Too much of everything

To me, this movie is perfection.

Simply A Masterpiece

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

. . . concludes with America's Youth singing irritating lyrics stating "This time (World War Two) is the LAST time we'll ever have to do it (fight a foreign war) again." Fake Real Life Soldier Ronald Reagan plays a fake stage manager here as his main preparation to portray a fake president getting Real Life U.S. Troops killed FOR REAL in fake wars in Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, and who knows where else. Reagan based his Alzheimer's Administration on his fading memories of being THIS IS THE ARMY's stage manager "Johnny Jones," whose cunning First Lady has to propose to him multiple times to start the Real Life American Baby Boom on the actual command of U.S. Army Film Censor Propagandists who wanted troops to do it like rabbits before shipping out (you cannot fight foreign wars without a continuous supply of fresh meat, aka cannon fodder). Warner fiendishly puts Ronnie through his paces here in BOTH Drag and Blackface (!) through the miracle of multiple takes. (If you pause and zoom from 58 through 61 minutes, you'll see Black Youth Ronnie dancing in the pair third from the left, and Carmen Miranda Ronnie gyrating in the couple fourth from the right.) This was Warner's Way of Warning Future Americans of the 1980s that the fickle Blue Collar "Gipper" Real Life Union Boss would change his spots to sell out our once-Progressive America to the Corrupt Job-Killing Corporate Fat Cat Automation Czars as he lost his mind.

I found this older movie on a disk of 4 movies at my public library. I was interested in it for two, nearly equal, reasons. I was born in 1945, right after the war ended, and enjoy seeing movies from the 1940s. And second, I wanted to see a Ronald Reagan movie. When he was California governor in the 1960s his decisions influenced the rest of my life.This movie is a combination of a WW1 Irving Berlin play, "Yip, Yip, Yaphank" (Yaphank, NY, was the location of the Army training facility) and new material for the WW2 portion. The movie uses Berlin songs and Irving Berlin himself appears on stage singing one of them near the end.Most of the movie is musical revue style with both individual performers and big cast stage productions. Many of the actors were actually in the military at the time.There is also a romantic story running through the entire movie, as Lt. Ronald Reagan is Johnny Jones, son of a popular stage performer. He is chosen to be producer for this traveling revue, and has a girl that he wants to marry. But being practical he doesn't want to marry her until after the war because he has seen what happens when a man goes off to war and dies, leaving a widow and possibly children.I enjoyed the movie. Of course it contains a lot of pro-USA war songs, expected for 1942 when it was filmed. It appears actual footage of the Pearl Harbor attack was spliced into this movie. It is interesting and fun to see what was being made right before I was born, and to think how far movie-making has come since then.It was filmed in Technicolor but over the years before this transfer was made for the DVD lots of the color faded badly. Still for what it is the picture and sound are fine.

Although a dated period piece, this one is likely to win you over if you're a fan of patriotic old films. Music lovers will also find a lot to like here as well, with a whole host of tunes provided by the legendary Irving Berlin, who even manages to sing one of his creations - 'Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning'. The picture book-ends it's story around two separate stage productions, starting with 'Yip, Yip, Yaphank' set in 1918, followed up by the 1943 'This is the Army' portion anchored by future President Ronald Reagan. There's a family connection introduced as well, as Reagan's character, Johnny Jones, is the son of Jerry Jones (George Murphy), the original star of the earlier production.If you're an old time movie fan, you'll recognize a host of players in the film like Joan Leslie, Alan Hale, and George Tobias, and virtually all of the secondary characters were in the service when they made the picture. Which was actually the point, the film was intended as a morale booster and positive propaganda for the American war effort. (I dislike using the term propaganda when it supports the U.S. cause, but I don't know if there's a better word to fit the bill).Undoubtedly, some modern day viewers will find offense with portions of the picture. The black-face Swanee River routine is regrettably embarrassing in hindsight, but then you have an incredibly well choreographed and athletic performance by real black singers and dancers which stands well on it's own. Similarly, soldiers performing in drag seems like it could have been avoided by using real service women in those numbers calling for it. But second guessing from the vantage point of almost seventy years is probably a futile exercise.I'd like to think there's a worthy message in the closing song number - "This Time is the Last Time" as it references America's prospects for future conflict. One more thing that the vantage point of 2010 is unlikely to make us feel secure about. One can only hope that courageous world leaders lead the planet to a safer place than the one we have today.

This is the type of musical that Hollywood did best and it sure was popular with the public. However, 65 years later, the film has lost much of its appeal due to changes in movie styles as well as the fact that the film's value as a propaganda tool is now lost--after all, the war has been over since 1945. So what was rousing and exciting then to the folks at home now just seems rather dated and slow--though the film still does have very good production values.The film is basically a bazillion patriotic songs rolled up into the thinnest of plots. Frankly, I think the film could have been a lot better had the story received greater emphasis and they'd dropped a few musical numbers. This would have given the film a much needed infusion of energy--though again, back during the war years, this wasn't as big a concern.The story, such as it is, begins during WWI. A group of soldiers (George Murphy, Alan Hale, George Tobias and Charles Butterworth and others) are interested in performing a musical to raise morale and the when they are given permission, the show is a huge hit. Many years later, when WWII arrives, the children of these same men and others put on their new and timely stage show. It's a major success and the soldiers are sent on a tour of the USA to increase the public's patriotism and backing of the war. There's a little more to the plot than this--but not much.As I said, it's really just an excuse to string together tons of musical and dance numbers--so many that you feel a bit overwhelmed. Some of the numbers are very good, the one with Irving Berlin was interesting (not good--just interesting from a historical sense) and a few were rather bad. The worst was the one that was a minstrel show--something that you'd hoped would have died out by 1943. It was just embarrassing and makes you cringe. Also, in a few separate parts of the film, Joe Lewis made some irrelevant appearances, as he couldn't sing and was as light on his dancing feet as a rhino! He just looked very lost but you can't blame him--he was ordered to appear in the film and since he was a sergeant, he had no choice! If I could, I'd give the film a score for 1943 (8) and one for today (4 or 5). But, since I can't, I'll give it a 6. Interesting from a historical standpoint but pretty tough going at times, though some of the songs were catchy and the color cinematography was lovely.As a history teacher, I was a bit concerned with a couple reviews that gave the film a 1. It wasn't nearly that bad and some of the reasons they gave it such a low score seemed petty. One was a diatribe about why they hated Ronald Reagan and really didn't review the film itself. Another was very critical about how the film was propaganda. My answer to that is YES it is propaganda and so what?! Given that it was a life and death struggle for survival in WWII only a knucklehead would see this sort of propaganda as an evil! Should Hollywood have either ignored the war or done pro-Hitler films instead?! Read your history books or talk to some vets before you make such silly assertions.