This Denzel Washington crime drama was a total flop in the 1980s, but it might be his most underrated movie

Opinion
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I'm watching all 52 Denzel movies this year, and I think the critics got it wrong with 'For Queen and Country'

Denzel Washington in For Queen and Country
(Image credit: Working Title)
The Tom's Guide Verdict

Rating: 3/5 stars

Verdict: "For Queen and Country" is harshly judged by history. It was a flop at the box office and critically panned. It's almost impossible to stream online. And yet, nearly 40 years later, its examination of Margaret Thatcher's England is inarguably one worthy of your time, despite its flawed performances.

Welcome to the Denzel Watchathon; this week's movie is "For Queen and Country." For those of you new to this project, I was inspired by an X (Twitter) post by The New York Times senior staff writer Brooklyn White-Grier, which stated that you could watch one of Denzel's 52 movies every week of 2026 without needing to repeat a movie. So I'm doing exactly that, in chronological order, starting with "Carbon Copy." Now, in week five of my year-long movie marathon, I've arrived at what might be Denzel's most underrated movie ever.

If you want to watch this movie before you read on, I have some bad news for you. Whether because critics hated it or it flopped at the box office, "For Queen and Country" is difficult to find. It's not available on the best streaming services or the best free streaming services. You can buy it as physical media from Amazon or perhaps your local video store. Or, you can do a search on YouTube and find it uploaded in a few places. No judgment from me if you go that route.

Regardless of how you watch, once you're done watching, read on for my review of this 1988 crime drama that I think the critics got wrong.

Malcolm McMillan
Malcolm McMillan

Malcolm has been with the Streaming team at Tom's Guide since 2023, reviewing dozens of movies each year so you don't have to watch the bad ones.

'For Queen and Country' paints a picture of a soldier returning home to find it a war zone

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. This movie isn't flawless. In fact, I'd argue most of its performances struggle to resonate. Whether that's because of the script or the directing is unclear, but it's certainly not the strong point of this crime drama.

Read more Denzel Watchathon

Here are the other Denzel Washington movies I've covered so far in our Denzel Watchathon:

  1. "Carbon Copy" (1981)
  2. "A Soldier's Story" (1984)
  3. "Power" (1986)
  4. "Cry Freedom" (1987)

What is this movie's strength, though, is its story. We start with Denzel as Reuben, a soldier fighting first in Northern Ireland and then again in the "South Atlantic," which is ultimately revealed to be the Falklands.

Once his tours of duty are done, though, he returns home to London and finds it to be as much of a war zone as the active battles he just left. The poor neighborhood in which he and his former fellow soldier, Fish (Dorian Healy), live is a grey, drab, brutalist place. There are robberies in broad daylight, drugs are flowing through the streets, etc.

Now, you might reasonably think that's an appropriate time to send in the police to keep the streets safe and free of crime. But, of course, while the police do show up. They're predictably violent and racist, harassing Reuben for just walking around a neighborhood (his neighborhood) because they "hadn't seen him around."

Certainly, that's not a relatable story in today's modern age. Right?

At any rate, Reuben tries to live within the circumstances he's been dealt. Despite a friend, Colin (Bruce Payne), offering him work, Reuben knows Colin works in less savory arenas, and instead, he tries again and again to find an honest job, ultimately working as a cab driver, getting meager fares.

Ultimately, England doesn't want Reuben to find employment. It's clear there's no meaningful support system for him, or Fish, who's lost a leg in the war and seems to clearly be suffering from some form of PTSD. And that lack of support for serving for Queen and Country is further compounded by the poverty of Reuben's surroundings.

The real kicker, though, comes when, partway through the movie, we learn that England has disowned Reuben. He came over from St. Lucia when he was four, and thanks to the British Nationality Act of 1981, he's now a citizen of newly independent St. Lucia, rather than the country for which he just served on the front lines.

Keep in mind that the law was passed in 1981, an entire year before we see Reuben fighting in the South Atlantic. He doesn't return home until 1988. That means he spent seven years fighting for a country that doesn't even want him.

It breaks him. And by the end of this film, he finds himself returning to the only thing he knows: war. But now, he's fighting at home against the same system that he served abroad.

Verdict: I think the critics got this one wrong

Ultimately, "For Queen and Country" is an exploration of how Thatcher's England left swaths of people abandoned. The people of Reuben's neighborhood have been abandoned to poverty, crime, and the police state. Fish has been abandoned by the nation he served, unable to seriously work due to crippling alcoholism and gambling addictions, likely exacerbated by PTSD.

Then there's Reuben, also abandoned, unable to find a job, unable to walk through his neighborhood without being harassed and unable to even claim British citizenship by the end of this movie.

So yes, there are flaws to this movie. The performances and dialogue are middling, Denzel's accent work is arguably questionable, though I personally didn't find it distracting. But its goal to shine a light on how 1980s England was brutal for many is undeniably achieved. Critics may have panned this movie, as evidenced by the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. But for me, it's an underrated movie that deserves to see the light of day on a streaming service.

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Malcolm McMillan
Malcolm McMillan
Streaming Editor

Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made.

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