Cheap The Americanization of Emily (Video) (Arthur Hiller) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of The Americanization of Emily

Cowardice as a religion
Lt. Cmdr. Charles Madison (James Garner) is a veteran "dog-robber", meaning his main task is to keep whatever commanding officer he's assigned to as comfortable as possible. Assigned to Admiral William Jessup (Melvyn Douglas), Madison keeps him supplied with the best food, clothes, and women. Madison is not only the best "dog-robber", he's also a self-confessed coward who avoids combat duty like the plague. While staying in London in May, 1944, as the Allied forces prepare for D-Day, Madison meets an attractive British war widow, Emily Barham (Julie Andrews). Emily has lost a father, a brother, and a husband in this war, and she is sick and tired of gallant men sacrificing their lives in a seemingly endless war. <
> <
>Madison talks freely and honestly about his cowardice, and Emily finds herself falling in love with this American officer who sees no glory in young men being blown apart for their country. But as their relationship progresses and they talk of marriage, the deadline for the D-Day invasion draws near. Admiral Jessup is temporarily insane and comes up with a suicidal mission that will get the U.S. Navy plenty of glory on D-Day. He orders Madison to take a camera crew and join the first wave attacking Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, where casualities among the attackers are expected to be 50% or higher. Madison is ordered to film the first sailor being killed on Omaha Beach, and before long he realizes that HE is supposed to be the first sailor killed! <
> <
>Although universally categorized as an anti-war movie, Arthur Hiller, the director insists in the audio commentary that The Americanization of Emily is not anti-war, but "anti-glorification of war." But this brilliantly-directed movie takes quite a poke at the U.S. military, and at times even America itself. It's a very clever and incredibly dark satire with a nice mixture of drama and humor. You'll be surprised at how true most of the dialogue in the movie is, especially Garner's many lines about the absurdities of war. There's not one bad performance in the whole film, and James Garner, Julie Andrews, and James Coburn consider this the best movie they've appeared in. One of the best performances is that of Keenan Wynn, who plays the drunken sailor ordered to join Madison's camera crew for the suicidal mission. He gets very little screen time, but he's one of the most memorable characters in the movie. This extraordinary classic just gets better and better each time I watch it and I highly recommend this DVD.

---

Did I miss something?
I saw this movie about 20 years ago when it was on Cinemax. I fell asleep while watching it then. I bought the DVD as part of the Controversial Classics set, and was looking forward to seeing the parts I missed. <
> <
>This time, I fell asleep twice watching it; it took a total of three nights to see it all. I found it just as talky and heavy-handed as I did when I saw it back in college. Further, I didn't pick up on any chemistry between the leads, and found James Coburn's character loud and annoying. Finally, the great MGM hairstylist Sidney Guillaroff was way off the mark on this one. Almost all of the women had mid-60's hairdo's that were distracting, particularly Miss Andrews, whose distracting poofie 'do often changed from shot to shot within the same scene. <
> <
>I get it; war is bad. Nevertheless, this film did little for me. It did, however, look very nice; the DVD transfer was well done.

---

The funny side of the War!
This is an anti war picture that reminded me in many ways to that glorious Billy Wilder 's film of 1953 Stalag 17, which chooses the comedy to unmask certain hidden vices. Kubrick ' Dr. Strangelove somehow marked the pathway this satiric genre that culminated with Norman Jewison 's The Russians are coming. <
> <
>Paddy Chayevsky 's skillful screenplay is adapted from William Braford Huie 's book about a Navy officer whose man job during WW2 is to supply his superiors with creature comforts including girls. On the other side of the bridge there will be a widow portrayed by Julie Andrews who despises Garner 's non heroic attitude, but can not help falling in love with him. <
> <
>The final is funny but there is a lot of cynicism that runs as corrosive acid throughout the film. Admirable work of Arthur Hiller and in many senses this could be his masterpiece. <
> <
>