Hope and Glory

Repeated viewing of this film convinced me that it is underrated. It has an excellent screenplay, a great retro atmosphere, and great acting. Perhaps the climax could have been somewhat more impressive, but even so, it was an extraordinarily enjoyable 113 minutes of my film life. The British simply mastered this genre mix. Overall impression: 90%. (08/03/2015)

This movie made me really happy. It tells a story from the WWII from children’s point of view in a very natural way. It can be really rough here and there, the boys even gave me the chills at some moments while making me laugh every now and then. The Brits are great at creating the war atmosphere in their older movies. For example, back when I watched the excellent Two Men Went to War, it had that sort of British charm that it didn’t even make me sad, even though it technically should have. Plus, I didn’t know a thing about this movie and even that plays a huge role in my rating. By the end, the movie was a little Jane Austen and it turned into a wishy-washy tea party. But out of the clear blue, it was all salvaged by a grandpa who was upkeeping a boat, playing cricket and even mowing the lawn, all wearing a suit. He probably didn’t have any better clothes. The movie was very sweet; it was sad at some times and cheerful at others. I’ll be happy to rewatch it for the war atmosphere that some other movies could only dream of. By the way, the way that plane flew in between the London houses was flawless. Nowadays, they would be scared to even attempt that with CGI. (01/09/2014)

Hope and Glory proves that you can make all sorts of films about war. It's not a drama where there is no premise, because it's a film about how a child perceives war and how his view is distorted, which can be comical on the one hand, but on the other, it can make you squirm in your chair. (23/01/2018)