Birthday Blitz: Yanks (dir. John Schlesinger, 1979)

Day 9, Movie 9 – Yanks – This Post Is Almost Completely Gratuitous

Sometimes you just need to ogle young Richard Gere. I think that is a general rule for life. While the poster gets what Yanks is about – the relationship between a British woman (Lisa Eichhorn) and an American soldier (Gere) during World War II – it does not allow for some much-needed Richard Gere ogling. These pictures do:

Okay, I got that out of my system.

On a more serious note, here is something to consider about Yanks. This movie, a romantic war drama, was released a year after The Deer Hunter and Coming Home , two overwhelmingly anti-war movies.

Compare the trailer for The Deer Hunter…

to the trailer for Coming Home…

…to the final scene in Yanks.

The tones of these three movies couldn’t be more different. This speaks to the nature of the wars they represent. WWII in film is almost always depicted with a degree of nostalgia and patriotism. Yanks, which focuses on the home front,  ends on as uplifting note as it can. Yet as Yanks was in production, these anti-Vietnam War films had been released and dominating the public sphere. Perhaps that is why of the three movies Yanks has less immediate recognition today.

This post of is part of my Birthday Blitz Marathon.