Harry's War

I remember seeing "Harry's War" (1981) when I was on vacation in St. George of all places (where "Harry's War" was filmed). I honestly don't remember much about the film--the political arguments were a little beyond my 12-year-old brain.

Watching it recently as a 42-year-old, I must say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. Oh, the cinematography, script, and acting are a bit wobbly (you can tell it was a low-budget production), but it has one thing that a lot of movies today lack: entertainment value. I was entertained throughout the entire film. Part of it was probably due to the fact that I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I've seen plenty of left-wing diatribes on film, but I don't think I've ever seen anything so sincerely right-wing. And even though it was in the service of a "silly" comedy, it was smart right-wing (I know that sounds like a contradiction: silly and smart). The condemnation of the IRS in the film was valid, and it's only gotten about 1000 percent worse since 1981.

I had never heard of this movie and just today (20121215) came across it on Netflix.

So, for those looking to watch it, you have the opportunity. (and this is where my review would end, were it not for the 10-line minimum rule! So, on to the blathering...)

Casting (or, possibly, makeup) and score selections were slight distractions. Less cartoonish portrayals of 'Aunt' Beverly and Billy would have helped the audience relate more with these characters, who represent a genuine compassionate, charitable neighbor to everyone and a war veteran. As it stands, they are presented as kooks and the antagonists (I'll let you figure out who they are) are presented as the sane, "normal," most-easily-related-to folks. That may have been the only way to get the film made, however. Sort of like Churchill being forbidden from writing about Hitler - he still did it, using animal abstractions, but people read between the lines and understood.

I've also never been a huge fan of scores that include whimsical flute playing. I understand the link to our nation's history, but the sound just doesn't strike the right chord for such a serious topic.

The presentation of the story is typical for the 80s. Not quite the gritty "French Connection/Dog Day Afternoon/Dirty Harry" quality of the 70s films and not the over-the-top "Dumb and Dumber/Scary Movie" silliness of the 90s/00s. Somewhere in the middle.

If this film were made today, it would be darker (truer?), and the omnipresence of the IRS, while significant, would be but a mere shadow of its true power. Still, I think you'll get the intended feelings when watching the current film.

A fascinating memento of the zeitgeist of the early eighties, made when Ronald Reagan was running for President and released after his inauguration declaring that government was the problem and taxes were evil (a mindset that has remained the received wisdom for the past forty years and is one reason the richest nation on earth was so woefully unprepared for the current coronavirus pandemic). Yet when one of the characters collapses in court it's paramedics paid out of tax dollars that are called in to aid the stricken victim.

The film has been compared to Capra, and while Geraldine Page's crazy old aunt (and her eccentric family) are far weirder than Lionel Barrymore's brood in 'You Can't It With You', it uses Capra's device of giving the task of stating the case for taxation to shifty-looking spokesmen (in Capra's film hawk-faced Charles Lane, in 'Harry's War' a smarmy David Ogden Stiers) easily rebutted by an Everyman figure (here ironically named 'Johnson' like the great reforming president of the sixties) declaring that "Hitler would've loved the IRS" rather than the cold-eyed plutocrats that are the real winners when taxes are low.

HARRY'S WAR is one of the only American films ever made that really attempts to reveal the corruption in our governmental system. Other than Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON there has never really been a studio film made that tells it how it really is. And although this film only scratches the surface of how absolutely corrupt and unconstitutional the I.R.S. is, it does deliver a shocking amount of truth, within a film community that is undeniably censored and most of the time pure propaganda.

It's amazing the power that film has. It people saw this film in mass. It would start a revolution.

Regular viewers of The History Channel will quickly recognize Ed Hermann as the host and narrator of many of their programs, and as a spokesman for Chrysler/Dodge commercials. It's easy to forget that he's a prolific and talented actor. "Harry's War" is one of his best. Harry Johnson does something we've all wanted to do: level the big guns at the IRS! David Ogden Stiers is great as the IRS supervisor who has forgotten the "servant" part of Public Servant. "I'm the United States Government, Johnson. Who are you?" he says. Like so many other bureaucrats, he's forgotten who he really works for, and Harry sets out to remind him. This little gem of a film should be broadcast every year at tax filing time. Good luck trying to find a copy on tape!