war and the changes that it has on people; war and its influence on relationships? Its influence on fidelity?

11. How did the film show human nature as prone to mistakes, being trapped by mistake?

12. How happy or unhappy was this film? Was it pessimistic? Did it imply that it is human to make mistakes and be destructive even in the pursuit of happiness?

13. Character was central for themes:
a) Alice as a farmer's wife, coping with the farm, coping with the war situation, lonely with her husband as a prisoner-of-war, her aggressive attitude towards tresspassers, her kindliness towards Barton, her response towards Barton's friendship, liking turning into loving, her wanting to protect him (how motherly)? Her turning him into her sister to protect him, her becoming more and more possessive as well as loving, the mistakes that she made in dealing with Barton this way, her turning a friendship and love into something destructive? Was this inevitable?
b) Barton as a simple and genial young man, his escape from the Army, why did he desert? His love for work on the farm, his response to Alice's kindliness, when did he fall in love with her? The joy of working on the tractor? Did he willingly take on the disguise? How did this become an imprisonment? He called it 'doing time'? How did this alter the relationship between himself and Alice? Why did he want to go to the dance? Why did he call himself Kath? Should he have gone to the dance, why did he not realise the danger? Why did he make the mistakes? Was his death the only way out? How sad was this love turned to destruction?
c) The Sergeant: how typical a boorish man? His military standards? His personal behaviour standards? His flattery of himself and his charm with women? Was it plausible that he did not see through the disguise? His surly attitude towards Alice? His flirting-with Kath? The dramatic impact of his discovery of the truth,? What motivated his revenge and his searching out of Barton?