Very best movie i ever watch

Expected more

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Think of Network or The Hospital, Paddy Chayefsky was seeing into the future and what he saw was ugly. Here we have an insane admiral and how his men, who know he's crazy, stand in line to follow his wishes/commands. An anti war film without sentimentality. Julie Andrews is a total delight as the tough cookie with a razor sharp mind. James Garner has the best lines of his career. His tea with Joyce Grenfell is a superb written scene. Joyce Grenfell as Julie's mother is divine, yes, divine! Melvyn Douglas as the crazy man in charge is the Howard Beale of the situation and what he does with it is pure genius. Highly recommend it.

A brilliant anti-war film with a very unlikely cast & director. Scripted by Paddy Chayefsky (from a novel by William Bradford Huie), James Garner is a cowardly admiral's aide in WWII London who gets mixed up with car pool member Julie Andrews and, despite his best efforts, finds himself landing in Normandy on D-Day. While the tone is definitely satiric and the film features a fair amount of laughs, it's also both harsh & unforgiving. A major highlight has Garner, in a gut wrenching speech, explaining to Andrews' shell-shocked mother the true meaning of war and what the deaths of soldiers really means. It's a genuinely "cruel to be kind" moment. Chayefsky's script is both rip-roaring and surprisingly touching. The direction by Arthur Hiller is excellent. The supporting cast includes Edward Binns, Liz Fraser (as a very willing party girl) and James Coburn as Garner's by-the-book best buddy. Joyce Grenfell is excellent as Andrews' mother. Melvyn Douglas, in an astounding performance, is Garner's superior who sets into motion some truly outrageous events. The chemistry between Garner & Andrews is undeniable. Andrews gives a great straight performance, especially impressive considering she played her signature role in MARY POPPINS the same year. The mightily impressive D-Day landing sequence was actually shot on a beach in Oxnard, CA.

Building up to D-Day, American Charlie Madison (James Garner) arrives in England on May 4, 1944. He is a "Dog-Robber" or a personal attendant of a general or an admiral keeping the highest ranked personnel happy. Emily Barham (Julie Andrews) is the driver given to the brash Madison and she's not very impress with the American at first. She had suffered great losses. Despite that, they fall for each other. His superior Adm. William Jessup (Melvyn Douglas) is going crazy trying to maintain the profile of the Navy. He comes up with a scheme to make the first dead man on Omaha beach to be a sailor and sends Charlie off to the pointless suicide mission.For this movie, it's the Paddy Chayefsky screenplay that is the most important. His lines are sizzling. James Garner eats up his rants. The 'cowardice as a virtue' speech has no parallels that I know of. His character is deeply complex. Julie Andrews is absolutely winning. The story doesn't portray the military in the best light.

This classic anti-war film with its heavy dose of black humor is one of the most entertaining "war" movies I have ever seen. Not a war movie in the usual sense, it definitely deals with the subject of war and attempts, through the character of Charlie Madison, to expose war as a tragedy. The lesson is delivered with a dose of levity that makes this movie all the more entertaining.Writer Paddy Chayefsky has scripted material custom-made for James Garner and Julie Andrews in the roles of Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Madison and Emily Barham. The two leading actors are supported by a strong cast that includes Melvyn Douglas, James Coburn, Joyce Grenfell and William Winton.Garner is the cynical aide to Admiral Jessup, played by Melvyn Douglas. Jessup is dedicated to the glorification of war and particularly the role of the navy. Garner, as Madison, delivers a number of private lectures on the immorality of war and the men who wage it and confesses that he is a coward. The audience can judge whether or not he is a coward but he is honest and is certainly nobody's fool. He does not let his strong anti-war bias show but dutifully performs his job for the jaded Admiral Jessup. The role is made for Garner and he delivers.Madison meets and falls in love with a young Englishwoman, Emily Barham, who is the epitome of the stiff upper lip folks of wartime Britain. Emily has lost her husband, father and brother to the war but unlike Charlie, feels that their deaths are heroic. Charlie Madison, the self-confessed coward, and Emily literally come to blows during a stormy relationship. Nevertheless Charlie is a very witty and debonair "coward"...one who Emily cannot resist.The climax comes when Adm. Jessup in one of his moments of insanity, decides to film the first unknown sailor to die on the beaches of Normandy. James Coburn, who plays Charlie's womanizing buddy, embraces the scheme with enthusiasm. Charlie finds himself reluctantly going along with this public relations stunt with interesting consequences for his career and for his relationship with Emily.James Coburn, Melvyn Douglas, and Joyce Grenfell are all in top form. William Winton, who later starred in Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury, offers another strong supporting role. The movie is one great vehicle for the talents of Garner and Andrews, who meet up again in the movie Victor, Victoria, many years later. There is a remarkable chemistry between them.