THE WAR LOVER (1962)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Philip Leacock

SCREENWRITER: Howard Koch

FILM STARS: Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner, Shirley Anne Field, Gary Cockrell, Michael Crawford, Bill Edwards

COUNTRY: Great Britain

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: John Hersey

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Pan

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1962

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1959

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: War

WORDS: A great film. Part war movie, part psychological drama, part soap opera. It’s not one for historical minded war movie buffs but it is one that captures some of the emotion in war (I imagine). McQueen is excellent as the central character, a B17 pilot obsessed with war (err hence the title), as is Robert Wagner (much underrated) as his co-pilot, in the air and on the ground. Screenwriter Koch was a blacklisted American screenwriter who lived in England through the 1950s.

The novel, I read many years ago and I loved. I don’t recall now how close it is to the film. It is vivid in its depictions of the title character, amid much philosophising and jabs at authority and war. I highlighted some passages (in pencil of course) as I’m wont to do …

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