For the Boys - Hier, aujourd'hui et pour toujours

In full brassy form, Bette Midler plays Dixie Leonard, who does USO performances in WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Throughout pleasant times and hard times (and even through tragedies), she and co-star Eddie Sparks (James Caan) always have to find a way to make sure that the show goes on.

I don't know whether I would call this a masterpiece, but it's some good nostalgia. Midler shows off her talents the same as she did in "The Rose". And moreover, "For the Boys" also looks at the sorts of things going on during those wars, including Cold War-era red-baiting. Worth seeing.

Obviously given her background this is hardly a stretch for Bette. However rather than dial it in she gives a bombastic performance that makes this quite an entertaining film.

The story doesn't wow you, rather it just provides a vehicle for Bette to strut her stuff.

Worth a look :)

An interesting film that seemed to try and do one too many things. It wants to entertain, educate, provide nostalgia, laughs and do character studies. The most interesting character easily is Bette Midlers Dixie Leonard. During her first performance `For The Boys' she is a vibrant comical singing and dancing entertainer who throws her heart and soul into her show. She is perhaps naïve and oblivious to what war is about and maybe even thinks it's just one big party and nobody really dies or suffers. By the end when she goes to Vietnam she is a vulgar, disgusting, embittered slob who harbors some anger that the GIs no longer swoon over her as they did a quarter of a century or so earlier. The GI's are of a different generation and she can't relate to them or why they have the attitude they do. She is perhaps also angry with herself for not being able to be enthused about performing for the fighting men of this war the way she was years ago. How does she end up like this? Well that's what this picture is partly about. It's not a bad movie and didn't deserve the blasting the critics gave it.

The movie is based during two wars and the relationship between two USO singer. Midler and Caan do a wonderful job at entertaining and showing the colors of the characters. Although it can be very sappy at times, it still is a movie I think even men can enjoy. The soundtrack is quite a experience as well.

Bette was magnificent in "The Rose", in my opinion the best movie she's made. In a totally different personna she plays Dixie equally wonderfully. "For The Boys" is, for a reason I cannot discern, one of my all time favorite movies. I love the movie and Bette is as always, the best. If you adore Bette, and if you've never "For The Boys", rent it or buy it and you'll see what I'm talking about.