King Rat

What does this 1965 film, based upon a James Clavell novel of the same name, show us about Clavell’s own experiences in the Changi POW camp in Singapore from 1942 to 1945? How does the fact that escape is impossible affect the attitudes of the POWs in the camp? How does the main character, American corporal King, exercise power in the camp, even though he is an enlisted man? Why do the British, Australian and American officers fall into the corruption that is rife in the camp? What accounts for the dissension and hatred? Why do fellow prisoners work for and deal with King as he takes advantage of his fellow POWs? How does the film illustrate inadequacies of the Geneva Conventions regarding POW treatment and behavior, and the sorts of events that caused the US Government to form the US Fighting Man’s Code of Conduct? How does the Code discourage the sorts of self-interested behaviors we see and how does it help to prevent moral injury, such as that we see in Changi?