FOR THE BOYS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: James Caan and Bette Midler as a USO touring comedy team. For forty-nine years they are America's sweethearts on-stage and constantly battling off-stage. This is mostly because he has the values of his time and she has the values of our time. Sobby, sentimental, and melodramatic. Rating: high -1 (-4 to +4).
Bette Midler originally built her career on being outrageous and running counter to the culture. These days she seems more interested in making soft sentimental films such as BEACHES and her current FOR THE BOYS- -what at one time were called "women's pictures." In a sense, that is just like Dixie Leonard, the character she plays in FOR THE BOYS. As we see Dixie over a forty-nine-year interval, she is at first outrageous as an entertainer, then slowly the world catches up and Dixie has been co-opted into the mainstream. In fact, from World War II to the present Dixie never fails to have and stand up for the values of a woman of the late 1980s.
Dixie is half of the musical comedy team of Eddie Sparks and Dixie Leonard. Sparks and Leonard are an amalgam of several real-life people, most notably Bob Hope with his penchant for USO tours and becoming a symbol of support for America's military policy. There is also something of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in them as they are considered to be "America's Sweethearts." There is a problem with this, however. Dixie is quick-witted and sharp-tongued. In the 1950s the ideal of womanhood presented by the media was domestic and not all that bright. (Right now the only notable pre-1960s exception that comes to mind is Myrna Loy as Nora Charles.) Eddie Sparks (played by James Caan) always represents the values of the mainstream of his time, whatever time that is. Not too unexpectedly, the two are in constant conflict with hot war when they are off-stage and cold war when they are on-stage. Sparks, however, is outclassed by this woman with a much quicker mind for gags and who is happy to mix dirty jokes into her patter.
Structured somewhat like SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR, this film shows us Eddie and Dixie only at Christmas time, usually during a war and on a USO tour. We do see them during the Red scare, with Eddie naturally enough bowing to sponsor pressure to rid the staff of a "controversial" writer and Dixie, just as naturally, standing up for right and truth. Eddie always acts from cowardice or self-interest; Dixie never fails to stand up for some ideal or other. And just to be sure the audience sides with Dixie--as if the deck were not badly enough stacked as it is--Dixie has a likable, outgoing manner and Eddie is given by Caan all the personality of a starched white shirt.
The script of FOR THE BOYS leaves no emotional button unpushed. The great tragedies in Dixie's life are telegraphed for in advance. Most of the story is told as a flashback to an all-style-no-substance network career man who is so inspired by Dixie's nobility that he is reformed on the spot. And if you cannot figure out the conclusion of the film in the first few minutes, you really are not trying. Dixie's attitudes are not the only anachronisms. In December of 1942 Dixie makes a pun on "Peenemunde." Even military intelligence probably did not know about Peenemunde's importance for another eight months. (It is a German island that was the development and launch site for the V-1 and V-2.)
In some respects the film is not so bad. It functions very nicely as a core sample of popular music from 1942 to the present. Music from each of the settings punctuates the film. Special note should be made of the makeup. Both Caan and Midler age before our eyes and the transitions are smooth and believable. The makeup artist pulled no punches and Midler does not age well. My first reaction on seeing the makeup-aged Midler was not that it did not look right; it was, "My gosh, look how old she's gotten!" It is rare one can get that natural reaction from ageing makeup.
But music and makeup do not save this film from being an overlong and self-congratulatory swipe at the values of the past by the present. I rate this film a high -1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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