"Always" by Steven Spielberg: a review

Always is a romantic movie filmed in 1989 regarding the film. Always was directed by Steven Spielberg and was said to be the last movie that Audrey Hepburn appeared in. Universal Studios and United Artists were the distributors of the film according to research obtained on the film.

The film is marketed and distributed by United Artists and Universal Studios. The film is actually based on a 1943 film named “A Guy Named Joe”, although the director Steven Spielberg maintains that he never thought about this movie while making Always.

A pilot, Richard Dreyfuss dies and returns as a ghost to mentor a new pilot who is now falling in love with the dead pilot's former girlfriend. In Always Richard Dreyfuss's character, Pete Sandich is having a hard time coming to grips with letting his girlfriend go and harder yet to mentor the new pilot.

In the movie Pete was one of a group of firefighter pilots who sprayed chemicals on wild forest fires. He had decided to take his friend Al's advice and become a trainer of pilots instead of flying missions to stop the fires. But he accepted one more mission.

His friend's plane caught fire during the mission and Pete made a steep dive to try to put out the fire by spraying chemicals on it. He managed to put out the fire but his own plane caught fire. He thought it was a small fire and was signaling to his friend that they did a good job when his plane exploded in the air killing Pete.

Pete wakes up in a place where Audrey Hepburn who is a Guardian Angel is telling him that he has to be a mentor to a new pilot, Ted who is also falling in love with Pete's former girlfriend. He has to be a guide to Ted which he feels is going to be hard to do. According to research Ted in the meantime volunteers for a firefighting mission, Pete's former girlfriend who likes Ted by now, steals his plane and does the mission for Ted because she fears she will lose another loved one.

Pete as a ghost becomes his former girlfriend's mentor on the mission to keep her safe and she can see him as he tells her after they get done with the mission all the things he had not told her before. Just after he finishes telling her, the plane, according to information obtained she is flying has engine failure, she has to make an emergency landing in a lake.

Dorinda has tough times in the mission but with the inspiration of Peter she able to come through each time an obstacle is put in front of her. In one case she is forced to crash land in the lake and is having a hard time getting out of the plane. Pete reaches out his hand and helps her out of the plane.

They swim to shore where Ted and Pete's old friend Al are waiting for them. At that moment Pete gives her over to Ted and releases her heart. Peter sacrificed his life for the woman he loved but actually could never tell her that fact. Dorinda's life is saved and she is waiting in anticipation for her love Ted. As Ted comes Peter in his afterlife watches this image and gets a crooning satisfaction and finall is able to enter heaven as the film ends.

The Always movie stars Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, John Goodman. Brad Johnson, Audrey Hepburn, Roberts Blossom and Keith David. Richard Dreyfuss it is said had seen the movie at least thirty-five times. After talking about it the two decided that they would do a version of the film. Always was the result of their collaboration.

The movie was set in Kootenai National Forest, Montana with a few scenes shot in and around Libby. Montana. There were about five-hundred people from Libby who were recruited as extras for the movie. They acted as wildfire fighters.

Those scenes which were set at the fictional site of Flat Rock, Colorado were said to be filmed at and around the Eprata Airport and in eastern Washington. All of the flying for the movie according to information obtained was done by well-known movie pilot Steve Hinton and Dennis Lynch who owned the two A-26 bomber planes which were featured in the film.

Although the Always movie was not a commercial hit according to Hollywood standards, today's movie goers rank the film as pleasant and romantic. At the time of the release of Always Variety, a Hollywood paper said that "It was a relatively small scale, but engaging casual, somewhat silly but always entertaining fantasy”, but was still considered as a box office flop and got mixed critical reception.