This is a true comedy which is both excellent and enjoyable - unfortunately today too many of them are only one or the other - and we will not even think about all those that are neither the one nor the other. It is a comedy of attitudes but these are mainly brought out in the form of sharp and incisive dialogue. The scriptwriter Paddy Chayefsky must be given most of the credit for this, but both Julie Andrews and James Garner give superlative performances. The story takes place during World War 2, and Julie plays the part of Emily, a British war widow who has also lost her brother in conflict, but who remains very aware of the necessity of destroying Hitler and all that he stands for. She is a motor pool driver for, and develops an unlikely attraction to, Charles (James Garner), a U.S. naval officer who had seen active service in Guadalcanal in the Pacific, and then pulled some strings to get transferred to duties as an aide to Rear-Admiral Jessup working in London on the planning of D-day.in 1944. Although Germany declared war on America, Charles is not too interested in Europe and does not feel as involved as he did with the war against Japan. His philosophy is to promote cowardice because the making of heroism into a major virtue promotes wars with all their ugly consequences. The dialogue between this ill-matched pair simply sparkles and anyone who can appreciate irony will enjoy the film..
The pay-off comes when Jessup, who is mainly interested in the political issues of raising awareness of the role of the navy, and increasing Senate appropriations for his service, conceives the idea of filming naval personnel involved in the Omaha Beach D-day landing and subsequently creating a humongous memorial to the first naval casualty. As a former cameraman Charles is allocated to this duty, but despite Emily's disdain tries hard to wriggle out of the commitment. He fails and is later reported to have been the first casualty of the landing. Jessup is delighted and activates his plans to build a memorial. His superior turns up and laughs at them as futile - then it transpires that Charles is alive and the superior is thrilled. He can present Charles to the senate as the first man ashore - which he feels would be much more effective than just creating a memorial. Plans are made to fly Charles back to the USA for this presentation until he declares that he will not play ball, he would rather expose the whole ridiculous plan to the media. The top brass are nonplussed until Emily joins the group and finally persuades Charles to go along with the plan. This is all in good fun, but there is very real and sharp satire in the way the military brass are only interested in building up their service and regard all their lower ranks as expendable for this purpose.
This is not really either an anti-war or a pro-war film. It recognises that there may ultimately be no alternative to fighting, but points sharp barbs at military thinking that does not begin to understand the consequences involved. Seen with a film such as "Dr Strangelove - or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb", it provides a salutary lesson about the absurdity of the concept of total mutual destruction as an effective deterrent for war. When it was first released its reception in the USA was influenced by the politics of the Vietnam war which was then entering its most bloody phase. Subsequently VHS copies of it almost disappeared, but finally a DVD version was released last year. I was very happy to discover this recently, and I recommend anyone who has not seen it to rent or buy a copy.
The pay-off comes when Jessup, who is mainly interested in the political issues of raising awareness of the role of the navy, and increasing Senate appropriations for his service, conceives the idea of filming naval personnel involved in the Omaha Beach D-day landing and subsequently creating a humongous memorial to the first naval casualty. As a former cameraman Charles is allocated to this duty, but despite Emily's disdain tries hard to wriggle out of the commitment. He fails and is later reported to have been the first casualty of the landing. Jessup is delighted and activates his plans to build a memorial. His superior turns up and laughs at them as futile - then it transpires that Charles is alive and the superior is thrilled. He can present Charles to the senate as the first man ashore - which he feels would be much more effective than just creating a memorial. Plans are made to fly Charles back to the USA for this presentation until he declares that he will not play ball, he would rather expose the whole ridiculous plan to the media. The top brass are nonplussed until Emily joins the group and finally persuades Charles to go along with the plan. This is all in good fun, but there is very real and sharp satire in the way the military brass are only interested in building up their service and regard all their lower ranks as expendable for this purpose.
This is not really either an anti-war or a pro-war film. It recognises that there may ultimately be no alternative to fighting, but points sharp barbs at military thinking that does not begin to understand the consequences involved. Seen with a film such as "Dr Strangelove - or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb", it provides a salutary lesson about the absurdity of the concept of total mutual destruction as an effective deterrent for war. When it was first released its reception in the USA was influenced by the politics of the Vietnam war which was then entering its most bloody phase. Subsequently VHS copies of it almost disappeared, but finally a DVD version was released last year. I was very happy to discover this recently, and I recommend anyone who has not seen it to rent or buy a copy.