Another quick recommendation: this apparently came out as part of a box set of “controversial” films. It’s a doozy–in some ways structured (and scored, and shot) like a romantic comedy set in Britain during WWII, with James Garner as the hero/cad, James Coburn in the Tony Randall sidekick role (but getting a lot more action), and Julie Andrews as the perky, spunky British war widow. But Paddy Chayefsky wrote the script, and there are these dizzying moments of speechifying — Garner ripping apart the European contempt for Americans or savaging the glorification of war; a lovers’ fight between Garner and Andrews that is ruthlessly cutting, not cutesy — and a dark, dark satire on the way wars are run and remembered. I’m not sure what exactly made it controversial–the heroine’s loose (and unconcerned) sexuality, the savage demystification of D-Day and WWII heroics… but it still has a
It’s not Network-good, but it’s pretty damn good.