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!~!~~!

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'.

I used to say, no good movies came out of the 70's, that was until Stars Wars and then Hanover Street, of which this review is about. I loved the movie the first time I saw it and watched it again today for about the twentieth time. I have no problems with Leslie-Anne Down's looks nor the B-25s . And Mr. Ford's hair? Really! The play's the thing and Hanover Street is a good one. In fact it's so good I will be showing it in my theater next week to friends who have never seen it. I loved David Halloran's smart-aleck-without-being-obnoxious manner. It fit in the absurdity of war. Drama-Action-Romance-in an intelligent script - who could ask for anything more? I'll take more of Director/Writer Hyam's stuff. And, the ending was great, great, great!!! And the score was phenomenal and beautiful! I liked this movie and especially recommend it to the ladies. Be sure to grab the tissue box, although, maybe that should be tissue boxes.

"Hanover Street" is the kind of movie people like to pick apart because the SS Sgt. didn't render the proper Hitler salute or the uniforms were wrong or because the B-25 wasn't flown over Europe but mostly in North Africa. Well, I imagine the B-25 sets were left over from Catch 22, which used B-25s, and there was a shortage of SS uniforms at Elstree Studios when this movie was filmed. It doesn't really detract from the film. These are bits of entertainment -- not a masters level thesis. I have to say this is an "adult" movie that probably wouldn't be made today. If filmed today (late 2005), then there'd be a lot more emphasis on wise-ass remarks to the commanding officer and silly, stilted lines like "If I lost you then I'd just die ... oh I'd just die." Pretty much along the lines of 2001's awful Pearl Harbor. The love story is really more about honor and sacrifice than love, and reflects closely wartime England when many single, and probably married, English women dashed off with "heroic" Yanks -- which gave way to the British saying about Americans: "Over paid, over sexed and, bloody well, over here." There's a lot of action in this movie and a lot of tension that builds up at the right moments. Is it a big, blockbuster movie like "Raiders of The Lost Ark?" No, but it's got a good script, the cinema-photography is outstanding and the score is perfect. Aside from Catch 22, there's not a lot of places you can see REAL B-25s lining up for takeoff in a film (sorry, again the Pearl Harbor CGI doesn't cut it for me) and the fear-laced banter between Ford's bomber crew seems closer to the real thing than the heroic bull from other movies. If there's a gripe I've got about this film it's Ford's haircut. You can see a lot of detail and expense in the Hanover Street set, the Blitz and even the airfield. Everybody looks up to 1940s standards and the set has that smoke-filled, perpetual autumn look that seems to be what people associate with early color films from the World War II era. However, Ford's 1978 shag kind of ruins the mood. Maybe he couldn't cut his hair because "Empire Strikes Back" was due to start lensing soon after "Hanover Street" went into post production ... who knows, but it detracts from the detail paid to the extras and the set. Still, "Hanover Street" is a good film.