Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1987

The Contenders:

Adrian Lyne: Fatal Attraction
John Boorman: Hope and Glory
Bernardo Bertolucci: The Last Emperor (winner)
Norman Jewison: Moonstruck
Lasse Hallstrom: My Life as a Dog

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Picture 1987

The Contenders:
Broadcast News
Fatal Attraction
Hope and Glory
The Last Emperor (winner)
Moonstruck

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Original Screenplay 1987

The Contenders:
Au Revoir, Les Enfants
Broadcast News
Hope and Glory
Moonstruck (winner)
Radio Days

Home Front

Film: Hope and Glory
Format: DVD from NetFlix on laptop.

I’ve said before that of all of the many possible topics covered in film, nothing has been done more than war. It’s not difficult to find a film on pretty much any war topic you can think of, and for a war like World War II, you can find all of those areas of the war you can think of and more. There are prison movies, movies that concentrate on Europe, Africa, the Pacific, the air war, the war on and under the waves, invasions, defenses against invasions, sieges, concentration camps, and just about anything else. One of the most interesting aspects of the war to me is the home front. I’m interested in the desert war, too, but the home front is fascinating to me. So I was pleased when Hope and Glory showed up.

What makes Hope and Glory interesting to me is that it comes from the perspective of a child. Billy Roman (Sebastian Rice-Edwards, in his only film role) is about 10 when the war starts and his father (David Hayman) joins up. His mother (Sarah Miles) attempts to send him and his younger sister Sue (Geraldine Muir) to Australia, but relents at the last minute and keeps him home along with young Sue and older sister Dawn (Sammi Davis).