The War Lover

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The War Lover
The War Lover
Directed by	Philip Leacock
Produced by	Arthur Hornblow
Written by	Howard Koch
Starring	Steve McQueen Robert Wagner Shirley Anne Field
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures British Lion Films (UK)
Release date(s)	1962
Running time	105 min
Language	English

The War Lover (1962) is a black and white war film with added drama around human characters. The movie was loosely based on a novel of the same name published in 1959 by John Hersey, altering the names of characters and events but retaining its basic framework.

The war itself is not the most important characteristic of the film. Instead it is focused on the character of the main hero Buzz Rickson and his determination to serve himself and get what he wants becoming enemy with everyone. At the end, Buzz, the antagonist, when back from a mission insists to try everything to keep his shattered plane flying to arrive at its base but he is eventually killed. A classic ‘catharsis’ of a tragedy where the bad is killed heroically at the end.

The actors are well positioned into their roles. The environment is realistic enough but the love drama is rather exaggerated. Some short but rare real footage of air combat is included – especially the attacking Me109G armed with 20 mm cannons firing at the B-17.

Actor Warren Beatty turned down the role of Capt. Buzz Rickson.

[edit] Cast

Steve McQueen as Capt. Buzz Rickson
Robert Wagner as Lt. Ed Boland
Shirley Anne Field as Daphne

[edit] Plot

Buzz Rickson a B-17 pilot is hated by his crew for his egocentric attitude. The only person to accept him is his co-pilot Lt. Ed Boland. Rickson is cynic and the war serves well his own character as he rather enjoys being there. The moment comes, however, when Ed falls in love with Daphne but Buzz fancies this girl too. He is coasting her but he is repelled. The ‘war animal’ is then awakening in Buzz and he rapes her. He has thus lost the tolerance of the last person in his group, his co-pilot Ed. Buzz rather enjoys his victory but on the next missions he seems less sure on himself as by instinct he realizes that not everything is allowed even to a cynic like him. On their last mission his B-17 is well shaken and struggles to stay in flight. Ed proposes to abandon it but Buzz wants to prove to them that he can be the winner once more. He lets all jump off the plane and he tries to bring her back to base. Eventually he crashes on the cliffs at Dover.