Jackson Booth-Millard
I had missed the opportunity to watch this semi-autobiographical film a few times on television, in 2017 it was celebrating its 30th anniversary, and I was celebrating my 30th birthday, watching it was my to celebrate both occasions, from Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated director John Boorman (Point Blank, Deliverance, Exorcist II: The Heretic). Basically it tells the story of the Rohan family: nine-year-old Billy (Sebastian Rice-Edwards), his sisters Sue (Geraldine Muir) and Dawn (Sammi Davis), and his parents Grace (BAFTA nominated Sarah Miles) and Clive (David Hayman), living in a suburb of London. After the broadcast by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, announcing the beginning of the Second World War, Clive joins the army, leaving Grace alone to look after the children. The action is seen through the eyes of Billy, the Blitz occurs every night, Billy sees it as the chance for "fireworks, as exciting as they are terrifying, he and his family do not see things in the same way as the bombs continue to drop, the family are brought closer together by their will to survive the nightly raids. Billy learns about sex, death, love, hypocrisy, and the faults of adults, and prowls the ruins of bombed houses on Rosehill Avenue, while his older sister Dawn falls for a Canadian soldier, becomes pregnant, and finds her life turned upside down, but learns the value of family. The family are eventually evacuated, moving to the Thames-side idyllic country home of Grace's parents, Grandfather George (BAFTA nominated Ian Bannen) and Grandma (Annie Leon), Billy's childlike father, who is off chasing patriotic dreams of glory, visits when he can. Billy's mother finds it difficult to cope in these turbulent times, there is an incident where the grandparents' house burns down, not following a raid, an ordinary house fire, but this provides Billy an opportunity to spend more time with his curmudgeonly grandfather. The end of the film sees the family survive the war, the parents and children reunite happily, and Billy is joyful following the end of the Blitz, when Hitler has bombed his school. Also starring Derrick O'Connor as Mac, BAFTA winning Susan Wooldridge as Molly, Jean-Marc Barr as Corporal Bruce Carrey, Jill Baker as Faith, Amelda Brown as Hope, Katrine Boorman as Charity, Charley Boorman as Luftwaffe Pilot and The Man with the Golden Gun's Gerald James as the Headmaster. This is a very clever way to tell stories of war, seen from the perspective of a younger character, not a scary experience, but a chance for adventure, so the film is not all doom and gloom, there are actually well crafted funny and charming moments, in amongst the bombings and battlefield sequences, it really emphasises the importance of family, and the costumes and settings are authentic looking, it is just a surprisingly delightful war drama. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for John Boorman, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Make Up Artist, Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Score for Peter Martin and Best Sound, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, and it was nominated for Best Screenplay. Very good!
FlashCallahan
Bill Rohan, a young boy living on the outskirts of London experiences the exhilaration of World War II. During this period, Bill learns about sex, death, love, hypocrisy, and the faults of adults as he prowls the ruins of bombed houses on Rosehill Avenue. His father is off chasing patriotic dreams of glory from behind a military clerk's typewriter; his teenage sister runs wild; his mother can't cope; but hopefully everything in the end will eventually turn out all right.....A semi autobiographical movie by Boorman, Hope and Glory is as British as British movies have been since the old Ealing comedies.And what's not to like about it? From the movie, you realise that growing up as a young child in WW2, must have had so much impact on your life, from family leaving, to lack of education, its all here, and even though Boorman slightly sugarcoats it and gives it an almost fairy tale like feel, its gripping stuff.Along with the fantastic cast, including a scene stealing Ian Bannen, the sets are spectacular and really have an authentic feel to the proceedings.The final third takes you away from the war, and the pain, and lets you spend the rest of the movie enjoying the English summer, a real treat, and a lovely way to end a film.For the lengthy running time, it moves along quickly, and although its a tough subject for many, the essence of the film is love, and how huge events bring the nuclear family close together.
alloymike
As someone who was 9yrs old at the start of the war and lived in the London suburb of Southall I found the film unbelievably accurate and it was like watching my very own experiences all over again. From having my sister and I 's evacuation to relatives in the U.S. canceled at the last minute because a previous ship from the London area was torpedoed, to the scrambling over bomb sites and collecting shrapnel it was uncannily similar. I was playing with my lead soldiers out on the pavement when that first test Siren went off and we were all herded under a bed downstairs. Lead soldiers lost their appeal with all the excitement of dog fights over head , near misses from bombs that flattened nearby houses and the joy from us all ( as in the film) school was canceled when an unexploded bomb landed in the playground. I was not lucky enough to have a rich uncle who lived on the Thames though,so when the bombing got a bit too much we were sent off to Bristol with our relatives there until Bristol started getting pounded just as much as London.Seen the film 4 times now with last night's showing on Foxtel 27/6/2013 always a joy to watch for the memories. Since first posting my review I have read all the others and was a little surprised at the negative comments of some. Possibly the film is viewed a lot more favourably by the English, especially if from that era as I was. But I can assure everyone that I cannot fault the accuracy of most of the events and the attitude of most people coping with it all. Of course there was death and destruction all around, but as long as it wasn't personally you , humour helped everyone cope, which surely is not just a British trait ? The film was supposed to be through a boys eyes after all, nit picking a film that was as true a recreation of how life was for an ordinary family in war time , just beats me. As in the film, I as another 9yr old, never at any time felt the fear that my parents and other adults were probably fighting in their own way. I was just caught up in all the excitement part of it. I have to get a D.V.D. copy of the film now to give to my Grand children, and say " That's what it was like." So true to how it was.!
