Powerful

Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Proof that Jimmy Stewart can star in mediocre movies. Essentially a piece of Cold War propaganda, the plot is so-so, the dialogue is overly gung-ho, and the acting is fairly wooden. Even the great Jimmy Stewart seems like he is just going through the motions. I guess Hollywood wanted to continue to milk the fact that he was a WW2 bomber pilot. June Allyson, usually wonderful to watch, is incredibly irritating as the long-suffering Air Force wife.It's not all bad though. Any scenes involving the B-36 and B-47 bombers were great, and there's a lot of them.

On the evening of July 1st 1952 a couple of chaps and I were kicking a ball about on the beach at Minehead, West Somerset, England when we heard this rising sound of aircraft, then overhead at quite a low level a number of B36's flew over from East to West. Our accounts of the number varied from fourteen to eighteen as they were spread right out. But it was an awesome sight that I have never forgotten. From that day anything to do with the Peacemaker I've followed with great interest. The sequences on the ground and in the air in this film are marvellous. I'm seventy-eight now but the B-36 was and always will be an all-time great to me.

This is actually one of the few good films made in the 1950s about the cold war. It's not full of unpalatable, heavy-handed anti-Communist propaganda. Instead, it's a believable human story of a man and his wife struggling to understand why it's necessary for him to give up his current way of life (as a major-league baseball player with a new home) to help defend his country in peacetime. James Stewart and June Allyson again prove to be a great screen couple in an involving, well-acted, ultimately moving story that was a huge hit in its day.Sally Holland (Allyson) questions why her husband, Dutch (Stewart), agrees to return to active service when there's no war. Dutch tries to make her understand that "it is a kind of war." This argument occurs to illustrate the need for active vigilance vs. passive indifference in the ongoing Cold War. The whole film seems to exist to illustrate the rightness of Stewart's side of the argument, and to show those in the audience thinking more like Allyson that to refuse to defend against the threat of nuclear war with the Soviets is irresponsible.Yet there's a sort of subversive undercurrent in the film that suggests Allyson has a point. And I think this is why the film remains one of the more subtle Cold War propaganda films. The writing and direction (Anthony Mann) manage to respect the characters rather than the ideology.Meanwhile we have an entertaining story in stunning VistaVision and Technicolor, really superb cinematography (both on the ground and in the skies), and a great score by Victor Young which has several beautiful themes.The supporting cast contains several actors who were stars in their own right: Barry Sullivan, Alex Nicol, Bruce Bennett, Frank Lovejoy (as General Hawks, a Curtis LeMay type), as well as James Millican, Jay C. Flippen, James Bell, Harry Morgan, and Rosemary DeCamp. The fact that many of these very important actors would take what were almost bit parts, in some cases, speaks to the importance of this project. The poignant ending is also extraordinary and unexpected. Dutch Holland, having given up an amazing career that would be the envy of most men in order to serve his country as a pilot, sustains an injury that leaves him unable to fly, as well as unable to return to a career in sports. It's a great irony. Stewart hasn't literally given his life for his country, but he's given up a great deal. It's an example of the unspoken heroism of so many who served. The final scene says it all, as we see the mixture of emotions on Stewart's face as he stands with Allyson watching the planes flying. And then the camera cuts away and the film is over. A very moving moment beautifully acted by the stars. By the way, it's not June Allyson's fault that in this film she had to play a kind of devil's advocate role that forced her to question a lot of her husband's and the Air Force's prerogatives, for the sake of exposition. She does a good job, even though some of what she's asked to do would probably be more easy to accept coming from a younger, more emotionally immature bride. Nonetheless, If you enjoy the chemistry she and Stewart have on the screen, as I do, you'll appreciate their artistry and subtlety in their scenes together. They give an emotional slant to an essentially technical, military story. At the time, both stars were at the top of their careers, being the most popular stars at the box office in 1955. In 2016, Olive Films released a beautiful print on DVD and Blu-ray, in wide screen.

There are many movie couples who appeared on the silver screen that were made for each other. Their special talent lent their persona's to the films they were in and the formula worked as they were thrust together time after time. That is the story here as James Stewart playing Lt. Col. Robert 'Dutch' Holland is paired with lovable June Allyson as Sally Holland. The film is a reoccurring one as many annoyed reservists of this day and age can testify. Having done his air service duty during W. W. II, Bob Holland has taken his civilian job seriously and plans a long and lucrative career as third baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals. However, what was suggested as a 'part-time' job with the U.S. Airforce Reserves, becomes a dream stealing task when his reserve status is activated. Frank Lovejoy plays Gen. Ennis C. Hawkes who doesn't care what Holland like to do, he 'has a job' to do and the ballplayer has become part of the military team. Barry Sullivan plays Lt. Col. Rocky Samford. Unable to get a release from the military, Dutch makes the best of a bitter situation, one felt by many other reservists, and learns to fly the newest aircrafts, traveling around the globe. A supremely haunting musical theme accompanies this movie and Stewart/Allyson fans accept it as a heart warmer. I would tend to agree. ***