Recommended Movie: “Always”
Imprisoned angels
Remember that movie, which had a very passionate couple, then the guy dyes and comes back to solve things? Ah! It still had a song from the fifties, very beautiful … If you thought of “Ghost”, you missed it completely. I’m talking about “Always” (USA,1989) with Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter, directed by Steven Spielberg.
For those who do not know, this movie is a remake of “A Guy Named Joe” (USA, 1943), with Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunne in the lead roles. It is one of the few cases where the copy looks better than the original. From one movie to another, what was changed was the ambience. While the original story occurred in the midst of World War II, “Always” shows the air firefighters’ struggle to put out fires in the forests.
Pete (Richard Dreyfuss) is a keen and passionate pilot for what he does, while his girlfriend Dorinda (Holly Hunter) is always begging him to leave this dangerous job. One of these times, Pete has an accident and dies. An angel (Audrey Hepburn, in one of her last movie appearances) takes him back to the world to inspire a young pilot. It turns out that the boy is in love with Dorinda, which leads Pete to discover his real mission: to solve the pending issues that he left, when he died.
This is a movie where absolutely everything went right. The story is romantic and endearing. The main couple has a great performance and has a perfect chemistry. The landscapes are beautiful, and the outbursts of the forest fires take your breath away. The song “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”, great success from The Platters, 1959, matches beautifully with the story. And there’s still the fun John Goodman doing the comic counterpoint to the movie.
The comparison with “Ghost” (USA,1990) is inevitable because of the similarities between the two movies, although “Always” had been released a year earlier. The fundamental difference lies in the treatment given to the characters, and the ideology embedded in the films. In “Ghost” there is an atmosphere of sensuality and violence. In it the “deceased” Swayze investigates and avenges his own murder. As he is American, white, handsome, and blond, he goes to heaven anyway. On the other side the bad guy, Latin, dark, and ugly, does not escape being dragged by the shadows of hell.
“Always” is quite different. Fighting against the infernal flames of fires, mostly to save firefighters who act on the ground, the main characters are angelic. All characters are contained and asexual. The worst you can see are the pranksters of Dreyfuss, messing up with his friend Goodman.
This feature of the film is visible in the scene where Dorinda, on the anniversary of her boyfriend’s death, wears the same white, virginal dress he gave her, dancing alone, to the sound of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”. Pete dances with her, without touching each other, like angels they are. This could be classified as corny, and whoever does it, will be covered in reason. Ridiculously sentimental, but wonderfully romantic.
The film, in this delicious old fashioned romanticism, brings out the good part of our souls, which is so suffocated by the materialism of these troubled days that we live. Between Trumps & Bolsonaros, terrorist attacks and corruption allegations, we stop exercising the fascinating human characteristic of being moved by the good, the pure, the ethical. Nothing less than the angel part, which exists within each of us.
How about watching the movie, with an open mind, without repressing the emotions, letting out anything? Sometimes, we need to use the “light anf fluffy” excuse to release imprisoned emotions. You will see that it will be worth it.
This was the third movie that Spielberg and Dreifuss did together. Before that there was “Jaws” (USA, 1975) and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (USA, 1977). And, in proof that sometimes Life imitates Art, in 1989 there was a great fire in the famous Yellowstone Park, whose scenes were recorded in “Always”. Holly Hunter would reach her dramatic ascendancy shortly afterwards with the magnificent film “The Piano” (USA, 1993), which earned her a well-deserved Oscar.