Closing the Ring 2007

      This film consists of three intertwined stories of lost and unspoken love plus the resulting secrets are presented.  In the first story, it begins in 1941 and takes place in Branagan Michigan.  Twenty-one year old Ethel Ann socializes primarily with three male friends and they are all in love with her!!  But, she only loves one man, Teddy Gordon and their mutual love is known within the group.  Her parents would never approve of Teddy because he is a poor country boy and he is building a house for her.   Eventually, he will be able to show her parents that he is worth something in his love for her.  Their relationship is interrupted by the entry of the U.S. into the World War I and all three men are going into battle.  Before their departure, the three men enter into a pact that Ethel Ann doesn’t know about??  In story two, it also takes place in Branagan but the setting is 1991.  World War II U.S. Army Air Forces veteran, septuagenarian Chuck Harris, has just passed away after an illness.  His friends always considered him to be the reliable one.  His death leaves a void in his family as there has always been Chuck in the mix!!

     Richard Attenborough is an actor’s director and his career highs have been due to actors such as Ben Kingsley in Gandhi and Robert Downey Jr. in Chaplin.  In this film, he is focused on Shirley MacLaine.  At times, this story can be confusing because the time jumps are between 1941 and 1991.  Also, between Michigan and Belfast, WWII airmen and IRA bombings.  Attenborough was born May 8, 1926 in Isleworth Middlesex (now part of west London) and he grew up on the campus of the University College Leicester.  He passed away August 24 2014 just prior to his 91st birthday from a stroke he was not able to recover from in 2013.   5* (I really liked this movie)

119 min, Drama, directed by Richard Attenborough and written by Peter Woodward with Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Dylan Roberts, Gene Dinovi, Neve Campbell, Allan Hawco, Peter Postlethwaite, Martin McCann, Steve Franks, Chris Benson, John Travers,George Shane, Kirsty Stuart, Marie Jones, Karen Lewis-Atenborough.

Note:  Imdb 6.5* out of 5* with 4346 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 32% with 19 critics 58% with 3227 audience scores, BBC 2* of 4* reviewer rating 4*of 5* user rating, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 159 reviews, empireonline 3* out of 5* Alan Morrison

Special Note:  This was Richard Attenborough’s final film as a director before his death at the age of 90.  Construction workers at a demolition site in Belfast where filming took place were told to put the tearing down the houses on hold and leave some standing for scenes of this movie.  The remainder of the houses were then blown up as if they were destroyed by bombs in World War II.  The B-17 used is the "Yankee Lady", owned and operated by the Yankee Air Museum of Ypsilanti Michigan.  This aircraft also appeared in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970).  The B-17 named "Sally B" also made an appearance.  Attenborough had disappointments in the films In Love and War and Grey Owl?

Mistakes:  The B-17 being shown off in Michigan in 1941 is actually a B-17G and the final model.  In reality, this plane did not have its first flight until 1943 and the "chin gun" is the give-away of the date.