Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.


What a brilliant movie, well worth the months of waiting for it until it was released recently on DVD in “matted” widescreen. Arthur Hiller directed The Americanization of Emily in black-and-white for a more atmospheric look, though in 1964 bright color was all the rage, and it definitely gives a 1940s’ realism to the British picture. Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote the wonderfully satiric movie, Network, worked his magic again here, based on William Bradford Huie’s novel The Hospital. Imdb.com has only a few of the magnificent examples of his dialogue and I’m including them all in this review. They’re very good quotes, but many, many more await you in the 115-minute movie.

Adm. William Jessup: The first dead man on Omaha Beach must be a sailor.

Looking gray and colorless, Melvyn Douglas plays Jessup (Jessie) with his usual brilliance. Jessie’s wife died last year and slowly the strain is catching up with him, what with “the balloon “ about to drop (D-Day on June 6, 1944) and the army wanting to run the European Theater and throw his beloved navy the scraps. It causes him to order a suicide mission on D-Day, inspired by his wild idea noted above, for public relations.

James Garner, as hot and hunky as ever, plays American Charlie Madison, Jessie’s “Dog-Robber,” which is an officer who caters to a Navy admiral or general planning their parties, ordering their expensive food (while Britain goes hungry), setting them up with girls and waiting on them. He’s legendary as you’ll see with an apartment that looks like a full warehouse. (No company was paid to use their product names in the movie.) He’s a swinging bachelor patting women’s behinds until he gets slapped by one.

That young British woman is Emily Barham, played delightfully by Julie Andrews. She drives officers around, which is how she meets Charlie. He decides to risk asking her to the Admiral’s party that night and she refuses, but when he calls her ’something of a prig,’ and a girlfriend agrees that she is, she shows her sensuous side that night!

Emily Barham: You brought me some chocolates.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison: Two boxes of Hershey's.

Emily Barham: Well, that's very American of you, Charlie. You just had to bring along some small token of opulence. Well, I don't want them. You Yanks can't even show affection without buying something.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison: Well don't get into a state over it. I thought you liked chocolates.

Emily Barham: I do, but my country's at war and we're doing without chocolates for a while. And I don't want oranges or eggs or soap flakes, either. Don't show me how
profitable it will be to fall in love with you, Charlie. Don't Americanize me.

The Americanization of Emily is much more than a charming romance between two opposites, more than a couple falling in love because of their differences and struggling to understand what love is all about. It’s also a wicked satire of war, revealing its absurdities through cutting dialogue and a very original story that keeps you guessing what’ll happen til the surprise ending.

It appears that the love song by Johnny Mercer was a casualty in its DVD release, showing good judgment, I think, though I’ve never heard it. Satires are best when they’re fast-paced and not too sappy. This movie is only a bit dated and sappy with quite modern relevance. It’s been called by many reviewers an anti-war movie, but it’s really an anti-glorification of war as director Hiller points out in his audio commentary. No one hates war in the movie, but only…well, Charlie says it so much better than I could.


Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison: I'm not sentimental about war. I see nothing noble in widows.

*****************

Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison: War isn't hell at all. It's man at his best; the highest morality he's capable of. It's not war that's insane, you see. It's the morality of it. It's not greed or ambition that makes war: it's goodness. Wars are always fought for the best of reasons: for liberation or manifest destiny. Always against tyranny and always in the interest of humanity. So far this war, we've managed to butcher some ten million humans in the interest of humanity. Next war it seems we'll have to destroy all of man in order to preserve his damn dignity. It's not war that's unnatural to us, it's virtue. As long as valor remains a virtue, we shall have soldiers. So, I preach cowardice. Through cowardice, we shall all be saved.


Heavy, huh? Yes, The Americanization of Emily is more of a thinking person’s movie as satires usually are, but there’re impressive special effects as well to simulate D-Day on “Omaha Beach.” A special feature reveals how complicated and expensive three minutes of film was back in 㥈 before CGI.

The acting couldn’t have been better. They all had tangible passion and were really into their roles. Hiller observes that the movie was everybody’s favorite in their careers (Chayefsky having two favorites). Besides Garner, Douglas and Andrews, James Coburn as Charlie’s zealous buddy, Joyce Grenfull as Emily’s ‘dotty’ widowed mother and Keenan Wynn as a drunken sailor (he calls himself stoned) are particularly memorable. I didn’t have a problem understanding the British accents except once and it took a second viewing to realize Emily said (and Charlie mimicked her) the word ’piquant.’ Hehe.


In Conclusion

The Americanization of Emily is a joy to watch with characters I easily loved and a story that was clever, emotional and unpredictable. If you enjoyed the dialogue I shared and didn’t take offense, you will love it as much as I did and still do since I bought it from amazon.com. Netflix.com also has it if you prefer.

I know I was fairly vague, but that's because I'm positive you'll wish to see the movie and knowing too much will ruin your fun.

May cowards rule the world!

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD