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The War Lover | 
 enlarge | Director: Philip Leacock
Actors: Steve Mcqueen, Robert Wagner, Shirley Anne Field, Gary Cockrell, Michael Crawford
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.94
Buy New: $7.97
You Save: $6.97 (47%)
New (48) Used (13) from $6.07
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 18478
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Japanese (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 105 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: COLD10052D
ISBN: 1404905634
UPC: 043396100527
EAN: 9781404905634
ASIN: B00008R9M6
Theatrical Release Date: October 25, 1962
Release Date: May 13, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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Product Description
Buzz rickson is a dare-devil world war ii bomber pilot with a death wish. Failing at everything not involving flying rickson lives for the most dangerous missions. His crew lives with this aspect of his personality only because they know he always brings them back alive. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/13/2008 Starring: Steve Mcqueen Robert Wagner Run time: 105 minutes Rating: Nr
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 The Body meets the Cliff September 9, 2008
N. Trachta (Colorado Springs, CO United States)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
The War Lover simply tells the tale of two B-17 pilots in love with Daphne Caldwell (Shirley Anne Field) during the middle of WWII. To make things a little more complex (and of course a little more interesting), Capt Buzz Rickson (played by Steve McQueen) is a strong leader of his crew and the other pilot in love with Daphne is in his crew (Lt. Ed Bolland, played by Robert Wagner). The frustrating piece to Buzz is that Ed is winning the war of love.
My Likes:
A story about WWII, especially one about air crews. I've been fascinated for some time in bomber crews and what they went through. Several boring days waiting for a mission and then you have several hours of raw excitement as you fight your way to and from the target. The War Lover does a great job showing this. The crew of The Body (the name of the B-17) are tight and fly as one. Rickson leads, and none question him. This is the romantic look at the bomber crew. We see the crews excitement as the number of missions mount, knowing the odds are against them surviving their 25 missions.
My Dislikes:
The missions, the planes, and the romance. The directors had the chance to follow the actual 8th Air Force missions in 1943 and they totally blew it. They showed that they went to Sweinfurt (twice actually) but totally failed to take into account the other historical missions around this (Munster pops to mind). Very disappointing given that the missions were history.
The airplanes were disappointing also. They showed B-17G's (chin gun) vs. B-17F's (what would have been flown given the time period). This a minor nit until we add the fact that several 17's that crash landed failed to have ball turrets or other equipment on them. I know B-17's were in short supply by 1962 but I expect people to try (in some ways it would have been better if they'd used models for the crashlandings).
The romance also didn't sell me. Shirley Anne Field is ok in the role but Robert Wagner just didn't do it for me with her. I couldn't feel that they belonged together. McQueen was good at playing the "lover of war", but he's a little distant for a person to like (yes, I know they wanted that but still, you want to like him because he's leading the crew of The Body).
My Rating:
Three stars and no more. This movie had the chance to set up a great story and blew it. Hanover Street does a better job showing a similar story and Harrison Ford blows McQueen and Wagner out of the water. The romance in Hanover Street is also better to put it simply. If you're not into Harrison Ford then watch From Here to Eternity. If you want to watch a bomber movie about the crews, try 12 O'Clock High or Command Decision. The only point I felt any real like in the movie was seeing the relationship between the crew members, especially the ending. There's some good pieces here, but not enough to overcome a rather weak story.
 You should see this film. April 16, 2008
Mountain Mike (Sioux Falls, SD United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I first saw this film when I was about 8 years old (1962), when it was first released to the theater. I have remembered details from it ever since.
The acting is fine and McQueen is excellent as the sociopath after whom the movie is titled. I had never considered that he was playing the role of a sociopath. The narcissism, lack of empathy, lack of a conscience, hyper-competitiveness, the "the rules aren't made for me" attitude, the conviction of superiority--all well done by McQueen. The only part which I didn't believe was his final comments to Robert Wagner at the end. I guess they wanted to rehabilitate his character for us. With all the weirdness going on daily in our country and the world now (it didn't seem like that in 1962) the sociopathic personality is much better known and more quickly recognized now. I'm trying to say McQueen's portrayal was excellent.
The B-17's shown and the flying sequences are the best I've seen. A note of trivia--the bombers shown are actually B-17G's, which did not appear until well-after 1943, but who's complaining? Even the interior shots on the plane demonstrated a realism and attention to detail that would put Hollywood to shame. To this day I recall the belly gunner--"Junior"--in that ball turret and getting wounded the first time I saw the film.
The DVD I purchased had no "extra's". It came with widescreen and standard. The transfer was excellent.
I strongly recommend this film, though I suspect it will not appeal much to the teen audience looking for the usual movie fare these days.
Misses the target November 7, 2007
Trevor Willsmer (London, England)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
The War Lover is a mostly botched but still watchable watering down of John Hersey's novel about a sociopathic bomber pilot (Steve McQueen, playing an airborne variation of his psychotic soldier from Hell is For Heroes). Unfortunately the film is less interested in the thin line between heroism and psychopathic behavior than Robert Wagner's romance with Shirley Ann Field (in a performance so bad that at times her vocal delivery is so far off-target it's like nails on a blackboard), leaving the feeling that the real story has been sidelined for much of the film. Some good airborne sequences keep it watchable if you lower your expectations, but this could have been much more.
 Typical War Flick October 21, 2007
Dr. Harold F. Starr Jr. (South Carolina)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Isaw the movie many years ago and enjoyed the story. The dvd copy was good and the story was still generally good. With age comes the lose of innocence, so the movie was not as exciting. The action was predictable as was the love story. All-in-all, the dvd is a good by and the time watching the movey goes by fast.
Good Flick, Excellent Aerial Photography August 7, 2007
John A. Van Devender (Millersville, MD United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Steve McQueen does his best to bristle up his character in this movie. The basic theme is solid and perhaps its defects are only apparent to military (or ex-) aviators.
The plot would have been better cast in a fighter squadron rather than with B-17's. The beauty of those big birds and the excellent images of them flying goes a long way toward carrying the movie. It is just plain difficult however to portray McQueen as a "hot shot" when the mission generally doesn't offer much opportunity for it. McQueen is restricted to disobeying orders in order to sneak below and overcast and drop his bombs anyway (something that would have given the AA gunners a field day) and buzzing the tower (admittedly a beautiful thing to see).
McQueen is thus relegated to emoting his role and that is not his forte. He does a good job though and except for a bit of brittleness toward the end he carries it off well. What he does very well is portray the essential loneliness of a man whose self-identity must continually be proven, both to the world and to himself. The "warrior" self can only be fulfilled in war - something that George Scott famously portrayed in that scene from "Patton" - when,upon surveying the hideous reality of a battle field, said "God help me, I love it." McQueen is no George Scott and "Buzz" is no Patton, never the less, this is a great flick for war movie addicts.
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