Harry's War is a feature length independent film (98 minutes) from American Film Consortium and Taft International Pictures, released in 1981. Starring Edward Herrmann

Edward Herrmann

Edward Kirk Herrmann is a U.S. television and film actor. He is best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals of Franklin D...

, Geraldine Page

Geraldine Page

Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. Although she starred in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater...

, Karen Grassle

Karen Grassle

Karen Grassle is an American actress, best known for her role as Caroline Ingalls, the wife of Michael Landon's character and the mother of Melissa Gilbert's character, on the Little House on the Prairie TV series.-Early career:She graduated from Ventura High School in 1959 , serving as the...

, David Ogden Stiers

David Ogden Stiers

David Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...

, Elisha Cook, Salome Jens

Salome Jens

Salome Jens is an American stage, film and television actress. She is perhaps best-known for portraying the Female Changeling on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.-Life and career:...

 and Noble Willingham

Noble Willingham

Noble Henry Willingham, Jr. was an American television and film actor.-Career:Willingham had appeared in more than thirty feature films, including Harry's War , Up Close and Personal , City Slickers , The Last Boy Scout , City Slickers II , Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , Chinatown...

. It was written and directed by Kieth Merrill

Kieth Merrill

Kieth W. Merrill is an American filmmaker who has worked as a writer, director, and producer in the film industry since 1967...

.

Plot

After his aunt dies of a heart attack while fighting the IRS, Harry Johnson decides to take up the cause in what may seem to be an unconventional manner: he declares war on the IRS using his aunt's collection of military memorabilia.

Cast

• Edward Herrmann
  Edward Herrmann
  Edward Kirk Herrmann is a U.S. television and film actor. He is best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayals of Franklin D...
  
   - Harry Johnson
• Geraldine Page
  Geraldine Page
  Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. Although she starred in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater...
  
   - 'Aunt' Beverly Payne
• Karen Grassle
  Karen Grassle
  Karen Grassle is an American actress, best known for her role as Caroline Ingalls, the wife of Michael Landon's character and the mother of Melissa Gilbert's character, on the Little House on the Prairie TV series.-Early career:She graduated from Ventura High School in 1959 , serving as the...
  
   - Kathy Johnson
• David Ogden Stiers
  David Ogden Stiers
  David Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...
  
   - Ernie Scelera, IRS District Director
• Salome Jens
  Salome Jens
  Salome Jens is an American stage, film and television actress. She is perhaps best-known for portraying the Female Changeling on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.-Life and career:...
  
   - Wilda Crawley, IRS Agent
• Elisha Cook, Jr. (as Elisha Cook) - Sergeant Billy Floyd
• Jim McKrell
  Jim McKrell
  James "Jim" MacKrell is an television personality, best known for emceeing television game shows such as Celebrity Sweepstakes and The Game Game. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas...
  
   - Roger Scofield, Newsman
• Noble Willingham
  Noble Willingham
  Noble Henry Willingham, Jr. was an American television and film actor.-Career:Willingham had appeared in more than thirty feature films, including Harry's War , Up Close and Personal , City Slickers , The Last Boy Scout , City Slickers II , Ace Ventura: Pet Detective , Chinatown...
  
   - Major F. Andrews, United States Army
• Alan Cherry
  Alan Cherry
  Alan Gerald Cherry is an African-American who in the 1960s had the courage to join the Latter-day Saint or Mormon Church, against opposition. He was inspired by that period's general black surge toward greater freedom and opportunity....
  
   - Chester Clim, IRS Agent #1
• Bruce Robinson
  Bruce Robinson
  Bruce Robinson is an English director, screenwriter, novelist and actor. He is arguably most famous for writing and directing the cult classic Withnail and I , a film with comic and tragic elements, set in London during the 1960s which drew on his experiences as 'a chronic alcoholic and resting...
  
   - IRS Agent #2

Theatrical run

This film saw a limited two week release in theaters in March, 1981.

Television

SelecTV, ON TV, HBO and other premium cable movie channels ran the film in 1982, but it has never seen a network television premiere or any other broadcast since.

Home video release

Image Home Video

Image Entertainment

Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...

 released a VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 version of the film on April 1, 1988 and using the same video transfer also did a DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 release on August 1, 2005. Both are now out of print.

Legacy

In a mid-1980s interview with David Ogden Stiers, who played the IRS director in the film, he was asked what his favorite role had been and the interviewer was expecting him to say something about his character in M*A*S*H, but instead he paused for a second and said "There was this movie about the IRS and I was the biggest [bleep] in the office...."

External links

• http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/harrys_war/
• http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/94380/Harry-s-War/overview