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I first saw this movie in 1986 when I was 28 years old. I'm a big fan of Tom Hanks, and at the time, this was really an off-beat role for him. I enjoyed this movie for a number of reasons. It was like the love stories of the 1940s. There is really no action at all in this film, just the central theme that "True Love Conquers All". This story takes place during World war II, and I disagree with some others here who find the relationship pure fantasy. In a time of war, when human life is so fragile, normal thought processes cease. Let's live for the moment becomes the central theme of things. For a soldier or for one who loves him/her, the only thing that is important is the now. Tom Hanks gives his typical outstanding performance. Spanish actress Cristina Marsillach is stunningly attractive. Being a romantic at heart, I like happy endings. Every Time We Say Good-Bye is a sentimental and moving love story.

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.

If you like love stories - I usually don't care for them - you should enjoy this one. This is my all-time favorite movie. Marsillach is the most darling young woman I've ever seen. You might fall in love as I did.

David falls in love with a girl he meets in Isreal. She's a Jew and he's not, so her family does everything they can to keep them apart. It's a simple movie with no real plot. It doesn't need one. This may be the only time I can say a movie doesn't need a plot.

A really interesting side note is that the girl and her family speak Ladino. It is the Spanish spoken in Spain around 1492, when Ferdinand and Isabel expelled the Jews from Spain. That makes the film a bit of a time capsule, as the language remains unchanged. That made the film infinitely more interesting for me than it might have otherwise been.

Great period piece! Great love story!

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