When the old-fashioned melodrama «The War Lover» premiered in 1962 it did not impress anyone. The protagonist Buzz Rickson (a convincing unpleasant performance by Steve McQueen), a psychopathic American pilot, haughty and pedantic, hardly aroused sympathy among mass audiences, other than military and civilian population who might have shared with him his obsession with war, macho supremacy or boastful bragging. This aspect of Rickson only finds objection and disgust in Daphne Caldwell (Shirley Anne Field), a pacifist British girl who defends opposite values , which she expresses in her dialogues with Ed Bolland (Robert Wagner), Rickson's co-pilot. The script unfortunately reduces Daphne to a "war girl" that falls in love with Bolland, who just wants to have a good time, unlike Rickson, who is obsessed with her, but keeps a distance. I am amazed when I see these war films that exalt death, without taking a moment to think that, almost as a rule, every war usually responds to economic interests, concealed by political motives. I feel they are almost horror movies, preparing us for the death of the characters in a sinister conflagration. Similarly, they bother me even more when I know that they are propaganda vehicles that sell the image of an army - in this case, foreign and distant from the events that motivate the war - and overlooks the real drama of local human beings who have to endure so much tragedy. Richard Addinsell provides such a pompous score to «The War Lover» that it makes you think you are watching a major historical event. But no. It is a romantic-war melodrama, with a mad soldier leading the events and making propaganda for his army, in those days when that institution was intervening in the genocidal war of Vietnam and when England was producing the progressive "free cinema", to which this film is completely alien. Avoid.

Steve McQueen's performance as a psychopath was chilling and very convincing.The movie had 3 Air Force advisers who'd served on B-17s in combat and the movie staff listened to them. The result is a refreshingly accurate depiction of missions and the details of the procedures and what it was like. (My father was one of those advisers.) The director was initially told the "buzz job" in the movie could not be safely done, and so planned to do it with models. But my father convinced them that it could be done safely. A course was laid out, cleared of any wires or other obstacles, and the B-17 made repeated passes over it, each time a bit lower, with crew on the ground constantly advising them of their exact height. The result is a spectacular sequence unlike any other I've seen in aviation movies - a B-17 "cutting the grass" with its props and gear up. No CGI, no models, no trick photography, it's the real thing. The Air Force was unhappy the stunt was done, until after the movie was released and a lot of people said the buzz job was the highlight of the film.The cockpit shots were done using a cockpit section of a real B-17, it was not a set. Atypically, the shots of the crew were done with oxygen masks on in their desire for accuracy. Normally, the masks are left off so the audience can see their faces.The crews are woken up in the barracks with "grab your socks." This was a cleaned up version of the actual lingo, which was "drop your c**ks and grab your socks." The Air Force consultants provided a lot of the lingo used, and also helped the pilots with things like how to hold the control column and what the chatter was like. The mission maps in the preflight briefing were accurately depicted.The film was done on an actual WW2 B-17 base near London.In the movie, a live bomb was hung up in the bomb bay. During the war, there was a hatchet provided to make it possible to chop away any such problems.

"The War Lover" isn't the greatest movie ever made, but it has some very good elements. The scenes of airmen inside B-17 bombers are excellent, with very good views of flight uniforms, equipment, flying instruments and the cramped conditions. The fearful aspects of aerial combat are also shown quite effectively. Some of the sound effects are muffled, but the general experience of flying on bombing missions over enemy territory is well portrayed.Steve McQueen gives an excellent performance. While his character "Buzz" Rickson is often arrogant and amoral, McQueen is mesmerizing. He also nicely shows how Rickson has moments of compassion towards others. Its good to see a character like Rickson depicted in a way that's not completely black-and-white. Robert Wagner does a very good job as McQueen's co-pilot, a man with more decency and quiet character than Rickson, but who is also flawed like all of us. Unfortunately, while Shirley Anne Field is beautiful and shows some charm, she does a poor job of acting."The War Lover" is especially good at showing the toll of war, and how men of various characters and backgrounds are thrown together in the military. And it is very frank about the sexual promiscuity that is often a part of war. While the movie effectively shows these things, it does so in ways that are not as explicit as many movies of today might do.The editing of "The War Lover" is quite poor at times, with a choppy quality, and minor characters sometimes pop up here and there in a confusing way. Overall, though, the film is very worthwhile for viewers who are interested in character studies and war movies.

Nice action piece, with some nice period detail of what it was probably like being a US bomber pilot in the US in the war. While not the movie mainly focuses on the the relationship between the three main characters, it also focuses on Buzz's character, a vaguely psychotic bomber pilot.Motivations and the lives on the bomber crew are shown, I quite liked the setting and the portrayal of these guys. The relationship between Buss, Boland and Daphne is a tad clichéd...and really seems to be one of those war movies that are spoiled because it was felt there was a need to fit a romance into it.Lots of great footage of bombers, including some amazing footage of a bomber landing on its belly with no undercarriage, and some low level stunt stuff that has to be played with a good sound system. However some of the effects are a tad dodgy, and all the Luftwaffe fighter footage is obvious grainy stock footage..shame that they went to the trouble to use real US bombers, but couldn't get hold of a few Messercshmidts!