Every Time We Say Goodbye

This film is about a soldier who falls in love with a Jewish girl while on a mission in Jerusalem.

"Every Time We Say Goodbye" is a love story between two vastly different individuals. Unfortunately it is not as interesting as it could have been. I find the love story very contrived. I could not believe how they could have fallen for each other. In fact, I find Sara very frigid, totally without any love or passion. The actress playing her is totally devoid of any facial expressions. It is so unbelievable that Sara and David are in love. I find "Every Time We Say Goodbye" slow, boring and unbelievable.

I saw this while flipping channels and stopping on the local Canadian broadcast. It's not the best project Tom Hanks has ever been in, but the character is much more subdued than others he was playing at the time - it gave insight to the "serious" actor that Hanks was evolving to become.

The most fascinating part of the film is the look at the world of the Ladinos - Jews who were expelled from Spain during the Reconquest ending in 1492 and who retain the language and cultural traditions that they had in Spain centuries later.

Although some may raise an eyebrow about a film that takes place during WWII centering around Jewish people, and there's not even a mention of the ongoing Holocaust, to me, this underscores the inertia of human relations, that even when the entire planet is in the midst of war, and the fate of an entire people is at stake, we still have a tendency to cling to our differences.

I really enjoyed the movie when I first saw it years ago, and when I saw it was available on DVD, I had to buy it. Second watching was not as enjoyable as I noticed a few glaring historical flaws. On the DVD cover there is a picture of a B17 alongside Hanks in his RAF uniform. The B17 does not appear in the movie, neither did the RAF use them in the North African desert. The plane Hanks actually flies is a 1944, Rolls-Royce Merlin powered P51 Mustang, complete with bubble canopy (The movie is set in 1942, just before El Alamein) However, apart from that, a great movie to watch - Jerusalem looks fantastic. Its good to see a movie about Sephardic Jews (I get so sick of always seeing Jewish people portrayed as Ashkenazi - You know "Oy Vay, my life already!) Buy it, watch it, enjoy (Oy Vay!)

One of the earlier efforts of Tom Hanks, this film is a nice, if somewhat unremarkable love story set against the background of WW2 in Jerusalem. Hanks meets a young jewish girl (Marsillach), they fall in love, but have to face her strongly religious family. The story is not as much about the war, as it is about love and religion. Though, the film isn't very "deep", it has some interesting ideas, for example the choice between human feelings and tradition. The strong religious beliefs of the girl's family seem so cruel at times, that it's hard to have any sympathy for them. Maybe a bit too black-and-white for some, but certainly an interesting little film, with (of course) an excellent Tom Hanks in the lead role. 7/10

I ran across this film late at night and found it fascinating. The location shots are beautiful and the acting wonderful.

Set during WW2, the real war is between Hanks, his Jewish lover and her extremely bigoted family.

The scene where the Jewish girl's father calmly tells his daughter that if she marries the Gentile Hanks she will be "dead" to him is chilling. He speaks the words softly like a father telling his daughter a bedtime story and this coldheartedness is what makes the scene so unforgetable.

Great film!