Always (1989)
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Plot Summary: A romantic adventure about a legendary pilot's passion for dare-devil firefighting and his girl.

Pete (Richard Dreyfuss) is an experienced pilot who puts out forest fires by dropping extinguisher bombs on them. He's a risk taker, who has several close calls, much to the chagrin of the love of his life, Dorinda (Holly Hunter). After a particularly stressful event, Dorinda manages to persuade Pete to work as an air attack instructor to trainees in Flatrock, Colorado, where they learn to do drops on smoking oil drums. However, before any of this can take place, Pete and his workmate/best friend Al (John Goodman) have one more fire to put out.

During this mission, when Al's engine catches fire, Pete thrusts forward and extinguishes Al's engine just in the nick of time. However,his plane blows up and Pete dies.

In the great hereafter he meets an angel known only as Hap (Audrey Hepburn in her final appearance in a movie). Hap explains to him, that now that he is dead,he must use his spirit to inspire other pilots who want to do the same things in life he did. He winds up in Flatrock, where Al is now instructing trainees. He's there to inspire Ted Baker,(Brad Johnston) and after a few "tricks" he plays on Al (some of the funniest sequences I've seen in a long time),gets the hang of flying.

What Pete did not count on was that Ted would eventually become a romantic interest for Dorinda, so while inspiring Ted, he must come to terms with the fact that Dorinda must move on with her life. I won't spoil the ending for you by telling you exactly how this all comes about, but you'll find it nearly impossible to hit the pause key when you need it, as the movie will draw you right in.

In my opinion, this is one of Spielberg's best. A terribly overlooked classic. It was based on an older movie "A Guy Named Joe". It's got enough sappy love story to please the romantics, and enough action and excitement to those who enjoy that. I simply loved it all. A superb cast, great cinematography, special effects, and stunts.

Spielberg does a good job of incorporating the supernatural presence of Pete Sandich's ghost without relying on dramatic special effects. This movie is somewhat similar in theme to Ghost (which came out one year after Always), but Ghost focuses more on the supernatural aspects and goes to great lengths to show the ghost walking through doors and other objects. To a certain extent these special effects take centre stage in Ghost,whereas in Always you never see Richard Dreyfuss walk through anything. All of the supernatural stuff happens offscreen leaving the plot and the characters as the main focal point. That being said I think that the action scenes with the planes flying over the forest fires are well done.

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