The Americanization of Emily

The Americanization of Emily is a 1964 American black-and-white black comedy anti-war film directed by Arthur Hiller, written by Paddy Chayefsky, and starring James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas, James Coburn, Joyce Grenfell, and Keenan Wynn. Set during World War II, the film follows a United States Navy adjutant who is roped into a reckless interservice rivalry-fueled stunt by his superiors, becoming a war hero by being the first American sailor killed on D-Day. Chayefsky's screenplay loosely was adapted from the 1959 novel of the same name by William Bradford Huie, who had been a Seabee officer during Operation Overlord. Controversial for its stance during the dawn of the Vietnam War, the film has since been praised as a "vanguard anti-war film". Both James Garner and Julie Andrews have considered the film to be the favorite of their films. Plot In 1944 during World War II, U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Charlie Madison is a cynical and highly efficient adjutant to Rear Admiral William Jessup in London. Charlie's job is to keep his boss and similar serving officers supplied with everything thry need, including luxury goods and amiable women. He falls in love with Emily Barham, a British driver from the motor pool who has lost her husband, brother and father in the war. Charlie's pleasure-seeking "American" lifestyle amid wartime rationing both fascinates and disgusts Emily, but she does not want to lose another loved one to war and finds the "practicing coward" Charlie irresistible. Profoundly despondent since the death of his wife, Jessup obsesses over the U.S. Army and its Air Force overshadowing the Navy in the forthcoming D-Day invasion, and decides that "the first dead man on Omaha Beach must be a sailor". A combat film will document the death, and the casualty will be buried in a "Tomb of the Unknown Sailor". He orders Charlie to get the film made.