First, this is not a comedy. Don't be fooled. It has a kind of slapstick plot, alright, but just the sort of slapstick that is all too common in military and political arenas in all history, throughout time. It does have some very scathing monologues about American and British attitudes that seem to ring with clarity all these years later, sadly, sadly enough.
I have my elderly Dad over most weekends, and his short-term memory is about gone now, so one strategy I have for breaking through the five-questions-a-minute cycle is to watch old movies or sports with him. We plug into AMC for a couple of hours a day when he's visiting. Dad was career Navy through WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam, a retired Captain who started out his career as an admiral's aide, the same position that James Garner had in this movie.
I'd never heard of this movie, but I saw it was playing on AMC, Navy, War movie, comedy, romantic.... perfect, right?
Holy crap.
I can't disagree with the All Movie Guide description more. This movie is not hilarious. Its shows what's ridiculous about people during wartime, but it's not funny.
This is the darkest, saddest, war flick on the black-and-white side of Apocolypse Now that I can ever remember seeing. I'm amazed that it was made when it was made, and said what it said.
Full of all the philosophical and psycological compromises made and unmade as families and lovers are torn apart during the war, the ugliness of warroom politics, of disposable human life, it is no wonder the the film is one I've never heard of.
Why is that? And how was this silly description written, and what's the history of the showing of this film? I'm so glad AMC is showing it. I think it's worthy of another look and another discussion. But don't expect to do much laughing.
This is a very different Julie Andrews, folks. But the beginning of the classic Garner character.