Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

sfd-54 This film was fictionalized so that it could be viewed by civilians. What actually happened was far worse than shown in the movie. When the Germans invade the native hospital they killed the doctor and all of the civilian natives they could find. They did this to conceal their presence and activities from the world once the war was over. The film crew had to use a Grumman Duck because they could not find a Vought Kingfisher. The mechanic that was trying to learn to fly the plane would never have looped and rolled it but like any producer they did it to maintain interest in the film. The river used in the movie was the Orinoco in Venezuela even though the incident happened on the amazon in Brazil. The fact that the crew and captain might have been tried for war crimes had they left any of the survivors alive led them to eliminate all known survivors. The movie tries to show what survivors would have had to do in reality to achieve justice. Of course no one tried the victors. The German crew killed less than 300 people while the fire bombing of Tokyo killed 200,000 people. Perhaps the message the film tried to establish was that only the meek shall survive. I loved the scene near the end when Louie walks off abandoning his only source of income to a lunatic. In reality he would have refused to let the tug go to sea in the first place. When Peter would scream full speed ahead, in the real world Louie would have shut off the fuel line. This is one of the best movies around and the flying sequence is magnificent. Having flown a Giles 202 for five years the aerobatics were something I know about from first hand experience and the loops and rolls were easy. I was also in a Sabreliner when it was rolled but to roll the Duck is something I would never have done. To take a plane that had been so severely damaged and and then to loop it is beyond any form of possibility. The plane, as shown in the movie, did not have enough power to go vertical and once it got inverted the engine would have quit as the plane stalled inverted.

William Dais Murphy's War is one of my top 50 most loved films, and I've watched A LOT of films, in all genres. When a film with a straightforward narrative, and a relatively simple plot with very few characters can rivet you to your seat right until the end, you have a hell of a story on your hands! The wide 2.35:1 format and outstanding cinematography by Oscar winner Douglas Slocombe are ideally matched to the location and type of action. And the reviewer who thinks the role of Murphy isn't suited for Peter O'Toole should have his head examined! O'Toole IS Murphy as much as he IS Lawrence of Arabia. Murphy's progression deeper and deeper into a vengeance-clouded mania is masterfully accomplished; he's in good company here, along with Gregory Peck's Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, Spencer Tracy's Old Man in The Old Man and the Sea, and Robert Shaw's Captain Quint in Jaws, O'Toole's tenacious Irishman Murphy is an inspiration easily absorbed and applied to all situations in which one may be considered the underdog by a wide margin. In other words, Murphy isn't an ironic post modern anti-hero. He's the old fashioned everyman, overcoming incredible odds to achieve his ends kind of hero. One could critique the film from sociological or psychological perspectives, and question whether the screenwriter intended for Murphy to symbolize the evil war can bring out in man, or the greatness, or both. But without reading anything into it, Murphy's War is on a primary level simply a terrific action yarn, well worth owning on DVD.

stewardia In scanning through these reviews, I'm very pleased to see that this movie is well liked by many people.I saw it first around the time it came out and even though I was only eleven or twelve, many things about this movie left an impression on me: the sunny, tropical locations, the excellent cast and the impeccable performances.The very last scene where Murphy is literally consumed by his own revenge is at least as memorable and disturbing as the last scene in The Planet of the Apes (60's version) and drives home the whole point of the movie as perfectly as I've ever seen it done.See it! You won't be disappointed.

Raegan Butcher Crusty Irish Seaman (ooooh that just sounds wrong!) Peter O'Toole swears vengeance upon the nasty German U-boat that sank his ship. Not only that, but the heartless Huns machine-gunned O'Toole and the rest of the survivors as they bobbed helplessly in the ocean. So, like the deranged captain Ahab in Moby Dick, he devotes his considerable energies to tracking down that submarine and sinking it.I saw this on TV back in the early eighties. Now, as an adult I see the resemblance to Moby Dick and I enjoy this movie even more. Anyone who likes Peter O'Toole should see Murphy's War. The location shooting is beautiful. The flying sequences are breathtaking. And the downbeat anti-war ending is awesome.