By Erin Free
In this regular column, we drag forgotten made-for-TV movies out of the vault and into the light. This week: the intense 1983 veteran-themed drama Memorial Day, starring Mike Farrell, Robert Walden, Shelly Fabares, Edward Herrmann and Bonnie Bedelia.
With The Red Poppy Film Festival – which focuses on films by and about war veterans – kicking off on Friday, the impetus was instantly there to revisit the 1983 telemovie Memorial Day, a blistering examination of the psychological pain and emotional damage that war can cruelly rain down on those who bravely fight it.
While many films (from First Blood and Rolling Thunder to Lethal Weapon and The Exterminator) have used the common character trope of the tortured Vietnam veteran as a springboard into action and violence, far fewer take the more in-depth, dramatic route, which makes the highly impressive Memorial Day even more special. This often-bruising telemovie has abundant sympathy for its emotionally wounded war veterans, but doesn’t shy away from the evil that men can do in the name of duty.
The narrative anchor of Memorial Day is actor, activist and TV M*A*S*H star Mike Farrell, who made himself a small screen icon as military surgeon B.J Hunnicutt and fought long and hard off-screen for a variety of causes, including the death penalty, the environment, animal abuse, and America’s involvement in various wars. Farrell was also a US Marine. “I was going to be a big, tough, American-defending Marine,” the actor has said of his enlistment in the military. “I went through all the training and survived. I strutted around in my uniform, and felt like I was tougher than anybody, except inside I was a cowering fool, trying to figure it out.”
Perhaps drawing on his military experience, Farrell gives a superb, tightly controlled and highly nuanced performance as Matt Walker, a successful lawyer with a beautiful, supportive wife (the excellent Shelley Fabares, who was also Mrs. Farrell off-screen) and loving family. Hard-working former US Marine Matt is a good guy and a reasonably honest lawyer, but he’s also emotionally withdrawn, which strikes something of a sticking point in his marriage.
When Matt reunites for a night of boozy reminiscence with his platoon buddies from Vietnam, it soon becomes clear that the war has left its mark on all of them, especially Willie Monroe (Danny Glover is terrific), who is confined to a wheelchair, and Gibbs (prolific character actor Robert Walden is heart-wrenching in his sadness and desperation here), whose post-war life has been a wreckage of broken relationships, lost jobs, blown opportunities, and way too much booze.
As the narrative moves forward in a striking masterclass of slow-burning intensity, it eventually becomes clear that Matt and his fellow vets may have been involved in something even worse than the “standard” horrors dished out by war. Their pain is deeper than that, as is their guilt, while their complete shut-down on certain remembrances hints heavily at major wartime transgressions.
Exceptionally well-written by Michael Bortman (who directed the underrated 1991 comedy drama Crooked Hearts) and directed with a low-key but very sure hand by Unsung Auteur, TV movie vet, and indeed war vet himself, Joseph Sargent (The Taking Of Pelham 123), Memorial Day could very well have been crafted for the stage, with its strong emphasis on character and dialogue, and its complete disinterest in anything that could qualify even remotely as action. With a resolute lack of compromise, the film moves inexorably toward what the audience knows will be a grim realisation that its hero is far more tarnished and damaged than his appearance might suggest. Though Willie and Gibbs are more outwardly affected by the war, Matt’s repressed pain soon rises to the surface with explosive results.
Memorial Day is so well-made and intelligently engineered that even a secondary plot about Matt’s work on a legal case involving a collapsed building is compelling and adds to the film’s complex primary themes. It also provides a great role for character actor Edward Herrmann (a couple of years before The Lost Boys and decades prior to The Gilmore Girls), whose comic timing is in peak form as Matt’s very likeable lawyer colleague. Also in cracking form is Bonnie Bedelia, who effectively steals her scenes as Gibbs’ ex-wife, and John Carpenter regular Charles Cyphers, who pushes hard as a nasty construction boss.
A finely drawn character drama that examines the lasting impact of war on its veterans, Memorial Day is a grim but deeply rewarding watch, and provides ample evidence of the heights to which the modest telemovie form could frequently ascend.
Availability: Memorial Day is a little tricky to find online, but once you get there, it is available in a very clear, nice-sounding presentation.
If you enjoyed this review, check out our other vintage telemovies That Certain Summer, Elvis And The Beauty Queen, Scandal In A Small Town, Victims For Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story, The Seduction Of Gina, Blue Murder, The Brotherhood Of Justice, The Wave, The California Kid, The Cracker Factory, Night Terror, Inmates: A Love Story, The Shadow Riders, CHiPs: Roller Disco, Dawn: Portrait Of A Teenage Runaway, Young Love, First Love, Escape From Bogen County, The Death Squad, Hit Lady, Brian’s Song, The Defiant Ones, A Cry For Help, Trilogy Of Terror, Policewoman Centerfold, Smash-Up On Interstate 5, Something Evil, Savage, A Step Out Of Line, The Boy In The Plastic Bubble, The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission, A Very Brady Christmas, The Gladiator, Elvis, The Rat Pack, Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story, Terror Among Us, The Hanged Man, Hardcase, Charlie’s Angels: Angels In Vegas, Vanishing Point, To Heal A Nation, Fugitive Among Us, To Kill A Cop, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Police Story: A Chance To Live, Murder On Flight 502, Moon Of The Wolf, The Secret Night Caller, Cotton Candy, And The Band Played On, Gargoyles, Death Car On The Freeway, Short Walk To Daylight, Trapped, Hotline, Killdozer, The Jericho Mile, Mongo’s Back In Town and Tribes.
