The Home Guard Exercise Turns Real, Explained：not a hope

What's really going on

The comedy here comes from how literally the rules of a fake war are followed. The exercise has a password, an objective, even prisoners — and the men take it seriously enough that a general can be captured by his own troops and told that the war begins only "at midnight on the dot." Nobody questions the absurdity; the game has its own logic, and losing it is the real shame. When a woman calls to warn the commander, the reply is a flat "Sorry, miss. The General's a prisoner, and so are you." The line lands as a joke because it is delivered with perfect military correctness. Under the fun is the film's subject: the British officer's faith in fair play and rules, even when the game has stopped being a game.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Not a hope is a blunt British no-chance.
• On the dot pins a time exactly, not roughly.
• A tin hat is soldiers' slang for a helmet.
• Close up tells a formation to tighten.

発音のポイント

• tin hat — The n in tin runs into hat, almost like tin-nat.
• starts at — Link starts and at so the s slides into the vowel.
• Blast that — The two t sounds meet, so the first is almost dropped: blas-that.
• in charge — The in is reduced to ən while charge takes the stress.