Always - Der Feuerengel von Montana

At first glance, Always looks like a variation of Ghost, until one realizes it is a remake of a much older movie. But it has something Ghost certainly did not have -- Audrey Hepburn.

In what would be her final big-screen appearance, Audrey is radiant as the angel Hap, who appears all too briefly in the film. From the moment her famous voice is heard, time seems to stop. True, Audrey doesn't have a lot to say -- although her Doctor Who-like non-explanation about time is funny -- the few moments she is on screen are minutes to treasure. If Judi Dench and Ingrid Bergman were able to get Oscars for glorified cameos, it's a shame Hepburn didn't rate a nomination.

Of course, much of what's special about Audrey's role in this film comes from hindsight -- the fact she only had a couple more years to live, and the fact she had only appeared a few times on film in the previous 20 years. But we can be thankful to Steven Spielberg for not only getting Audrey to make the appearance, but also for giving her a classy film in which to make her swan song.

I'll just be honest here --- when I originally saw Always at the cinema in 1989, it was just a few months after my big brother passed away prematurely at the age of forty, and I'm not at all afraid to say that I cried like a baby. Like so many Americans, I have watched far too many films that i have taken to heart, but you know, Always is probably one of the final American films to ever really explore and display such deep human issues as unconditional love, mortality, and what a hero really is -- and isn't. It may be mushy, romantic, and a bit flawed, but I am proud that Spielberg made this bitter-sweet film -- I just saw it again and, if anything, it comes across as even more humane and honest in today's America of aggression, greed, and "relative" truth. If you've ever really, honestly, been so in love and committed to someone that you were willing to unconditionally put their needs before you own, or if you've ever lost anyone who meant the world to you, check it out. It changed my life when I first saw it because it made consider death in a new light... and it is about to totally change my life again as I have decided to live every moment for the rest of it as honest and decent and true to myself as possible --something that few of us today are willing to admit is lacking in our lives.

After seeing a movie with Marg Helgenberger made in the 90's "Death Dreams" with Christopher Reeve, I felt the need to look for other Marg Helgenberger performances besides her famous turn in CSI - To my surprise, not many, except "Death Dreams" where she gives a performance that goes straight to something truly personal. She is amazing, amazing! That's how I got to Always. The only Spielberg film I hadn't seen. The film is a sort of remake of "A Guy Named Joe" charming with a lovely central performance by Holly Hunter but where is Marg? She's way back in the background. Beautiful and real but way too far away in the background. The most memorable memorable moment, at least for a film buff - is the last film appearance by Audrey Hepburn, as an angel.

Spielberg deserves a fresh look. I open with that because as I read the decidedly mixed thoughts on this and other films of his, I notice the same thought over and over again. People who review Spielberg usually want to pigeonhole him into a type: the ET-warm-and-fuzzy-alien children's storyteller versus the special-effects-heavy-but-rather-empty-plot dreamer. All the while there is the generic whine of 'why doesn't he ever try to do something else (SCHINDLER'S LIST notwithstanding)?' Then when he does, as evidenced here, there are wails of dissatisfaction that he tried to do something over his head. Oy.

It's so silly to label and categorize a filmmaker so much. ALWAYS is, first and foremost, a love story. A remake of an earlier film to be sure, but even this 1989 treatment looks and feels nostalgic with its amber-tinted cinematography, the sentimental presentation of the devoted fighter pilots, even Holly Hunter's birthday gift of 'girl clothes' tips a hat to 1940's elegance. And you can't get more nostalgic than the appearance of the ageless, magical Audrey Hepburn (sharp as a tack in her last film as a bright-eyed, no-nonsense angel). All of Hepburn's scenes with Richard Dreyfuss are wonderful (especially the first one when she tries- slightly befuddled- to explain his state of existence), as is the leitmotiv of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes-" used in two dance sequences with Dreyfuss and Hunter: one at a charming birthday party (watching all the burly firemen clean up is a riot), the other in a bewitching soliloquy of mourning. And once again, John Goodman rises to the occasion as the best friend anyone could ever have. Just saw it on TCM, rounding out a July 2005 tribute to Ms. Hepburn. You should check it out.

It has been a while since I have seen this 'Always.' The years, I should say, have done this film justice.

A noted cinephile, I know when to eat my words, and this is one is for the books. Sincere. Honest. Touching. Obviously sparked with a late-eighties, Spielbergian hyper-real, cinematic extensions and flair, these elements do not bog the film downs as, say, with '1941' or 'The Color Purple.' And why should we expect modern filmmakers to be like those of the forties or fifties? Modern filmmakers are just that -- modern.

Holly Hunter is a walking dream and she has talent in droves. I have long had a crush on her and her funny mouth. She is simply enchanting and steals the show. Goodman, for once, is kept under control. Dreyfuss, with the thankless role of revisiting his past and commenting on the future, is the weakest link but only just. Sumptuously photographed by deftly edited, this story of unrequited love is as universal as mothers and babies. If it doesn't bring tears to your eyes, shame on you. The best advice to view this film is to forget it is a Spielberg film. Enjoy it for the love story that it is and sink into its voluptuous and charged charm.

We should all hope we become angels in the mist, able to return to Earth to right all the wrongs of the world.

This may be one Spielberg's most romantic films, next to A.I., which is a supremely magnificent film and, also, equally dismissed when it first arrived on the scene.

I urge all to give this film a second chance.