The Guards (Vaktpostene) is a Norwegian feature film, made in 1965, produced by Arne Skouen. It is easily one of his more screwy productions, complete with a Gainax Ending.
A soldier, Arild Møller, is on trial for abandoning his duty, and the Framing Device in the movie is the story of his court martial. The problem is why he deserted his post and left his assignment. The soldier explains that he felt an obligation towards a 14 year old girl who had a breakdown on a train, and he volunteered to help her. This girl, Bene, was on her way to a rehab unit. This unit is an isolated farm, where a number of children are looked after by some grown up guards, among them a Shell-Shocked Veteran from World War II, who later explains the background for this institution: to look after stray children who had suffered during the war. The soldier joins the crew, and Bene, the oldest girl, takes a shine to him. So does the young nurse who attends the farm, and the two develop a relationship.
Bene has some creepy vibes, being Genre Savvy, somewhat psychic, and seems to have been in and out of other institutions before, not wishing to go back there, to "the other place", as she states. She is constantly looking for the mailman, and often plays a broken piano, while seemingly rehearsing for a concert. Because the piano lacks a number of clefs, the tune she plays is distorted beyond recognition - although she is careful to present it as the Prelude in C minor by Chopin. The soldier takes it on himself to fix the broken piano, making the tune gradually more audible over the course of the movie. When Bene is distressed, she climbs up in a tree, sitting there for hours. She understands the romantic feelings developing between the soldier and the nurse, and gets jealous - to the point where she tries to smother her with a sleeping bag, promptly sending her to a hospital for recovery.
The soldier is eventually sought out by a number of MPs, gets arrested, and has to stand trial, explaining his actions. He pleads innocent to no avail, and is put in jail. The end of the movie shows how he is "transported" back to the farm in a dream-like sequence, open for interpretation, while the prelude in C minor gets more and more distorted.
Tropes:
- A God Am I: Bene seems to be so wise Beyond her years that she even has the Power over life and Death (which she states quite early) - to the point where she almost kills Randi.
- Broken Bird: More than one. Bene is the most prominent example, but there are others.
- Creepy Child: Bene. She has some power over the other children as well, and makes all of them go batshit at some point in the movie.
- Cute and Psycho: Bene tells Arild, the soldier, what she is able to do, in a calm, toneless voice, while she clearly manages a number of ropes, used to hold her in place at night while she is asleep.
- Dissonant Serenity: Bene to a T.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Bene. The monochrome quality makes this even more visible. Also Randi.
- Framing Device: The courtroom. The rest of the movie is seen in flashbacks.
- Friend to All Children: The soldier really cares for the kids on the farm.
- Gainax Ending: Seriously. Nobody understood what was going on when this movie was released.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Bene claims she knows "who created God". But she also states that if she reveals this Secret, the world will perish. That is one seriously disturbed chick.
- I Did What I Had to Do: The soldier defends himself with this. Doesn´t help him.
- Madness Mantra: Bene has "Must not sleep", uttered over and over again. Arild calms her down.
- Mind Screw: Comes with the Gainax Ending, but it spills over the whole movie. No wonder considering that insanity and inner turmoil is one of the main themes of the movie.
- Mysterious Waif: The mailman. He seems to just walk around With a knowing look, and has an eerie Connection With Bene.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: the older warden on the farm, clearly being a war hero who has gone incognito. He is also The Alcoholic because of this.
- Yandere: Bene develops this trait towards the soldier, to the point where she tries to kill the nurse by strangling her. Her Establishing Character Moment gives off a rather heavy Yandere vibe, when she calmly states that Arild, the Soldier, is "her present, which she can do whatever she wants with" - to the point where she mentions dismembering him, or ''plucking out his eyes". Eep.
