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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Capturing an Era Perfectly, March 25, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Call to Glory [VHS] (VHS Tape)
For those of us who went through high school in the early 1960's, or the service in that decade or the decade after, this is a wonderful, wonderful, film. Craig Nelson -- much, much, better than in his later "Coach" role -- captures a human decency, patriotism and, yet, sophistication, that shows how servicemen can be devoted to their country and yet not be jingoistic or overly simplistic. His family members -- particularly Cindy Pickett, who plays his wife -- live his military life but also lives of their own, and are perfectly human. The film also captures the news events of the era, particularly the Cuban Missile Crisis, by showing us again what we saw on TV, in large, black & white TVs, at the time. For those who love flying and airplanes, this is great video -- my young son loves it -- but it's a lot more. This was the pilot for a TV series that lasted about one season. My family have many, but not all, of the TV episodes as well, and we watch them over and over again. I can't say enough good things about this film, or the TV series that followed it.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Devotion to country and family, May 11, 2005
This review is from: Call to Glory [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I suspect some things never change and Call to Glory may have taken place in the 1960s and during the Cold War, but the devotion to country and patriotism still exists today in our armed forces.
The movies shows the trials and travails of one fictional military family as they deal with the hardships of military life. Not every family wonders if dad will make it home after having a "tough day at the office."
A must see movie if you'd like a glimpse of what military life is like.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Last Full Measure..., March 13, 2008
This review is from: Call to Glory [VHS] (VHS Tape)
1984's "Call To Glory" was an astonishingly good TV movie that sparked a short-lived TV series and is long overdue for conversion to DVD. It starred Craig T. Nelson as the commander of an Air Force Strategic Reconnaissance Wing flying U-2 spy planes over Cuba at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
"Call To Glory" is only partially about the flying. Nelson's family includes Cindy Pickett as his dutiful and loving wife, who shoulders with her husband the burdens of leadership in a business where husbands often don't make it home in time for dinner and sometimes don't make it home at all. A young Elizabeth Shue is Nelson's teenage daughter, navigating the difficult shoals of early adulthood. A middle son races jalopies at dirt tracks. The youngest son is reduced to silence by his secret terror that his father will someday not return from a flight. A live-in grandfather (Keenan Wyn) is a stunt pilot who secretly teaches the daughter to fly.
The Cuban Missile Crisis threatens to spiral into nuclear war, terrifying the families on the ground and creating a demand for increasing dangerous flights over a Cuba infested with Soviet surface to air missiles. The climax of the movie is a two-plane mission over Cuba, flown by Nelson with his best friend, that flies into a SAM ambush. Only one plane will make it back.
"Call To Glory" is an old-fashioned movie in the sense of unabashedly celebrating the simple values of people trying to do their best because it might be important to their families and maybe even to the whole country. It is very highly recommended as a lost gem of the small screen.
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