Under the lens takes a deep look at films by focusing in on one or two particular areas of the picture that helped to define it for better or for worse. Spoilers will be included in this review.
Hanover Street is a 1979 romance motion picture set to the backdrop of WWII London, it stars Harrison Ford, Christopher Plummer and Lesley-Anne Down and was Directed by Peter Hyams. It followed the story of Margaret is a nurse in England during WWII, and married to a secret agent. Things get complicated when she falls for David, an American pilot.
Under The Lens: Dual Identity and Soundtrack
Dual Identity: Hanover Street is a decent picture, but it suffers from having a dual identity, in that it never seems to know if it wants to be a war or romance picture, with different portions of the narrative focusing on each aspect but never committing to either. Which is a shame as both of these subplots have something to offer, the final half of the picture sees Ford and Plummer’s characters go undercover in Frace on a secret mission to steal Nazi documents.
This is a great wartime sequence with action and suspense, it flowed so well that I could not help but wish the whole film had been a buddy spy adventure with Plummer and Ford as they had good banter and chemistry together. What made the picture lack was that the romance is the main hook of the narrative, yet it is totally absent from the pictures last half, had the spy action been kept to London a narrative could have been spun that included Lesley-Anne Down’s character in the action, which in the end would have complimented the love story.
Soundtrack: The picture’s music was by John Berry who has also contributed to such motion pictures as Dances with Wolves, The Living Daylights, and Out of Africa. He brings a very retro 40’s sound to the narrative that is sweeping and romantic, I found myself even at some of the weaker romance scenes being carried away more by the score and less the scene playing out in front of me. It was nothing groundbreaking but worked for the picture and managed to help prop it up in its weaker moments.
Highlights
A fun bit of triva was that the scene in which five B-25s fly in formation was the first time since the picture Catch 22 in 1970 that a massed aerial sequence of B-25s was filmed.
The wartime sequences were well filmed and the bridge scene was particularly exciting.
Christopher Plummer as always shines and brings in a nuanced performance
Quotable Quote
Paul: All my life, no matter what I did, I’ve always been the same thing. Pleasant. I’m pleasant. I was a teacher, a pleasant profession. I’m pleasant-looking. If anyone were to describe me…they’d say I was pleasant. I never minded it that much before.
Something to think about
Have you even fallen in love with someone that you knew was beyond your reach? That no matter what you did, you were never going to be together?
Conclusion
Overall Hanover Street like its character Paul is perfectly pleasant, it never risks too much or is shocking in any way. Its designed to be an epic war romance yet sidelines the romance in favor of some very well shot war sequences, at its heart, its a picture conflicted and like its heroine it’s unwilling to commit one way or the other. Hanover Street is mostly forgotten and is only ever really watched by Harrison Ford fans as it showcases one of his earliest roles, its worth a watch and is good enough to recommend as a breezy date movie, but that’s about it,
