''Harry's War'' is a 1981 American comedy-drama film from American Film Consortium and

Taft International Pictures Sunn Classic Pictures, also known as Sunn International Pictures, Schick Sunn Classic Pictures, and Taft International Pictures was an independent U.S.-based film distributor, founded in 1971. The company was notable for family films and document ...

, starring

Edward Herrmann Edward Kirk Herrmann (July 21, 1943 – December 31, 2014) was an American actor, director, and writer. He was perhaps best known for his portrayals of Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the miniseries ''Eleanor and Franklin'' (1976) and 1982 film ...

, Geraldine Page,

Karen Grassle Karen Grassle ( ; born February 25, 1942) is an American actress, known for her role as Caroline Ingalls in the NBC television drama series ''Little House on the Prairie''. Early life Karen Grassle was born in Berkeley, California to Frae Ella ...

David Ogden Stiers David Allen Ogden Stiers ( ; October 31, 1942 – March 3, 2018) was an American actor and conductor. He appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, and originated the role of Feldman in '' The Magic Show'', in which he appeared for fou ...

Elisha Cook Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American character actor famed for his work in films noir. According to Bill Georgaris of TSPDT: They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, Cook appeared in a total of 21 film ...

Salome Jens Salome Jens (born May 8, 1935) is an American dancer and actress of stage, film and television. She is perhaps best known for portraying the Female Changeling on ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' in the 1990s. Early years Jens was born in Milwau ...

and

Noble Willingham Noble Henry Willingham, Jr. (August 31, 1931 – January 17, 2004) was an American television and film actor who appeared in more than thirty films and in many television shows, including a stint opposite Chuck Norris in ''Walker, Texas Ranger ...

. It was written and directed by

Kieth Merrill Kieth W. Merrill (born May 22, 1940) is an American filmmaker who has worked as a writer, director, and producer in the film industry since 1967. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Directors Guild of America ...

Plot

After his aunt dies of a heart attack while fighting the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 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

- Harry Johnson * Geraldine Page - 'Aunt' Beverly Payne *

- Kathy Johnson *

- Ernie Scelera, IRS District Director *

- 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 James MacKrell (October 12, 1937) is a retired American television personality, best known for emceeing television game shows such as '' Celebrity Sweepstakes'' and '' The Game Game''. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Published variations ...

- Roger Scofield, Newsman *

- Major F. Andrews, United States Army * Alan Cherry - Chester Clim, IRS Agent #1 *

Bruce Robinson Bruce Robinson (born 2 May 1946) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote and directed the cult classic ''Withnail and I'' (1987), a film with comic and tragic elements set in London in the late 1960s, which drew on hi ...

- IRS Agent #2

Production

Parts of the film were shot in

St. George, Utah St. George is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Utah, United States. Located in southwestern Utah on the Arizona border, it is the principal city of the St. George Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). The city lies in the northe ...

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 Talking Pictures TV (TPTV) is a British free-to-air vintage-film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky channel 343, but later also became available on Freeview, Freesat, and Virgin Media. It is on air for 24 h ...

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 The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

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 ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. Th ...

'', but instead he paused for a second and said "There was this movie about the IRS and I was the biggest leepin the office...."

References

External links

* * *
The New York Times Movies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harry's War (1981 Film) 1981 films 1980s political comedy-drama films 1981 independent films American independent films American political comedy-drama films Films directed by Kieth Merrill Films shot in Utah 1980s English-language films 1980s American films