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Hope and Glory
A middle-aged man recalls his childhood growing up in and around London during World War II.
Release : | 1987 |
Rating : | 7.3 |
Studio : | Columbia Pictures, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Production Design, |
Cast : | Sebastian Rice-Edwards Geraldine Muir Sarah Miles David Hayman Sammi Davis |
Genre : | Drama Family War |
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Very best movie i ever watch
Did you people see the same film I saw?
A Masterpiece!
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
With tons of warmth and tenderness, English writer-director John Boorman delivers a charming portrayal of childhood and family life in wartime. Without getting too saccharine, the film manages to engage, entertain and even make you laugh.
As someone who was 9yrs old at the start of the war and lived in the London suburb of Southall I found the film unbelievably accurate and it was like watching my very own experiences all over again. From having my sister and I 's evacuation to relatives in the U.S. canceled at the last minute because a previous ship from the London area was torpedoed, to the scrambling over bomb sites and collecting shrapnel it was uncannily similar. I was playing with my lead soldiers out on the pavement when that first test Siren went off and we were all herded under a bed downstairs. Lead soldiers lost their appeal with all the excitement of dog fights over head , near misses from bombs that flattened nearby houses and the joy from us all ( as in the film) school was canceled when an unexploded bomb landed in the playground. I was not lucky enough to have a rich uncle who lived on the Thames though,so when the bombing got a bit too much we were sent off to Bristol with our relatives there until Bristol started getting pounded just as much as London.Seen the film 4 times now with last night's showing on Foxtel 27/6/2013 always a joy to watch for the memories. Since first posting my review I have read all the others and was a little surprised at the negative comments of some. Possibly the film is viewed a lot more favourably by the English, especially if from that era as I was. But I can assure everyone that I cannot fault the accuracy of most of the events and the attitude of most people coping with it all. Of course there was death and destruction all around, but as long as it wasn't personally you , humour helped everyone cope, which surely is not just a British trait ? The film was supposed to be through a boys eyes after all, nit picking a film that was as true a recreation of how life was for an ordinary family in war time , just beats me. As in the film, I as another 9yr old, never at any time felt the fear that my parents and other adults were probably fighting in their own way. I was just caught up in all the excitement part of it. I have to get a D.V.D. copy of the film now to give to my Grand children, and say " That's what it was like." So true to how it was.!
When I saw the poster of the film I thought : "waow ! it is going to be a romantic film, we will take out our hardkerchieves". But it is not. I have found the film unbelievable, wonderful. I have been touched by all characters. The acting is perfect. The little boy who plays the role of Bill is magnificent and the elder daughter is playing beautifully. The film is seen through the eye of a British boy, we can say that the film is autobiographical. John Boorman shows own experience during world war II with a lot of sentiments, emotion, a mixture of fun moments and sad moments. I think it is the best film I have seen in years. I give it an 8 and I will always be thankful to my teacher for seeing the film. It is a film for you if you want to be touched, to be flabbergasted and please if you are touched by the film like me, pass on the message that this film is wonderful.
There is something so distinctly British about the Home Front during World War II. Perhaps it was the movies that portrayed the typically 'stiff upper-lipped' Brits holding their heads high and getting on with their everyday lives, not letting the fact that the country was being destroyed by German bombs get them down. And so came John Boorman's semi-autobiographical account of a child growing up during the Blitz, trying to capture that old-school spirit, and giving a fresh perspective from a particularly naive child's point of view.The film follows the Rowan family whose youngest child Bill (Sebastian Rice-Edwards) finds the frequent air raids and destruction as exciting as it is terrifying. His sister Dawn (Sammi Davis) falls for a Canadian solider who is soon called back into action. His father Clive (David Hayman) volunteers for the army and heads off to fight until he's deemed too old and supports the war effort from an administrative angle. And struggling to hold the whole family together is the mother Grace (Sarah Miles), who in her loneliness seeks out the comfort of Clive's best friend who she had feelings for back before she got together with Clive.Nominated for 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, I was expecting a definitive account of Britain during WWII. What I witnessed was a badly acted, amateurish and poorly scripted film that I found reminiscent of an ITV drama with a slightly bigger budget that normal. I was genuinely surprised, as I'd heard nothing but good things about it. It felt that one scene led to the next without any control or idea of where it was heading. The relationship between Dawn and the Canadian soldier is every bit as predictable and tedious as you would expect, and I failed believe any of it. The third act of the film moves the action to the granddad's countryside home, and meanders there for a long time without much happening at all.The film is also guilty of some truly terrible acting. Decent child actors are always hard to find, but Rice-Edwards doesn't even remotely convince as an actor. He delivers his lines with a rigid blankness and is not able to channel his character's emotions through to the audience. And the late Ian Bannen playing Grandfather George suffers from a bad script and bad direction. He is meant to be the lovably grouchy old man, but stomping around muttering inaudible grumblings over and over and over again is neither funny or convincing.I'll stop the moaning there I think, because there were things I also liked about the film, it's just that the negatives irritated me so much that they overshadowed the positives. A stray weather balloon causing havoc amongst the rooftops whilst the family watch with glee, and the Canadian solider pulling faces through the family window while they stand straight-faced listening to 'God Save The Queen' are a couple of the rather wonderful and funny moments of the film. And the forbidden and potential love affair between Grace and her husband's best friend seen through the eyes of a maturing Bill is cleverly explored only in glimpses.Overall an okay movie, which I will no doubt watch again in a few years to see if I've just missed something, giving the overwhelmingly positive critical response the film received. But for now I'll stick to my guns.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com