HOPE AND GLORY Movie Review

1987 John Boorman

John Boorman's autobiographical look back at his childhood may be the most accurate portrait of the British homefront ever put on film. It's World War II seen through the eyes of a boy, but unlike most childhood memories, this one comes without the sentimentality. Beneath the unavoidable nostalgia is an honest understanding of the massive changes that the war brought to England and the English. Ideas of devotion to duty and noble self-sacrifice are conspicuously absent in a story of ordinary yet remarkable people who simply do what they have to do to get through a tough situation.

After a prologue showing dozens of wee tykes running amok at a Saturday matinee featuring Hopalong Cassidy, the story begins on September 3, 1939—the British equivalent of December 7, 1941. It's a beautiful Sunday in a lower middle-class London neighborhood. As our narrator Bill (Sebastian Rice-Edwards) remembers it, he's playing with his toy knights in the garden when he hears all of the lawnmowers stop. The Prime Minister has just announced that a state of war has been declared against Germany and he realizes that “nothing would be the same again.” Bill's father Clive (David Hayman) enlists right away but is afraid to tell his wife Grace (Sarah Miles), and so she hears it first from the neighbors. Before long, blackouts, gas masks, air raid alarms, and bomb shelters become part of their lives, and when the bombing starts, the war comes right onto their street.

For kids, though, war isn't hell, it's fun. After the bombs fall, the streets are full of shiny shrapnel, still warm—just the thing for a boy to add to his collection. The gutted houses are glorious places for gangs of kids to play out their joyously destructive fantasies. For Bill's older sister Dawn (Sammi Davis), a teenager in a hurry to grow up, the newly arrived Canadian troops are an answered prayer. In many ways, the disruption of the adults' world is more subtle, or at least more difficult for a child to comprehend. The complex depths of the relationship between Grace and her friend Mac (Derrick O'Connor) and his wife Molly (Susan Wooldridge) are slowly revealed. Likewise, Grace's parents (Ian Bannen and Annie Leon) don't really come into their own until the final act. Despite the familiarity of the setting and the situation, there is not a single stereotype in the group. All of these are fully realized, believable characters whose flaws are not hidden.

Boorman's suburban London is a world that is transformed from a deceptively well-ordered place to a vision of desolation that might have provided the inspiration for the memorable conclusion of Excalibur. (References to his interpretation of the Arthurian legends can be seen throughout this film.) The big scenes in the neighborhood—boys playing a dangerous game with live ammunition, the arrival of the German pilot (Boorman's son Charley), learning to swear, a New Year's Eve family party, the rogue barrage balloon—all resolve themselves in unexpected conclusions. Then in the third act Boorman suddenly shifts the scene to an idyllic riverfront. His honest tone remains unchanged.

In the end, it's that warts-and-all approach that makes Hope and Glory so successful. Boorman may be remembering his youth with affection, but that does not color his judgment. He refuses to offer us the easy comforts of nostalgia based on the lie that life was simpler then. The people were neither better nor worse than they are now, and their problems were no easier to deal with. It's a truth that few filmmakers are willing to admit.

Cast: Sebastian Rice-Edwards (Bill), Geraldine Muir (Sue), Sarah Miles (Grace), Sammi Davis (Dawn), David Hayman (Clive), Derrick O'Connor (Mac), Susan Wooldridge (Molly), Jean-Marc Barr (Bruce), Ian Bannen (Grandfather George), Jill Baker (Faith), Charley Boorman (Luftwaffe pilot), Annie Leon (Grandma), Katrine Boorman (Charity), Gerald James (Headmaster), Amelda Brown (Hope), Colin Higgins (Clive's pal); Written by: John Boorman; Cinematography by: Philippe Rousselot; Music by: Peter Martin. Producer: John Boorman, Goldcrest Films, Columbia Pictures. British. Awards: British Academy Awards '87: Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Wooldridge); Golden Globe Awards '88: Best Film—Musical/Comedy; Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards '87: Best Director (Boorman), Best Film, Best Screenplay; National Society of Film Critics Awards '87: Best Cinematography, Best Director (Boorman), Best Film, Best Screenplay; Nominations: Academy Awards '87: Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Director (Boorman), Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture. Boxoffice: 10M. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running Time: 97 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta, LV, 8mm, Closed Caption.