Movie: Distant Bridges (longer clip)

 

Distant Bridges has one of the most authentic school caning scenes in any mainstream movie. It is set in the First world War and involves two pals who go off to war even though they are not old enough.

This clip is from near the beginning of the film when Arthur Fisher, against the rules, goes into the girls-only part of the school to kiss his girl. A friend goes to warn him that the headmaster is on the way. The Head catches Arthur and Amy and also sees the other boy but cannot recognise him. Arthur refuses to give him up. The Head denounces the immorality of the kiss in front of Arthur’s class and sends him next door to be caned by Mr Smith for “six strokes of the cane for breaking school rules and six for the Empire.”

Mr Smith does not put enough energy into the strokes so the headmaster makes him start again and lay them on properly.

The 1998 film directed by Dusty Rhodes has all but disappeared, but copies of a DVD are sometimes available on eBay.

We saw a clip from Distant Bridges here, but this new clip is longer, of better quality and does not have annoying subtitles.

Video and picture credit: Sunfly Pictures

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