"From early 1942 until the invasion of Europe over a million Americans landed in Britain. They came to serve on other battle fronts or to man the vast U.S. bases in England. Hardly a city, town or village remained untouched," reads the film's introduction. What this comes to mean is that the American G.I.s you see riding in on their USA tanks will have affairs with the local women, which is certainly no surprise. Director John Schlesinger finds three representative couples. While this is a war story, the focus is on making love, not war. Both love and war make for very exciting films, but this really isn't one of them.
"Yanks" is fine in places, but disappointing overall. The affairs are structurally uninteresting and evoke little passion - even the participants seem bored. This is all despite a fine cast headed by Richard Gere (as Matt), Vanessa Redgrave (as Helen), and William Devane (as John). In an early role, lovely Lisa Eichhorn (as Jean) received "Golden Globe" consideration, and motherly Rachel Roberts won a late career "British Academy" award. The "National Board" placed it at #2 and gave their "Best Director" of the year award to Mr. Schlesinger. Though bland, the film is good-looking and richly detailed.
****** Yanks (9/19/79) John Schlesinger ~ Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane
"Yanks" is fine in places, but disappointing overall. The affairs are structurally uninteresting and evoke little passion - even the participants seem bored. This is all despite a fine cast headed by Richard Gere (as Matt), Vanessa Redgrave (as Helen), and William Devane (as John). In an early role, lovely Lisa Eichhorn (as Jean) received "Golden Globe" consideration, and motherly Rachel Roberts won a late career "British Academy" award. The "National Board" placed it at #2 and gave their "Best Director" of the year award to Mr. Schlesinger. Though bland, the film is good-looking and richly detailed.
****** Yanks (9/19/79) John Schlesinger ~ Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane