Everyone else has already covered most of the pros and cons of this film. I thought it was great. I bought it for the flying sequences and everything else was a plus. Lesley-Ann Down was perfect casting, although, I could see Glynis Johns or Jenny Agutter equally perfect, if they had been chosen; if they had auditioned. Patsy Kensit was just as perfect as a ten year old Sarah, and I could imagine Emma Watson in the part, had she not just been born when the film was released. Patsy, of course, was Mel Gibsons romantic interest in Lethal Weapon II. The director/writers commentary from Peter Hyams, is filled will interesting background, about this one, and film making in general. Here are my Five Stars!~!~~!

1 (awful). That pretty much summarizes it. Ford is excruciatingly bad, so bad I wonder once again what the hell Hollywood sees in this guy. Not only can he single-handedly destroy a scene with his stone-faced 'acting', he moves like what he was before he got in front of the camera: a carpenter. At least give the guy a hammer and a boxful of nails and point him towards a pile of 2x4's. I don't want to rag on the movie too hard because lots of behind-the-scenes people made a living wage off it but jeez, everything about Ford sank this film. Even his haircut was more Beverly Hills 1979 than WW2 London. The movie doesn't age well but then it wasn't any good back in '79 either. Remind me again why Ford is/was considered to be a major star?

I purchased the DVD because it had B-25s in it, one of my favorite aircraft. I knew there was a love story attached, but it had Harrison Ford. Wow, where was the adult supervision when creating the screenplay?The audience was never informed of the location of the film title 'Hanover Street'. I suppose that this was the London street where the two lovers first met, although this was never made clear.I remember liking Leslie-Anne Down (Margaret Sellinger) from her appearance in the 'North and South' miniseries. I was surprised she was willing to take off her top to get into this film. She was so weepy and whiny in this appearance. The script made her the helpless slave of her hormones. She seems to be able to get free of her family responsibilities every other Thursday to meet her lover. Then she goes home to be the perfect wife and mother for her young daughter.It would have been very dangerous for Margaret to continue these meetings, the chance of being spotted during one of these trysts would have been great. She could have provided a perfect opening for blackmail by the Gestapo. No doubt her husband's position in intelligence would make the Sellinger family the object of intense observation. Margaret could have destroyed her whole family this way.Then there is the plot element where the identity of British double agents is kept in a safe at Gestapo Headquarters in Lyon, France. How are the British privy to such information? How credible is it? What better opportunity for a coup by the Gestapo could there be? The Gestapo arranges for the British to gain access to a list of effective British Intelligence Agents they wish to destroy. These men are arrested and possibly executed by their own government. A few expendable low-level operatives are placed on the list to enhance credibility. British Intelligence is devastated even more when the Gestapo ensures that the British find out that they were duped into destroying their own loyal agents.Then there is the problem of British Intelligence Agents being caught and found dead. They would not have been found at all. They would have been wrung dry of all useful information and kept in secret confinement or more likely secretly executed and buried. The British would be kept in the dark about the fate of their agents to prevent them from learning from the mistakes that led to their men being caught. Uncertainty is a formidable weapon in an intelligence war.Then there is the Harrison Ford character 'David Halloran'. He is hardly blameless in having an affair with a married woman. He pulls off her left glove to reveal a wedding ring at their first meeting. That deters him from pursuing his passion not at all. It was kind of gross to watch their love scenes with her wedding ring still on her finger. He hardly needed to focus on this woman, since plenty of eligible young women were hanging around the club on his airbase. He could see local women much more frequently than the forbidden flame in distant London.The film shifts gears into a fairly conventional war film about halfway through. We are treated to scenes where David's bomber is hit by enemy fire so severe that all his crew are killed, yet it is still in condition to fly along for several minutes while he crawls about inside inspecting damage and holding a conversation with his passenger. The two survivors then parachute into a wooded area just before their aircraft explodes. The secret agent, in full German uniform, never the less carries about a miniature photograph of his wife, secure in the knowledge that the Germans are too stupid to notice it.The two men parachute at night into the trees and drop to the ground under conditions that are strangely well illuminated for a woods at night. They then make no attempt to conceal their parachutes and stroll about calmly making small talk about matters of small importance to their survival or completion of the mission. The Germans strangely make no attempt to determine if any crew of the downed plane are still wandering about free on the ground. No wonder they lost the war!I could go on, but there is not much fun to be had flogging this pitiful plot. Harrison Ford learned from this film and probably demanded to read the scripts before signing on to future projects. He was big enough at the box office to make his demands stick. He did manage to prevent type casting from the 'Star Wars' films and so the film had to go into the win column for Ford's career. Just look at the pitiful careers of Carrie Fisher and Mark Hammill post 'Star Wars'.

While the story is set in the context of world war 2, what it's really about is the difference between men who are now called 'alpha' and 'beta.' One is a brash, self-confident, risk-taking narcissist; the other is a high-achieving, highly educated, planner. Women often wish to marry the latter, and make love with the former. Ms. Down faces this issue.Overall, an excellent discussion, and depiction, of this particular kind of dilemma.The movie begins in London, with the American pilot (alpha) and the British nurse conning each other, trying to fake each other out for a place on a bus. This game is interrupted by v-2 rocket bombing, and a real, and intense, emotional bonding. Much later, the nurse's husband (beta) is introduced, and we discover he is a high-ranking official with the British military. The story develops from there, with a somewhat improbable pairing, and a spy mission. It is suspenseful, but is really a romantic drama.