drhugohackenbushmd What is this mess? Is it a romantic wartime comedy, perhaps a drama? The writers have gone to extreme lengths to add a touch of humor with lengthy conversation during a war in which London was to be bombed to dust, 50 to 70 million souls were to be given a return ticket to their maker. It doesn't work as a romance, war story, or comedy. There is one exhaustive dialogue with Richard Masur continuing his role as Rhoda Morgenstern's goofy sister's idiot boyfriend. Now this will really get you....you see it's a Christmas Party and Dance at the 8th Army AirForce headquarters outside London 2nd Lt Jerry Colombo played by Masur, calls this girl Sally or some name he thinks up, she corrects him saying "No, it's Phillys, he then introduces her as Molly, Diane, Trisha, to a succession of his crew members who walk up and she corrects him yet again "No, I'm Phillys" That scene takes up 2-3 minutes, then Good Ole Jerry starts up with his offers to take her to bed, she shoots him down on each one, rather nastily I would say. Finally he takes the direct approach, "Ya Wanna make love?". Phillys really lights up and says YES. That bit of belly laughs eats up another 2-4 minutes of sheer boredom. Hans Solo or Harrison Ford returns to play his American Graffiti character, he's moody with a few temper tantrums playing the understated loner. Only this isn't American Grafitti. The plot has Ford becoming pocessive of a married woman (Downs), married to Christopher Plummer, to then have Ford and Plummer's character meeting. WW II film lovers, will find zillions of errors, the 8th Army Air Force flew B-17's and B-24's not the B-26's used in the film. If you are a spy parachuting into the enemy's lair you don't leave your chute in the trees or peel off and drop on the ground, items that would lead the enemy to your location. Nor do you dash through enemy territory in broad daylight. Find a copy of The War Lover, or 12 O'Clock High.

slightlymad22 I don't understand all of the negative comments about this movie. Whist by no mean is it a perfect movie, it is not a bad one and is more than watchable. Which can not be said of a lot of movies these days.Lesley-Anne Down is Margaret a Nurse who meets and falls in love with an American pilot (Harrison Ford) in England during World War 2, she is however married to a secret agent (Christopher Plummer) who ends up on a mission with Ford.This movie tells the story of what war is like for lovers, soldiers, and ordinary civilians caught up in it.Back in the pilots seat Ford is as reliable as you'd expect him to be at that time, Down, whilst looking very attractive gives an OK performance, but it's hard to feel any sympathy for her situation, as she is simply bored in her marriage to Plummer (who is as solid as you'd expect) and lusts after Ford. Ford's character for his part doesn't know she is married, and her trusting husband, does not suspect a thing. The rest of the cast is fine Richard Masur is a stand out performer and Kudos to a young Patsy Kensit as Down and Plummer's daughter. Shane Rimmer is also worthy of note as Ford's Colonel. John Barry's score is lovely and reminds me of his work in Somewhere In Time.The movie was sadly a critical and commercial flop upon release (despite Ford still being hot from 'Star Wars') which is a shame, as it is a much better movie than Pearl Harbour released a few years ago, which is more or less the same story but with a lot of CGI replacing genuine tension and not nearly as good performances.Everyone involved quickly moved on to other projects. Hyams directed the Sean Connery space thriller 'Outland' Barry composed the music for the next Bond flick 'Moonraker', Plummer starred opposite Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour in Somewhere In Time, Down starred opposite an in his prime Burt Reynolds and David Niven in the crime caper 'Rough Cut' and Ford, well he went off and made Empire Strikes Back and a little known picture by the name of Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

headhunter46 Any comments I include will not have enough info to ruin the movie. Myself, I don't like to read reviews with spoilers because I don't want to know how a movie ends before I see it.I gave this an 8 because of the way it moved me. Some will find fault with details but that was not what I came for. I came to see a movie that portrayed what it was like to be alive in the 1940's and this did not disappoint. It starts out a bit sarcastic regarding some Americans who are based in England flying bombing raids on Germany installations in France. An American pilot has a chance meeting with an English woman during a very terrifying bombing raid. Something clicked between them. The fear, the excitement, loneliness, who knows. But it pushed them together in a way that would never have happened otherwise.Maybe you had have been in the military to understand and appreciate the bantering between the servicemen. It made me laugh. Maybe you had to hear older folks talk about how horrible it was to have the whole world at war. That was scary because back then you did NOT know how it was going to turn out. Maybe you had to have been IN a war with real shooting for your guts to shrivel up when the shooting starts in the movie. Until you have been shot at with real bullets you do NOT know what it does to you. When our heroes walked into a Nazi headquarters I could feel my skin crawl. Later when they were running for their lives I could feel myself getting more tense by the second.The English woman and the American become so deeply attached they keep telling themselves they should stop meeting but they can't imagine life without each other. Later her husband and her lover end up in Nazi occupied France on a very important secret mission and have to depend on each other to survive.There is sweet romance, terror, laughter, and thrills.It gave me goosebumps to see the old airplanes lined up on the runway, droning their engines. Knowing that not long ago men boarded planes like those and gallantly flew off to risk their lives so others could live free.Very few people younger than 75 years of age know what it was like to live through that war so it is not likely they will get as deep into this movie as I did. Even though I was born after the war, I have heard numerous relatives talk about what it was like. Rationing of tires, gasoline, sugar, flour, all the things we take for granted. There was even a drive on for people to put their left over grease from cooking in containers. That was used to make numerous things, most of all gun powder. Many people had black out restrictions meaning if you lived near any important installations, your windows had to be covered so no light was showing.The stories my relatives told helped me truly grasp what it was like to live back then. The soldiers, sailors, and a couple of air force members helped me feel what they lived through and I will always be grateful to them for their dedication, and perseverance. This movie does a fair job of showing that if you can imagine yourself IN the movie, living through what is being depicted.I somehow missed this movie till just tonight. I saw it by chance at a video rental store. I very much like both Christopher Plummer and Harrison Ford. I plan to watch it again before I return it in five days.

MRavenwood This film has many great elements, but the whole things fails primarily due to overwrought dialogue that is very soap operatic with words put in character's mouths that mostly teenage girls would think of. Without John Barry's romantic score, this film would be pathetic, leaning towards hilarious.In any film, when two characters meet and fall in love there is a certain amount of time and shared experiences that pass in the story before the love between them is credible. In this film, the love is instant, deeply romantic -- yet torrid, and lasting. Completely impossible! Having said all that, the film still provides some great military movie sequences. There are some funny bits with Halloran and his co-pilot Cimino mouthing off during their missions and briefings. And a whole military caper pulled off by Halloran (Ford) and Mr. Sallinger (Plummer) which is both exciting and easy to follow.After a while, one realizes that Margaret Sallinger, (Down) never speaks her lines, she whispers them in a plaintive, teary voice, always on the verge of boo-hoo. This becomes grating after a while. Further, it makes the audience wonder what Halloran sees in her.Well, the answer to what the attraction is never comes, but the noble dialogue at the end is a struggle to listen to and is a riff on the immortal Casablanca "Hill of beans/Here's lookin' at you" farewell between Rick and Ilsa. It is well that this Hanover Street high-road sign-off sequence comes last as it is the most indulgent in melodrama. Still, Ford and Plummer work so effectively to make this movie almost passable that you really have to give them credit for their commitment to their characters.