Hope and Glory (1987)

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!

HOPE AND GLORY is the protean John Boorman's autobiographic re-enactment of his childhood during WWII, in the suburban London, the Rowan family, Bill (Rice-Edwards) is an ordinary 10-year-old schoolboy with parents Grace (Miles) and Clive (Hayman), he has an elder sister Dawn (Davis) and a younger one Dawn (Muir). The film begins just before the war, through Bill's eyes, it endearingly portrays how the war has influenced and altered their life, and very rarely in a vivaciously snappy tone, which sets itself apart from the usual clusters of heavy-handed war travails. "How is your war?" when Clive comes back for Christmas after voluntarily joining the army, he asks one pal. War does take its toll on everyone with different repercussions, exclusively steers in the homestead life during wartime, Boorman excellently carves an outstanding ensemble piece out of a structurally formal script, apart from the direct threat from frequent air-raids, life continues its course, Grace is left to take care of three children and grows closer to Mac (O'Connor), Clive's brother, who is in an unhappy marriage with Molly (Wooldridge), and both betrays their own feelings, but refrained afterward. The sweet sixteen Dawn rebelliously falls for a young France-born soldier Bruce (Barr); while Bill himself joins in a local boys' gang and becomes obsessed with shrapnel. After a fire destroys their house, they relocate to Grace's parents' living near a river, where the children spend a wonderful summer time and they decide to settle down. Boorman also engages in establishing onerous visual spectacles to widen the scale of an epic vibe, constructs an impressive set of the neighborhood which is constantly under the demolition of bombing, conjures up the giant barrage balloons, which can befuddle younger generations for its utility. The all-British (bar Barr) cast achieves an handsome task with well-toned kitchen-sink accessibility instead of larger-than-life theatricality. As his only acting project so far, Sebastian Rice-Edwards is another cute-on-the-eye kid scanning the trials and tribulations of adult world through his innocent eyes, and indeed, he is truly reveling in it, in the fabulous coda, when his school is razed by the bomb, his sincere happiness is so tangible even the line "thank you, Adolf Hitler" sounds like a resounding mantra to encourage people to endure the hard times. The usually high-strung Sarah Miles puts on a brave face as a mother of three, sustains the household under dire straits; Sammi Davis, vividly embodies the young-and-rebellious type, but never over-stresses the standard stench of obnoxiousness and obdurateness. David Hayman's Clive, emits a more satirical presence as the blueprint of an ideal family man who decidedly joins the army out of the spur of patriotism, ends up as a typist nowhere near the war-zone. O'Connor and Wooldridge, the former is comprehensively tagged with a nice-guy label, while the latter is so unsatisfied with her dead-water marriage and becomes overtly proud of her amoral affairs. But, amongst of all, it is Ian Bannen, as grandpa George, who is the real deal, not comes into the scene until the third act, he is an grumpy old patriarch, a male-chauvinist, names his four daughters Grace, Faith, Hope and Charity, since they are the merits wanting in him, and grumbles they are all married to non-achievers. He arbitrarily infuriates his wife during the Christmas reunion by brashly reciting all his old flames' names (which is quite a long list), but at the same time, he takes on the duty as a father figure, plays cricket with his grandson and teaches him how to steer a punt, uttering "never give up the punt for the pole", who doesn't want a grandpa like him? Nominated for 5 Oscars, including BEST PICTURE, and BEST DIRECTOR, the film debatably the crest of Boorman's career, life is full of drama and tears, but even at its bleakest, there is always humor and optimism within, that's why HOPE AND GLORY works. P.S: News arrives that Boorman has made a sequel of it, QUEEN AND COUNTRY (2014), which has debuted at Cannes this year but I've yet to see, it is greatly admirable and grateful to see this octogenarian never stop working.

The scene is seen through the eyes of ten-year-old Billy who is confronted with real life during the second world war. He discovers all the horrors and absurdities of an adult's life and sexuality too, because his sister is running after soldiers. This film shows that Billy is a little independent because, when is father goes to France, he is the only boy in the family, so that shows John Boorman, when he was a child, lived with females and had to go to school with is sister and his mother was staying at home. That shows that Billy was confronted with war and life too. This film is accessible to all and it should be seen. It's a beautiful movie but there are a lot of absurd scenes.

In fact, the story is good with a young actor who plays very well. But the film is old and the plot is getting worse and worse. What a pity ! And the film is very long and it's very boring. But I think that the film is a good idea because we can see the war through the child's eyes and it's very interesting.This film shows us that children do not perceive events as adults. They see the war as one game rather than a disaster. I love the grand-father in this film. He is really strange but he brings a little humor in the movie. He's crazy !I hate the end which is not in reality or maybe it is because I didn't understand it. I find the story lacks in action which makes it boring. But the beautiful story between the sister and the soldier carries more "action". Generally, this film is really average in any case it is not the film of the year !