The Norman Rockwell paintings displayed behind the credits may be seen as a bad omen; and the ensuing storyline, sure enough, proves to be Preston Sturges's Hail the Conquering Hero played with a solemnly straight face. Jan-Michael Vincent, a St. Loo rube with a head tapered like a brontosaurus, is booted out of Marine boot camp; but when circumstances force him to don another man's uniform, he is welcomed as a war hero and taken to the bosom of an average smalltown and particularly to the bosom of a coffee shop waitress named Rose. Director John Hancock's plan for recapturing the spirit of America, circa 1943, is to steer everything toward stereotype (there are moments, even, when he seems to have steered directly into an old Henry King film), and he achieves, as a result, a sort of mythic grandeur in this misty memory of oldendays innocence. The movie frequently manages to be affecting in one way or another (most frequently in the way of embarrassment), but behind its sugar-coating lurks the kind of cynical pandering to Middle American vanity that you find to this day in TV commercials and Presidential campaigns. With Glynnis O'Connor. (1976) — Duncan Shepherd
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