Harry's War (1981 film)

Harry's War (1981)

Directed by	Kieth Merrill
Produced by	David B. Johnston
Written by	Kieth Merrill
Starring	Edward Herrmann
Music by	Merrill Jenson
Cinematography	Reed Smoot
Edited by	Bert Lovitt
Distributed by	American Film Consortium & Taft International Pictures
Release dates	March 1981 (1981-03)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Harry's War is a feature length independent film (98 minutes) from American Film Consortium and Taft International Pictures, released in 1981. 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 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 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

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 seen a network television premiere or any other broadcast since.

Home video release

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. Both are now out of print.

Legacy

In a mid-1980s interview with David Ogden Stiers, who played the IRS director in the film, he 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

External links

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