Hold Back the Dawn

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Aug 2, 2020 Billy Wilder was a genius, and Olivia deHavilland was 1 of the best actresses of all-time. See more steve d @RT35616104 Jul 22, 2020 Passable because of the cast. See more Thomas M @TMProofreader Feb 1, 2019 The best romance movie ever made! See more Feb 13, 2018 Gigolo with the (in the end) proverbial heart of gold? I don't think so. See more Mar 22, 2017 Hold Back the Dawn was a film that challenged me. It has a story that is narrated by, and focused on a character who lacks virtue. For a long time I felt like the movie was trying to make me sympathize with Charles Boyer, but I couldn’t because he behaved so poorly. But there is a turning point in this film that worked so well that it changed the entire tone of the movie, and almost had me in tears. I thought Boyer played it brilliantly, and he was helped by acting opposite the amazing Olivia de Havilland. The story is timeless, and might be more relevant now than it ever was in the past. The plot is based on someone who is basically a refugee seeking permanent residence in the USA, but he has to wait on the other side of the wall (in Mexico) for immigration to allow him into the country. If that doesn’t speak to modern Americans, then I don’t know what will. There’s a nice blend of human drama and romance in Hold Back the Dawn. The cast did a great job, and I thought the script was pretty solid. I’m not sure how well the framing device worked, though. It didn’t feel necessary, and almost came across like they were trying to justify why this needed to be a movie at all. The one positive I will concede about that setup is that it actually gives a reason for the narration, and I’m not the biggest fan of narration and voiceover so it helps when I know it is part of a story being told to another character. Hold Back the Dawn is a movie that I would recommend, because it feels relevant and heartfelt in ways that resonate more than 75 years later. It’s not one of the greatest films of all time, but I liked it a lot and can see why it was nominated for so many Oscars. See more Sep 27, 2016 Some younger viewers might think this film takes place in the years after the war, but it was actually released a few months before the Pearl Harbor bombing - so it has a certain tension when viewed with this in mind. Thousands of Europeans were fleeing from the war, just as in the film Casablanca which was released 14 months after this film. Also of note is that the movie director we meet early in the film is not just an actor but is actually the credited director of the movie being watched. A very nice touch in adapting a Billy Wilder script. See more Read all reviews

Hold Back the Dawn

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