Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

c-conley90 Yeah, don't expect Days of Thunder from this movie. The cover lies so badly about this movie being some Le Mans, Days of Thunder, Grand Prix style racing movie but is more just a character drama with Al Pacino, Marthe Keller. And a travelogue through the backstreets of Europe. The fact the critics gave it a trouncing is surprising. They probably should have liked it. But this movie is certainly no winner. Al seems lost touring around Europe, getting concerned about a fellow driver who died on the track and why it happen, why it matters, is ultimately never explored. After all he meets this new dying sick crazy woman(Keller) at a hospital in the mountains seeing a fellow injured driver and acting depressed. Keller ultimately is able to bring Pacino out of the shell he's in figuratively, basically him being like a turtle as she says. Stuck behind his sunglasses and not responding with too much life. Plus, his brother shows up with a scene of possible problems within his family. I guess half of the scenes of Pacino going around places in Europe could have been edited, but that probably would of ruined the art appeal. It's OK, Pacino still does good. Though he's not hamming it up yet, hell, he doesn't even yell until a scene where Keller goes hot air ballooning and he pretty much loses it with her weird ass behavior. And yes she is really weird. Even for someone dying of a disease.

bkoganbing When Bobby Deerfield was marketed in the USA it was sold to the public as a racing picture like Grand Prix or Le Mans. I well remember the advertisements for it. The European racing scene however is only a background for an Erich Maria Remarque novel on which the film is based. It is a very typical Remarque story about doomed people.Remarque was one of the most pessimistic of 20th century writers. His best known work however usually has a war background. He spent his entire life trying to out do his first great success All Quiet On The Western Front. Such other work as Three Comrades and Arch of Triumph which were also filmed had a war background or post or pre-war if you will.The novel Bobby Deerfield is based on Heaven Has No Favorites and came out in 1961 and its protagonist was not an American. My guess is that in order to film it and insure box office the protagonist was changed to an American and a rising American star was cast. Al Pacino plays the title role, an American driver on the European circuit who is self involved in his career. In fact he goes visiting another injured driver, not out of any tremendous concern for him, but to find out information about the crash because he's driving the exact same type of car.While at the hospital he meets Marthe Keller who leaves the hospital with him. She's a terminal tuberculosis patient and she wants to experience a little of life before it's too late. His kind of risk taking profession appeals to her. It takes a while, but the two develop a relationship.Which was paralleled in real life between Al Pacino and Marthe Keller and that certainly helped the film a lot. Keller joins Ingrid Bergman from Arch of Triumph and Margaret Sullavan in Three Comrades as yet another of Remarque's doomed heroines. And like in war Pacino's in a job where his number can come up any time.The film was shot on location in France. Sydney Pollack showed some of the style he did while making that other Oscar winning romantic film Out of Africa. The French countryside is captured beautifully.Still I think it was bad for American audiences to expect another Grand Prix in Bobby Deerfield. There was enough racing scenes in the film to satisfy racing fans, maybe. But make no mistake, this is a tender romantic story and a good one.

dw947 40 years ago I read Heaven Has No Favorites. During high school, I was a Remarque fan. He captured the feel of Europe in the 30's and 40's. Of course his 1929 novel All Quiet On The Western Front is a classic. Five of Remarque's novels were made into films. (All Quiet on the Western Front; Three Comrades; Arc of Triumph; A Time to Lovd and a Time to Die and Heaven Has No Favorites as Bobby Deerfield). Deerfield was not a great movie but I rate it #2 in Pacino's work, behind Author,Author. Most of his other movies, including Serpico, were about tough guy Italian stereotypes. As for Marthe Keller-- she's the type actress one would enjoy watching her read the phone book.

dbdumonteil "Bobby Deerfield" enjoys,so to speak ,a very low rating on the site ,which is probably unfair.Pacino's usual characters and Bobby Deerfield are worlds apart.And coming after the brilliant " dog day afternoon" it could only be a let down.I saw the movie when it was released and even at the time it seemed rather obsolete and old-fashioned.Adapted from an Erich Maria Remarque novel,it mixed a Douglas Sirkesque melodrama with French nouvelle vague with a bit of the long Cassavetes-like conversations thrown it. It's European to the core.Besides,the two actresses are Swiss (Keller) and French (Duperey).The former is the only interesting character of the movie but it's an endearing one:a short chat with a nurse tells us about her health ,but it will be an hour and a half before Pacino learns it.Keller's joie de vivre is infectious and sometimes the things soar.But it never really lasts and some scenes are boring.The metaphors are a bit ponderous ,as Keller is off on a balloon trip.The races -Deerfield is a race driver- are dully filmed and won't convince "Grand Prix"'s fans.The best scenes are to be found in the hospital where Deerfield pays a visit to an injured friend,and then the small trip through the splendid landscapes of Switzerland .Although BD cannot match Pollack's best works (they shoot horses don't they?;Jeremiah Johnson;This property is condemned)it's a whole lot better than later mediocre thrillers like "the firm".