America gets a chance to see the most talked-about British TV program of last
season, "Tumbledown," when the Arts & Entertainment cable network airs the
BBC  production at 7 p.m. Sunday.

The true-life drama is about a British soldier in the 1982 Falkland Islands
War who returns to a nation that salutes its war dead but ignores its wounded. 

In Britain, "Tumbledown" had the impact that "Born on the Fourth of July"
might have had in America if it had been made shortly after the Vietnam War.

 " `Tumbledown` caused a fantastic controversy in Britain," said Colin Firth,
 who stars as the arrogant guardsman humbled by his experience.

 Firth was recently seen as the dashing lover in the film "Valmont" and is familiar 
to PBS viewers from the 1987 Masterpiece Theatre serial "Lost  Empires."

 "The cream of British reactionism came out in force before `Tumbledown`aired, 
demanding the film`s incineration, repeating every slur you can think of,"
Firth said.

"The Left didn`t like it either. There were front-page headlines for months. Then it 
went on the air and there was another three months of headlines. It was fun to be 
in the middle of it."

Like "Born on the Fourth of July," the British film depicts a young man  programmed 
for warfare for whom actual combat is an eye-opener. In both cases,  their near-fatal 
wounds are random, irrelevant to their battlefield performances.

As Tom Cruise`s character, Marine Ron Kovic, raged against his incapacitation,so does 
Colin Firth`s Robert Lawrence of the Royal Scots Guards. He hectors  his nurses, 
threatens his doctors, abuses his fellow-patients.

His girl leaves him, his best friend can`t understand him. He survives and triumphs over 
his disabilities only by adopting a black, bitter outlook. 

The  film`s steady refrain is: "It wasn`t worth it. It wasn`t worth it."

 Said Firth: "It`s about the creation of a chocolate soldier, a man made to impress tourists 
outside Buckingham Palace, who turns into a psychotic beast during wartime, as any man 
must if he doesn`t run away.

 "It`s not about the suffering war victim; it`s about a man who was the perpetrator of his 
own misfortune," he said. "He comes back furious and inglorious, minus 43 percent of his brain, 
dribbling and incontinent. Instead of being lauded he`s relegated to the back of the church during the memorial service, finally given a medal and told to shut up."

The film`s writer is Charles Wood, who wrote the script for "The Charge of the  Light Brigade" 
(1968), another exploration of the inglorious folly of war.

 Most of the characters Firth has played in American TV movies such as  "Camille" on CBS 
six years ago and British features like "1919" and "A Month  in the Country" were, he said, 
"naive, sensitive, romantic young chaps."

 Actually, he said with a smile, "I`m attracted to playing neurotics."

 "It`s more interesting to play people with problems. No problems, no
story. An  entirely sane person, if there is such a thing, wouldn`t make a very good  actor."

 Firth, 28, has moved from London to the wilds of Vancouver to live with Meg  Tilly, who was 
his co-star in "Valmont." That film was a box office flop  because it had the misfortune to tell the 
same story as "Dangerous Liaisons" did just a few months before.

 Even if it had succeeded, Firth had no illusions about stepping into a  Hollywood career.

" `Valmont` might get me into big-time Hollywood movies if every other movie from Hollywood 
were like `Valmont,` " he said. "But  there`s no natural progression from Milos Forman to Steven Spielberg. The market open to me will continue to be independent films.  

"So, don`t worry. I`m not going to be playing `Lethal Weapon 3.` "
 

© Copyright of Chicago Tribune 1990