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Product Description ------------------- O(r)- nominee George Segal (1967, Best Supporting Actor, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf) became astar with his performance in this epic WWII drama based on the best-selling novel by Sho author James Clavell. The movie chronicles the scams of a streetwise GI held in a Japanese prison camp. Under the harrowing camp conditions, he rises to a position of power over his and social superiors, manipulating those around him and controlling the prison's black market. KING RAT is a powerful exploration of one man's struggle to survive and flourish against all odds. It was nominated for two 1965 Academy Awards(r) (Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography). .com ---- High on the list of best POW movies, King Rat bears some comparison to that compound over by the River Kwai... but this is an entirely more cynical exercise. In a Japanese prison camp, a b American corporal (George Segal) runs a variety of money-making operations, much to the amazement of a young British officer (James Fox). Director Bryan Forbes, who adapted James Clavell's novel, follows different POWs through various strands of plot, each episode seemingly designed to highlight the dog-eat-dog nature of men held in close confinement. (In one pointedly black-comic sequence, it becomes man-eat-dog.) This was one of Segal's breakthrough roles, and his modern style fits the movie's anti-heroic, '60s approach. It was O®-nominated for art direction and cinematography, which may sound odd for such a bleakly confined location, but the lucid starkness of the camp justifies the nods. The John Barry score, while apt, is similarly stark. --Robert Horton