always

In the first decade of the 21st century, famed director Steven Spielberg has explored characters
and stories with an almost European style of filmmaking with films like “The Terminal.” In the 1990s,
Spielberg defined the gloss of blockbuster Hollywood with breakout hits like “Jurassic Park.” In the
1980s by and large, Spielberg was about syrup and sentimentality. Even his harrowing efforts in
that decade, “The Color Purple” and “Empire of the Sun,” were infused with a glowing childlike
hope. This creative pursuit peaked and simultaneously faltered in 1989 with “Always.”

Teaming for the third time with Richard Dreyfuss, who worked with Spielberg on “Jaws” and “Close
Encounters of the Third Kind,” the definitive American director was taking his love of classic
filmmaking and his old school sensibilities and applying them to a remake of a war-era film called,
“A Guy Named Joe,” starring Spencer Tracy.

In the movie, Dreyfuss is Pete, a pilot fighting forest fires in Colorado. He and his buddy, Al, played
by John Goodman, fly old war birds into dangerous infernos and Pete loves the thrill. Pete is in
love with Dorinda, played by Holly Hunter. She’s afraid he’s too reckless and she wants him to
leave the fire service and settle down with her. He reluctantly placates her and plans to retire from
flying, but one fateful last mission takes his life as he saves Ted’s.

Pete finds himself between Earth and heaven, now a spirit charged with trying to aid a young pilot
who cannot see or hear him, before leaving forever. There’s only one hitch. The young pilot is in
love with Dorinda, and Pete struggles between selfishness and love, unable to let her go.

The film has some great touches, including Goodman’s great speech about the dangers of burning
trees and the footage of the old airplanes cruising around the smoky skies. A sublime cameo by
Audrey Hepburn as the angelic mentor, Hap, in her final performance is the highlight of the film.

Dreyfuss and Hunter give competent performances, but the material they have to work with is often
cheesy beyond description, devoid of subtlety and sophistication. The young pilot, played by Brad
Johnson, is an over-the-top ham of a character, and romantic chemistry between Hunter and
Johnson is tepid.

Spielberg has attempted to recreate not just the story of “A Guy Named Joe,” but also the
atmosphere and flavor of that black and white, 1940s film. The result is a clash of aesthetics and
sensibilities.

Spielberg and the writers manage to change just enough of the story to remove it from World War II
and thereby strip it of its origins. The film loses its identity, gets some color and slick filmmaking,
while desperately clinging to dialogue and pacing from an older classic. "Always" becomes a movie
that's too sentimental, too syrupy and it loses its balance. It doesn’t work. The film feels as lost as
Pete.