''Hail, Hero!'' is a 1969

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by David Miller, starring

Michael Douglas Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AF ...

Deborah Winters Deborah Brace Winters (born November 27, 1953) is an American film and television actress and realtor who has appeared in films such as ''Kotch'', '' The People Next Door'', ''Class of '44'' and the television miniseries '' The Winds of War''. ...

and

Peter Strauss Peter Lawrence Strauss (born February 20, 1947) is an American television and film actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s. He is five-time Golden Globe Awards nominee. Early life Strauss was born in C ...

. David Manber wrote the screenplay based on the novel by John Weston. The picture was produced by Harold D. Cohen and was the

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

debut for Douglas and for

Plot

During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, college student Carl Dixon quits school and joins the Army in hopes of using love, not bullets, to combat the Viet Cong.

Cast

as Carl Dixon *

Arthur Kennedy John Arthur Kennedy (February 17, 1914January 5, 1990) was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the origi ...

as Albert Dixon, Carl's father * Teresa Wright as Santha Dixon, Carl's mother *

as Frank Dixon, Carl's younger brother *

John Larch John Larch (born Harold Aronin; October 4, 1914 – October 16, 2005; also credited Harry Larch) was an American radio, film, and television actor. Early life and military service John Larch was born Harold Aronin to Jewish parents in Sale ...

as Mr. Conklin * Charles Drake as Senator Murchiston * Mercer Harris as Jimmy *

as Becky *

John Qualen John Qualen (born Johan Mandt Kvalen, December 8, 1899 – September 12, 1987) was an American character actor of Norwegian heritage who specialized in Scandinavian roles. Early years Qualen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son ...

as Billy Hurd *

James Nusser James Nusser (May 3, 1905 – June 8, 1979) was an American film and television actor. He was known for playing the recurring role of town drunk Louis Pheeters in the American western television series ''Gunsmoke'' from 1956 to 1970. Buzzer wa ...

as Max

Production

Gordon Lightfoot Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1 ...

contributed two songs to the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

, the title song (co-written with

Jerome Moross Jerome Moross (August 1, 1913July 25, 1983) was an American composer best known for his music for film and television. He also composed works for symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, soloists and musical theater, as well as orchestrating score ...

) and "Wherefore And Why", an "alternate, slightly faster take" of the first track of ''

Did She Mention My Name? ''Did She Mention My Name?'' is Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot's third studio album, released in 1968 on the United Artists label. The album marked Lightfoot's first use of orchestration. Reception In his Allmusic review, critic Richie Unterb ...

'' No

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' ...

was released. A key scene in the film was changed shortly before the film's release. In both the novel and the film, "Carl spends his last night at home painting the side of his father's barn with a Pop war mural—flowers, bombs, flaming planes and an American flag in which hearts have replaced the stars. In the novel (and in the film before it was ... re-edited), Carl's mother ... and father joined him in this act of affirmation."

Reception

For his performance,

was nominated for

Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor The Golden Globe for New Star of the Year – Actor was an award given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at their annual Golden Globe Awards. History The award was first introduced at the 6th Golden Globe Awards in 1948, where it was ...

. Upon the film's October 1969 release,

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

wrote:

In ''Hail, Hero!'' you can see
Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. D ...
, even younger than he was in '' The Champion'' in 1949, in the person of his 25-year-old son, Michael. This new Douglas has his father's extraordinary, Fearless Fosdick jaw, the suggestion of his dimpled chin and the cool, gentle eyes. He also possesses the almost manic, physical buoyancy that compels attention even when it bears little relation to the circumstances in which the actor finds himself. It's not an especially memorable performance, but it's an energetic one, and without Douglas, ''Hail, Hero!'' would not even be tolerable.

In a retrospective review ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporat ...

'' called it a "talky, uninspired attempt to bring 60s-style 'relevance' to the screen."

References

External links