O Amante da Morte

Although this is one of my McQueen favorites, the movie itself is flawed.

The film does not stand on its own merit. Rather it assumes the viewer has read the original novel, by John Hersey, upon which it was based. Since many of the important aspects of the book are assumed, the film contains gaps and jerks in its sequencing and total focus.

However, if you like period pieces, the uniforms and flight gear are terrific. And except for one really bad special effects sequence (anyone who saw this movie knows I'm talking about the burning parachute which looks like what it is- a burning handkerchief) the aerial sequences, both war footage and interior close up action shots, are detailed and believable.

McQueen clearly captures the character of Buzz Rickson ( Buzz Marrow in the book), an A#1, narcissistic SOB. A great line is: "I risk the crew's life every time I take them off the ground, don't I...sir?" The pause between "don't I" and "sir" tells the whole story. This guy deftly walks the line between being totally professional and totally insubordinate.

All in all, a great flick.

I haven't read the John Hersey novel others praise. (I've always liked Hersey's reporting and writing - just missed this one). So I can judge only the movie.

Steve McQueen gives a truly wonderful performance as the sort of guy you want to punch - arrogant, self-absorbed, cruel, conceited. (Of course in life, we read the same of him!). Robert Wagner also gives a wonderful performance - how not to appear a loser when the cruel arrogant one always wins. Shirley Anne Field is absolutely lovely in a very upper class/dreamgirl sort of way.

The movie is quite romantic - you really believe in Wagner-Field as a couple. There is warmth and lust and trust and realism between the two. The movie gives the flavor of love in wartime almost as well as Yanks.

I quite liked the movie- but it seems too short - let us have more of these characters' interactions. They ARE interesting characters at an interesting and dangerous time. I suppose if they'd have taken more from Hersey's novel, it would have felt a more substantial meal.

In the great Oscar winning best picture Patton, Karl Malden as Omar Bradley explains the difference between himself and George C. Scott. Malden is a professional soldier trained to do a job, whereas Scott just lives for the action because he loves it. That's what Steve McQueen is as a hotshot bomber pilot who has a crew of Karl Maldens who just want to do a job and get home alive.

Oddly enough a year after The War Lover came out Steve McQueen would play another hotshot pilot in The Great Escape. A pilot who's been grounded and temporarily enjoying enemy hospitality. I wonder how the two McQueens from The War Lover and The Great Escape might have viewed each other.

McQueen's co-pilot Robert Wagner dislikes McQueen's living on the edge style though he knows this guy has the skill to back up his brag and has done so. But things could be going further south in their relationship as McQueen makes a play for proper British woman Shirley Anne Field whom Wagner likes as well.

It's an interesting role that McQueen has and he pulls it off. He's not a nice person, but you can't help rooting for him. Especially in that last close run thing he attempts at the close of the film.

The War Lover is a good war picture and will satisfy the fans of Steve McQueen who are still legion in this world.

Aviation author Martin Caiden (his books were the basis for the film "Marooned" and the t.v show "The Six Million Dollar Man") published a book entitled "Everything But The Flak" that detailed the efforts to revive three Navy PB-1 Flying Forts and the ensuing flight adventure of moving them across the Atlantic to England for the making of "The War Lover" which is a "must read" for those interested in the making of this film. He accompanied the flight crews and although his larger-than-life account of their hijinks (rumbling with Soviets in the airport in Greenland, being locked up by Interpol in Portugal on suspicion of smuggling illicit warplanes - after all these three B-17s had active gun turrets) must be taken with a grain of salt, the guy sure could spin a great yarn! The book is probably WAY out of print but is well worth seeking out as it gives some idea of the difficulty of reactivating three WW II bombers years before the warbird revival got underway. Unfortunately, due to import/export duties in England in the early 1960s, Columbia Pictures scrapped two of the three Fortresses after filming was completed and only one has survived, used for promotion of the film before being passed onto other hands.

The movie itself has lots of B-17 action of the planes taxiing around the airfield prior to mission take-off that is frequently edited out for television broadcast to save time for commercials or to fit into a specific airtime envelope. If it airs uncut, notice the patchy paint on the Fortress noses as three airframes portray a much larger squadron, with nose art changed several times.

Mark Sublette, Falls Church, Virginia

Once they arm his B-17 "The Body" with bombs they become Buzz Rickson's (Steve McQueen) and he will allow no abuse to come to them until he reaches target even if it involves disobeying orders. Rickson is a war lover, emotionally dead on the ground, unless competing for his co-pilot's (Robert Wagner) girlfriend, but it is in the air over enemy targets is where he finds his real ecstasy. Arrogant, fearless, cynical, courageous, his crew knows he's short a full deck but it is the fearlessness that they bank on to get them back home.

As in any film it appears (12 OClock High, Catch 22) the B-17 is the star, making its way through the flak in imposing formation, the crew in the chaotic interior trying to jell as they fight off German Messerschmitts. Using actual footage War Lover in the air is an intense watch especially with Rickson at the controls. On the ground things tend to get dull with Wagner and a dull Sally Ann Field playing out a mawkish romance to perhaps distract from the well cast McQueen's psycho hero. But it is McQueen's Rickson and his battered B-17 that give The War Lover the thrust that it has.