Hope and Glory (film)

Beginning just before the start of the Second World War, the film tells the story of the Rowan family: Billy, his sisters Sue and Dawn, and his parents Grace and Clive, living in a suburb of London. After the war starts, Clive joins the army, leaving Grace alone to watch over the children. She almost sends Billy and Susie away from London, but pulls them back at the last second on the train platform when she realizes she cannot bear to be apart from them. Thus Billy stays in London for the rest of the war.

Seen through the eyes of 10-year-old Billy, the "fireworks" provided by the Blitz every night are as exciting as they are terrifying. His family does not see things in quite the same way as the bombs continue to drop, but their will to survive brings them closer together. The nightly raids do not provide the only drama, however, as his older sister, Dawn, falls for a Canadian soldier, becomes pregnant and, finding her life turned upside down, soon discovers the value of her family. The family eventually moves to the Thames-side home of Grace's parents when their house burns down (not in an air raid, but in an ordinary fire). This provides an opportunity for Billy to spend more time with his curmudgeonly grandfather.

The main film set was built on the disused runway at the former Wisley Airfield in Surrey and other scenes by the river were shot near Shepperton Lock.[5] filming also took place in Hightown Road, Ringwood, Hampshire.

The "newsreel" footage shown in the local cinema contains scenes from the 1969 film Battle of Britain.

Hope and Glory received very positive reviews at the time of its release, and was named one of the best films of 1987 by over 50 critics.[6] Only Broadcast News appeared on more top ten lists in 1987.

The film was favourably reviewed by critic Pauline Kael in her film reviews collection Hooked:

It's hard to believe that a great comedy could be made of the Blitz but John Boorman has done it. In his new, autobiographical film, he has had the inspiration to desentimentalize wartime Britain and show us the Second World War the way he saw it as an eight-year-old. The war frees the Rowans from the dismal monotony of their pinched white-collar lives. He doesn't deny the war its terrors. Yet he gives everything a comic fillip. That's the joy of the film: the war has its horrors, but it also destroys much of what the genteel poor like Grace Rowan (Sarah Miles), have barely been able to acknowledge they wanted destroyed. It's like a plainspoken, English variant of the Taviani brothers' The Night of the Shooting Stars.[7]

American critic Emanuel Levy's review was also positive; he wrote: "Director John Boorman offers a warmly nostalgic view of his childhood in a London suburb during WWII."[8]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 95% "Fresh" rating based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 8.26/10.[9]

In 1987, Roger Ebert wrote: Maybe there is something in the very nature of war, in the power of guns and bombs, that appeals to the imagination of little boys. Bombers and fighter planes and rockets and tanks are thrilling at that age when you are old enough to understand how they work but too young to understand what they do. John Boorman's Hope and Glory is a film about that precise season in the life of a young British boy who grows up in a London suburb during World War II. The film is first of all a painstaking re-creation of the period. All of the cars and signs look right, and there are countless small references to wartime rationing, as when the older sister draws seams on her legs to make fake nylons. But after re-creating the period, Boorman also reconstructs the very feeling that was in the air. Hope and Glory is an enormous success right now in England, where every frame must have its special memories for British audiences. Through American eyes, it is a more universal film, not so much about war as about memory. When we are young, what happens is not nearly as important as what we think happens. Perhaps that's true even when we are not so young.[10]

Goldcrest Films invested £1,288,000 in the film and received £1,665,000 making them a profit of £377,000.[11]

The film made £845,927 in the UK.[2]

Academy Awards

• Best Picture (John Boorman) - Nominated
• Best Director (John Boorman) - Nominated
• Best Original Screenplay (John Boorman) - Nominated
• Best Cinematography (Philippe Rousselot) - Nominated
• Best Art Direction (Anthony D. G. Pratt, Joanne Woollard) - Nominated

Golden Globe Awards

• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (John Boorman) - Won
• Best Director (John Boorman) - Nominated
• Best Screenplay (John Boorman) - Nominated

British Academy Film Awards

• Best Film (John Boorman) - Nominated
• Best Direction (John Boorman) - Nominated
• Best Actress in a Leading Role (Sarah Miles) - Nominated
• Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Ian Bannen) - Nominated
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Susan Wooldridge) - Won
• Best Original Screenplay (John Boorman) - Nominated
• Best Film Music (Peter Martin) - Nominated
• Best Cinematography (Philippe Rousselot) - Nominated
• Best Production Design (Anthony D. G. Pratt) - Nominated
• Best Costume Design (Shirley Ann Russell) - Nominated
• Best Editing (Ian Crafford) - Nominated
• Best Sound (Ron Davis, Peter Handford, John Hayward) - Nominated
• Best Makeup and Hair (Anna Dryhurst) - Nominated

Hope and Glory also won the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film, the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Film, the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director and was named one of the year's Top Ten Films by the National Board of Review.

A sequel to the film, titled Queen and Country, was made in 2014. The film tells the story of an older Bill Rowan as a soldier during the Korean War.[12] The film was selected to be screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.[13] It was released generally in 2015.

• BFI Top 100 British films

• Hope and Glory at IMDb
• Hope and Glory at AllMovie
• Hope and Glory at Box Office Mojo
• Hope and Glory at Rotten Tomatoes