For the Boys (1991)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

As Good As It Gets

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I've enjoyed many of Bette's films, including "Big Business" and "The First Wives Club," but this movie is downright repulsive and distasteful! I'm glad they tried to expose the blacklisting of the 1950's for the heartbreaking nonsense that it was, and I sort of appreciated the basic anti-war theme. But the film itself is horrendous and the ending made me want to vomit! There is absolutely no warmth in these cardboard characters played by Midler and Caan. You can't help but hate them both! Every dumb and embarrassing stereotype is used to excess. Poorly written---it bounces between sitcom stupidity and soap opera histrionics--and definitely doesn't leave you with a "warm and fuzzy" feeling when it's finally over. If you watch this movie, you're wasting nearly two hours of your life! What more can I say.....it's awful. If Caan's character was supposed to be Bob Hope....well, he was definitely miscast in the role. This film ranks in stupidity with "Funny Lady," which also starred Caan.

Bette Midler proves that she can single-handedly make a film worth watching in FOR THE BOYS, an overlong but rewarding comedy-drama with music which chronicles the relationship between singer Dixie Leonard and comic Eddie Sparks (James Caan), a character clearly patterned after Bob Hope, which begins during a WWII USO tour and concludes in the present where the glamorously aging couple are being reunited for a television special. Bette received her second Best Actress Oscar nomination for her commanding performance here, She lights up the screen whether Dixie is upstaging Eddie in front of thousands of troops during WWII, cursing out sponsors during her and Eddie's television show, or tearing Eddie a new one when she thinks he is trying to steal her son away from her. As expected, she makes the most of her musical moments in the film with "Stuff Like that There" and "Come Rain or Come Shine" as standouts. Caan works hard in the role of Eddie Sparks, managing to make a pretty despicable character rather likable for the majority of the story. The only big mistake here was director Mark Rydell's casting of his real-life son, Christopher in the pivotal role of Dixie's adult son. Rydell's lifeless performance is a major detriment to an important part of the film, but for the most part, FOR THE BOYS is grand entertainment, thanks to the Divine Miss M.

I thought this movie was a 10+! The flashback format is interesting and watching the characters' lives and attitudes progress through the present-day Dixie's reminiscences. This is why it is puzzling to me that another person's comment contained the following criticism in regards to Bette's character Dixie: "She is perhaps nave and oblivious to what war is about and maybe even thinks it's just one big party and nobody really dies or suffers. By the end when she goes to Vietnam she is a vulgar, disgusting, embittered slob who harbors some anger that the GIs no longer swoon over her as they did a quarter of a century or so earlier. The GI's are of a different generation and she can't relate to them or why they have the attitude they do. She is perhaps also angry with herself for not being able to be enthused about performing for the fighting men of this war the way she was years ago. How does she end up like this?"Huh??? Dixie was an angry, embittered woman because Eddie Sparks sold out on her uncle! Her volatile reaction to his betrayal begins the systematic annihilation of her career. She didn't want to go on tour with him and only did so because he talked her into it, "For the Boys"!If anything, it is Eddie Sparks who is oblivious to the changes of the times during the Vietnam war and is unable to make the leap from the USO tours of the previous wars to this strange and confusing part of our history and it is Dixie who takes control of the out-of-hand situation in her inimitable style by getting the rowdy soldiers back in line and then not only sings them the quintessential song of the era, but caps her low-key performance with the peace sign! My god, SHE was the one who was truly in tune with the confusion these soldiers were experiencing!So, I have to ask...did we see the same movie?

This is a very emotional movie with a great cast. I'm not a James Caan fan, but he was perfect for this. Slippery as an eel though the McCarthy era up until the end. In response to the comments by other reviewers regarding the politics including sexism I have to say that I found these things the best part of the movie even if they were not very deeply explored. False, facile patriotism exposed and 2 older people who actually learned something from their lives - that's pretty good. I am a big Bette Midler fan so that didn't hurt. She sang a lot of good songs. I especially loved, "For All We Know." I liked the contrasting points of view between a woman who lost her husband and son and the man who really really did not seem to have any principals. The Mc Carthy era was depicted as a "scoundrel time" to use Lillian Hellman's phrase. George Segals speech at the Christmas Party after he was fired could have been stronger, but it was good.