Harry's War (1981 film)

Harry's War (1981)
Harry's War (1981)
Directed by	Kieth Merrill
Written by	Kieth Merrill
Produced by	David B. Johnston
Starring	Edward Herrmann; Geraldine Page; Karen Grassle; David Ogden Stiers; Elisha Cook
Cinematography	Reed Smoot
Edited by	Bert Lovitt
Music by	Merrill Jenson
Distributed by	American Film Consortium; Taft International Pictures
Release date	March 1981;
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Harry's War is a 1981 American comedy-drama film from American Film Consortium and Taft International Pictures, starring Edward Herrmann, Geraldine Page, Karen Grassle, David Ogden Stiers, Elisha Cook, Salome Jens and Noble Willingham. It was written and directed by Kieth Merrill.

Plot

After his aunt dies of a heart attack while fighting the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), mild-mannered accountant Harry Johnson decides to take up the cause in what may seem to be an unconventional manner: He declares war on the IRS. After the funeral of Harry's aunt, Harry uses a half-track to sabotage a television interview of his IRS nemesis. Several violent outcomes occur with some anti-government (or, at least, anti-IRS) rhetoric.

Cast

Edward Herrmann - Harry Johnson
Geraldine Page - "Aunt" Beverly Payne
Karen Grassle - Kathy Johnson
David Ogden Stiers - Ernie Scelera, IRS district director
Salome Jens - Wilda Crawley, IRS agent
Elisha Cook, Jr. (as Elisha Cook) - Sergeant Billy Floyd
James Ray - Croft, IRS commissioner
Douglas Dirkson - Francis Kane (alias Draper), IRS agent
Jim McKrell - Roger Scofield, Newsman
Noble Willingham - Major F. Andrews, United States Army
Alan Cherry - Chester Clim, IRS agent #1
Bruce Robinson - IRS agent #2

Production

Parts of the film were shot in St. George, Utah.^[1]

Theatrical run

This film saw a limited two-week release in theaters in March 1981.

Television

SelecTV, ONTV, HBO, and other premium cable movie channels ran the film in 1982, but it has never had a network television premiere or any other broadcast in the US since. In the UK, it was shown on Talking Pictures TV in 2021.

Home media

Image Home Video released a VHS version of the film on April 1, 1988 and using the same video transfer also did a DVD release on August 1, 2005.

Legacy

In a mid-1980s interview with David Ogden Stiers, who played the IRS director in the film, was asked what his favorite role had been and the interviewer was expecting him to say something about his character in M*A*S*H, but instead he paused for a second and said "There was this movie about the IRS and I was the biggest [bleep] in the office...."

References

^ D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood came to town: a history of moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 9781423605874.

External links

Harry's War at IMDb
‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Harry's War at AllMovie
Harry's War at Rotten Tomatoes
The New York Times Movies

[1] D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood came to town: a history of moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 9781423605874.

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