The War Lover

This 1962 film starring Steve McQueen used his considerable charisma in an unexpected way--he played a cad, and by the time the film was over it was hard not to hate him. There have been many films over the years with charming villains, but McQueen was so abhorrent that the film really doesn't work.

Based on a novel by John Hersey, and directed by Philip Leacock, The War Lover is a World War II movie but could be set in any war. McQueen plays Buzz Rickson, a hot-shot pilot whose arrogance is through the roof. On a bombing mission that is aborted due to too much cloud cover, he goes in low and takes out the target, but gets chewed out for disobeying orders. He's too good a pilot to discipline.

His co-pilot is played by Robert Wagner, who's a straight-up guy. He meets a British woman (Shirley Ann Field) and begins dating her, but McQueen indicates he could take her away from him any time he wants.

As someone in the film says of McQueen, he's on a fine line between hero and psychopath, because he doesn't really care about what he's fighting for, he just wants to kill the enemy. He lives for war, and would be adrift without it. That this film was released before the Vietnam War, when Americans would start doubting what they were fighting for, there is some prescience.

But McQueen is too obnoxious in the film and Wagner is too dull. Field, though a lovely woman, seems out of her depth. The film has some exciting air battle scenes, though, including some stock footage of actual planes.