MovieChat Forums > Yanks (1979) Discussion > One of Richard Gere's most underated fil...

One of Richard Gere's most underated films


Hardly ever gets mentioned, was it a box office smash?

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I don't think it did well. Gere had not really made a name for himself yet.

"He sent the rain."
"Who sent the fire?"

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Do you rate it though?

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gere himself said he had expected it to be a smash hit and officer and a gentleman to be a minor hit. Yanks bombed but officer was a smash. It surprised him. doesnt mean that yanks is a bad movie, though it was weighed down by the unconvincing romance between william devane and vanessa redgarve. though vanessa looked good in those days!!

in space there are no movie theatres

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No, the romance between John and Helen was quite convincing so that wasn't it.

Yanks seems more like a good indie film than a mainstream release. Most people who flocked to see 70's movies like Star Wars weren't going to come out in droves to see this.

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Yanks was hardly an indie film. It was made by United Artists, one of the biggest studios in Hollywood until Heaven's Gate sunk it the following year (1980).

It simply didn't catch on with audiences. I remember seeing it on it's opening weekend and there was quite a crowd there. But it finished a couple of weeks later. Lots of terrific films fail to find audiences I'm afraid.

A Hollywood studio would never make anything like Yanks nowadays and to be frank audiences wouldn't go near it.

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A Hollywood studio would never make anything like Yanks nowadays and to be frank audiences wouldn't go near it.


That's because it is one big soap opera ... and not much more. The historical context to soap context was way out of balance. Besides ... who really wants to watch RG fail to close the sale!

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