Reviews

I have seen the both the 1946 version with Tyrone Power and this one with Bill Murray. They are both excellent movies. I believe it is one of Bill Murray's best. Everyone else has written about the content of the movie, so there is no need to rehash it again. Watch both and make your decision. I do find I like the Bill Murray version better.

TV movies back in the 70s were, well they were TV movies. Some good, some silly, some not so good. This was an excellent movie. When it came out in 1971, I was 15 going on 16 girl. The movie was done with compassion and let those who did not live it, the realization of what transpired in the US during WWII. Is is so relevant in this day an time when so much is spinning the world out of control again. Those that are old enough to remember that time have warned us this is what it felt like back then. This movie has stuck with me all my life. Years later after I left the Army I came home back to Sacramento and I had two good friends, one Japanese, one Chinese. I learned both sides of the story of WWII. May's parents immigrated from Hong Kong. Her mother absolutely hated Japanese for her whole family was wiped out during the war. Erin's parents were just kids when they were moved and put into the camps here in the US. I also worked with a gentleman who was one of the Japanese men allowed to be in the military. He had fought in Italy. I am a history buff and that era, and especially the war, has intrigued me. To think that a hundred million people died in the last century due to the prejudices of all the races. You would think by now that man would have gotten past all this.

Now I am reading a free book I bought on my Kindle. It is "It Had to Be You" by Cheryl Bolen. It and the movie now playing with Claudett Colbert called "Three Came Home" brought this movie back into my mind. The other book is about a couple who marry right before WWII and she goes with him to the camps. This one is the story of a woman living in a camp in the East Indies. I do wish they would air the TV movies again, especially this one. The current generation should be able to see what the world was like and what it could be again if we do not learn from it.

Not sad in the normal sense. It was too long and I did not care for any of the characters. There is always some sympathetic character, one you root for. I really did not care if they got back to Cordura. An earlier comment by bkoganbing about Gary Cooper being the wrong one for the part is so correct. Montgomery Cliff would have been better as the self-doubting one in charge. Gary Cooper has always been to me a very wooden actor and this movie did not change my mind about that. Van Heflin is good as the agitator in the movie and the rest of the actors became more well known in the 60s and did OK as the supporting cast. Rita Hayworth, well is Rita Hayworth. Not a horrible movie, if you have two hours you don't mind not getting back.

Reminds me a little of the Glenn Ford movie, "The Sheepman". Glenn Ford also brought sheep into bovine territory. I always like that movie and then just discovered this one on TCM this morning. Errol Flynn is one of my favorite actors and this little jewel will be added to my collection. The movies a classic B movie. But Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith was able to pull it off.

And to the person who called his sheepdog a mutt: that was a blue merle collie and could very well be my dog's great-great parent. Mac looked exactly like that. We lost him last year to cancer. This makes the movie even more cherished to me. I just purchased it on Amazon!