everything you have heard about this movie is true.

best movie i've ever seen.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

"Yanks" is a welcome addition to World War II movies that focus on the home front. In this case though, the home front is England, not the U.S. or Canada. Other films were made about the people on the home front on this side of the pond. Those about the people at home in England had a more precarious feel because the war exploded over them most nights as German bombs and then rockets burst on the civilian population. This film is unique in its exclusive focus on the American GIs and the English women. We follow three men and three women for several months from late 1943 until the GIs' departure for the Normandy invasion on D-Day, June 6, 1944. "Yanks" just skirts the seedy side of mass relocation of men in uniform away from home. Instead, it looks at the close relations developed between some Yanks and British women. So, these are more than trysts, or romantic interludes. They are three stories of love. In all three of these relationships, the Americans mostly behave and respect the local women. They learn something about England and the English. And, the women, their families and other Brits meet some Americans who mostly are gentlemen. At one point, after Jean Moreton (played by Lisa Eichhorn) has brought Matt (played by Richard Gere) home for dinner, her mother (played by Rachel Roberts) comments to Jean that she could see what Jean sees in him – he's kind and respectful. Part of the love stories involve the families, the British people and the country. The American GIs began arriving in Great Britain in 1942. The first were there primarily to build air bases in the eastern part of England. By Christmas 1942, there were about 60,000 American servicemen in England. That number would swell to more than two million in little more than a year. Many Brits were initially suspicious of the Americans. One reason was because the pay for the GIs was five times more than British troops received. The GIs bore gifts of food and niceties that the English were having to ration or do without. But, by Christmas that year, the British brass and the American commanders urged the Americans to spend Christmas at home, with a British family. The GIs were to sit in the place of sons and brothers who were off at war themselves. According to a December 2013 article in the Daily Mail, "Families issued so many invitations there were 50 for each GI." The GIs were given ration packs to share with their hosts.When three million men from somewhere else spend time in one's country, there surely will be some problems. But the Americans were tough on their own who got into drunken brawls or who caused fights or disruptions with the local people. More often, GIs became friends with pub owners, host families and others they met. That's what this movie is about. In some areas, Brits opened their homes to GIs where there wasn't sufficient base housing. In an email letter to the editor after the Daily Mail article, a former civilian employee of a military paper said that 10 years earlier he had taken a call from an elderly British man who was hoping to find the six men he and his wife had housed over a two-year period. The emailer said she ran a story on it in the military publication. "About two months later I received a huge bouquet of flowers. The accompanying letter thanked me and except for one who had passed away all the soldiers got in contact with them. They had a genuine affection for those men."The Daily Mail article said there were "9,000 babies born out of wedlock as a result of GI liaisons. And, about 70,000 British women became GI war brides. After the war, the U.S. Army provided free passage for the war brides to start their new lives in America. Some reviewers build up a phrase that had become known around England during the war. The Yanks were said to be "overpaid, oversexed, and over here." Historian Juliet Gardiner wrote a book that used that in its title in 1992. It looked at the ongoing social impact from the massive movement of three million men from one culture to another, where the native population of same-age men was gone. In 2004, she wrote another book, "Wartime: Britain 1939-1945." It looked at all the many different influences and effects of England's war experiences at home. In her research Gardiner found that that expression seldom appeared anywhere in writing or other media after the war. Yet everyone who was 10 years old at the end of the war would have known and heard it. So, she concluded it was a short-term catch phrase that wasn't taken too seriously and that was soon forgotten. When one reads all the other problems and difficulties the English had – constant rocket bombings, relocated children, orphaned children, rationing, and so much more, it's easy to see how the catch phrase about the Yanks was just a fad or phase by some folks who were soon to forget it. I highly recommend this movie. It's a nice look at some good GIs. And it's an empathetic look at the resilient and solid British people who endured six years of real hardship, worry and loss.

This is not a perfect film, but it was made at the end of an era when films about World War II were made for veteran audiences. Movies like Tora Tora Tora and the Battle of Britain were about battles and almost completely ignored the human stories. Yanks is a pioneer in the genre of wartime humanism. Without Yanks we would not have films like: Hope & Glory, Swing Shift, The Pianist, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Bon Voyage, Charlotte Grey, Radio Days, Das Boot, Rosenstasse, Downfall, Black Book, and even Schindler's List.Adding to the strength of the new genre is a certain authenticity the film maintains. From the unabashed male nudity in the showers to the grimy black Victorian buildings of pre Thatcher Britain. Perhaps it's because the film was made when any Brit over the age of 45 would remember the era very clearly, so it wasn't as much of a history film when it was made as it is now. Despite its authentic feel, the period details are not always correct. The men's hairstyles are too long for servicemen and there are other little flaws in the costuming, hairstyles, and props. However, the film's worst problem is the editing. The movie looks like it was a much longer film that was cut down - and that is exactly what happened. The half hour that was removed from the final cut made every story choppy and incomplete. The romance is on again/off again without explanation, and some scenes seem to be thrown in that are unrelated to the storyline, like the black soldiers at the dance hall. Either a different edit or director's cut would improve the film considerably. Despite these issues, the film is still an important one, and worthy of watching.

In 1942, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers were pouring into Great Britain in preparation for the eventual invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. They were young men far from home in a war-ravaged country with some disposable income and not all that much to do until D-Day arrived. Surrounding them was a land full of kids, old men and young women with very few British chaps around. Yanks is a story about the relationships that spawned between those American boys and those British girls that encompassed love, companionship, exploitation and everything in between.When young enlisted men Matt and Danny (Richard Gere and Chick Vennera) roll into England with the U.S. army, it doesn't take them long before they connect with Mollie and Jean (Wendy Morgan and Lisa Eichhorn). But while the cheeky Mollie and the somewhat shy Danny waste no time falling in love, it's a rockier road for Matt and Jean. He's immediately attracted to her, but she has a sort-of-beau named Ken (Derek Thompson) who's serving with the British forces in Malaysia. Ken and Jean are two kids who grew up in a small town with everyone always expecting them to wind up together and it's not easy for her to open her heart to another man, especially an American who wants things his own way.The same hesitation is seen in the relationship between an army captain named John (Williams Devane) and a lady of the manor named Helen (Vanessa Redgrave). Helen's husband is also away at war and her friendship with John has been platonic for a while, but they both know where it's heading. The truth is that everybody knows the American GI's will be romancing and coupling with the local ladies and no one really knows what to do about it except look the other way.These filmmakers do a great job slowly unfolding love affairs, both meaningful and not, amidst a simmering stew of resentment, jealousy and cultural clash. Yanks gently captures the amoral nature of war-time living where people try to maintain some semblance of normality and end up just taking what they need to survive. When looked at coldly, there's something seedy about these arrogant Americans swooping in and taking advantage of British women left alone by the demands of war, yet director John Schlesinger never lets the audience forget that life isn't cold. It's warm and it's now and it wants. Strangers brought together by the most horrible of circumstances are still people who want to be loved and hate to be alone.This film dispenses with a lot of the traditional obstacles that get chucked in the path of lovers. Ken makes only a brief appearance and the disapproval of Jean's parents doesn't seem to keep her and Matt separated for an instant. The story can get away with that because we know where these American boys are going and it isn't back to the States with their British loves in tow. It's to the bloody beaches of Normandy, so neither they nor their new women have much time to waste.With delicate performances and engrossing direction, Yanks is a good movie. It's not for those who flinch at unvarnished romance, but all but the harshest heart will be able to float along with this film's earnest intentions.

Was sad to see the passing of Tony Melody this summer. He was such a good yet under sung character actor. His performance in Yanks was excellent and the mischievous smile he cracked when he said there would be 'no danger' of the bottle of whisky remaining unopened was brilliant as oppose to his wife's refusal to eat the cake that Geres character had prepared.I wonder if the picture of his character he showed Gere when he was talking about his war service was actually his real father as he had served in the Guards during the first world war - just a thought.Lisa Eichorn had me fooled for many a year - that Lancashire accent is spot on.