Wonderful character development!

Sadly Over-hyped

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

This is one of Steve McQueen's most interesting character creations, a soldier too good to be good at anything but war. He is not war mad, though, but he is a very interesting border case - even his superiors expect him to go over the top at any moment, but let him go on as long as no one gets hurt.The crisis occurs when his mate Robert Wagner gets involved with a beautiful woman, for which he himself also feels he is getting weak. She sees him through and executes his character, which he can't survive.There are many other interesting ingredients as well, especially the case of the other mate who sees him through - Marty Lynch, the soldier with the dog, who at one point dares to interfere when Steve goes too far in rudeness with women in a pub. Here is also a wonderful study in the cultural clash between the English and the American way.There is much in this film to take care of for closer observation, it is full of important details, and it is extremely realistic. It is made on a humble basis without pretensions in black and white and is almost documentary in character in depicting life for the bombers of Germany.In the beginning you fall for Steve's character for his excellence, but as the character is rolled up you must find him absolutely abominable at least in some ways. He is not sympathetic at all when it comes to it, and his superiority gets lost in his lack of humanity, but still there is something there, which he even must admit in the end that he just couldn't but give in to.In brief, it's a complex and fascinating character of hidden depths which must remain a riddle. You get to know nothing of his private life or life before the war, this happens during the war at its most critical turn, while you get to know him only by his actions, which are very difficult to form an opinion of, but which makes this monstrous but in all his monstrosity so extremely vulnerable war character the more fascinating.

Arguably "The War Lover",along with Len Deighton's "Bomber" is a top contender for the best novel written about the air war against Germany. I understand Mr Deighton has insisted on full control over any adaptation of his masterpiece - a proviso that has so far kept it out of the hands of the studios .Even a casual view of the movie version of "The War Lover" would seem to vindicate his position from a writer's point of view. Arthur Hornblow has made a good film about the USAAF's bombing campaign in Europe in much the same way as John Huston made a good film about catching whales out of "Moby Dick". The perennial problem of translating a work from one medium to another remains unresolved,quite possibly unresolvable unless a director resorts to a scene-for-scene adaptation.An ideal solution perhaps to salve the delicate ego of a novelist,but not to retain the attention of a moviegoer. Mr Hornblow settled for a no nonsense approach this story about a menage a trois in wartime England.Miss Shirley Anne Field is the object of affection for both Mr Bob Wagner and Mr Steve McQueen. Mr Wagner is the nice sensitive guy,Mr McQueen is the arrogant womaniser.As they both fly the same B17 this tends to put a strain on their relationship.Miss Field rather niftily steals the film from under the noses of her illustrious co - stars.The daughter of legendary British Music Hall comic Sid Field,she had beauty,brains and talent in abundance.The Film Industry's failure to make the most of this fine actress's abilities is scandalous. Mr Wagner does well as her original lover,introspective,with a quiet strength of character.Mr McQueen cleverly combines cockiness and vulnerability as the eponymous "War Lover",a character who - in the novel - lacked empathy to the extent of being almost sociopathic. But the iconic Big - Assed - Bird is the real star of the movie. Bloodied,battered but unbowed,the Flying Fortress brought back its crews time and again from the hostile skies over Europe,often with incapacitated pilots at the controls,almost as if it was willing itself to bring back safely its cargo of brave young men whose collective will and courage helped destroy Nazism. In the Grand Scheme of things,men like Buzz and Bo ,their personal affairs and their fate was of little consequence,but from time to time it is appropriate to remind ourselves that the Grand Scheme is made up of a lot of Little Schemes that involve individual human beings and their individual lives.That is what "The War Lover" does - and it does it rather well.

The producers of this movie were lucky that black&white was still just possible for a cinematic release. This meant they could reuse a lot of newsreel footage although the joins do show.In the main the special effects are pretty good. The back projection of cockpit shots is believable. The real flying sequences are fantastic, particularly when Rickson "McQueen" buzzes the airfield in his Flying Fortress. The stunt pilot must have been pretty good.The final mission gives you an idea of what it was like to fly a heavy bomber. In part there is the adrenalin of shooting at enemy fighters but on the other hand the ever present risk of death. The Fortress looked like a state of the art bomber with its powered lower gun position – obviously the Star War's Millennium Falcon was based in part on the Fort.What of the movie? We don't find out much about McQueen. Shirley Anne-Field has an accent so posh even the Queen of England would sound like an pleb. Interesting that she beds a young and suave looking Wagner on the first date although the between the sheets action is kept to Field doing up her stockings while wearing a nightie. The moral of the film is possibly "don't put out on the first date"! Although British war girls did have the reputation of Teflon coated knicker elastic where Americans were concerned.The good thing with these old movies is spotting the bit-part players. The recently deceased Ed Bishop, who, apart from cult TV favorite UFO, made a career as a bit-part Yank and… who would believe it… Michael Crawford as the gunner, long before his madcap antics on SMDHE. Burt Kwouk (bit part Chinese – you would have thought that after 77 years he would have lost the accent !) even gets an unaccredited speaking role.

Aviation author Martin Caiden (his books were the basis for the film "Marooned" and the t.v show "The Six Million Dollar Man") published a book entitled "Everything But The Flak" that detailed the efforts to revive three Navy PB-1 Flying Forts and the ensuing flight adventure of moving them across the Atlantic to England for the making of "The War Lover" which is a "must read" for those interested in the making of this film. He accompanied the flight crews and although his larger-than-life account of their hijinks (rumbling with Soviets in the airport in Greenland, being locked up by Interpol in Portugal on suspicion of smuggling illicit warplanes - after all these three B-17s had active gun turrets) must be taken with a grain of salt, the guy sure could spin a great yarn! The book is probably WAY out of print but is well worth seeking out as it gives some idea of the difficulty of reactivating three WW II bombers years before the warbird revival got underway. Unfortunately, due to import/export duties in England in the early 1960s, Columbia Pictures scrapped two of the three Fortresses after filming was completed and only one has survived, used for promotion of the film before being passed onto other hands.The movie itself has lots of B-17 action of the planes taxiing around the airfield prior to mission take-off that is frequently edited out for television broadcast to save time for commercials or to fit into a specific airtime envelope. If it airs uncut, notice the patchy paint on the Fortress noses as three airframes portray a much larger squadron, with nose art changed several times.Mark Sublette, Falls Church, Virginia