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Amazon.com For the Boys is a lumpy attempt to create an old-fashioned backstage drama, replete with classic showbiz feuds, breakups and make-ups, and the often inexplicable adoration of fictional fans toward characters with dubious star appeal. Released under a cloud of accusations that the story was ripped off from the life of USO stalwart Martha Raye (who had been attempting to get an autobiographical film project set up), For the Boys didn't improve its public relations by being, well, not very good. Bette Midler stars as Dixie Leonard, a singer plucked from obscurity by song-and-dance man Eddie Sparks (James Caan) while on a USO tour during World War II. Their bawdy chemistry before audiences makes them a durable act through many years and wars to come. The problem is that they don't like each other very much, and here's where director Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond) drops the ball: the film never develops sufficient story grounds or the emotional complexity necessary for a high degree of conflict in what is essentially a two-character drama. It doesn't help that the script requires Dixie and Eddie to be on nonspeaking terms for most of the 50 years they know one another, or that the story culminates in a horribly contrived reunion on television, with both actors buried under enough flesh-aging prosthetics and make-up to make them look like Dick Tracy villains. --Tom Keogh ... Read more Reviews (12) 
For the fans ...
The people that are going to LOVE this movie are all the die-hard Midler fans that are out there.
Basically, I bought the DVD Norma Rae starring Sally Field, and included with the extra features of that disc was a trailer of For the Boys, and the scene that was featured in the trailer was the one where Bette sings "In My Life" in Vietnam, with snippets of the rest of the movie playing over her singing, and the boys holding up peace signs at the end of the song. Well, perhaps needless to say I CRIED MY EYES OUT just watching the trailer. I found out soon after that she was nominated for an Academy Award for this movie, and I bought it cheap. At first I didn't like it at all, but after watching it a second time found it much better. Probably the worst thing about this goings-on was seeing the heartbreaking trailer before the movie; I was just expecting a better movie. Before this I thought Bette Midler to be annoying and insincere, but ... she is what she is. If you can find this DVD on sale for cheap somewhere, go for it like I did.
Watchable, But Nothing To Write Home About
Seemingly suggested by a combination of Bob Hope's legendary USO tours and the toxic relationship that sometimes develops between comedy team partners (with the likes of Martin and Lewis a case in point), FOR THE BOYS gives us the story of Dixie Leonard (Midler), a rough and tough singer with a naughty sense of humor, and Eddie Sparks (James Caan), a secretly sexist comic. When the two meet on a World War II USO tour, it's loathing at first sight--but their audiences adore the combination. Trouble is, you can't imagine why. Both Midler and Caan are expert performers, but they have remarkably little on-screen chemistry, and although they score points individually they never quite seem to be working in tandem. To make matters worse, while the dialogue is often witty, the plot is leaden, and it promptly goes off into a host of predictable directions as it drags its characters from World War II to Vietnam in order to make a series of well-intended but extremely obvious and over-worked comments about changing times and the wastefulness of war. The supporting cast is strong, but like the leads they seem to be pulling in different directions throughout the film, and when all is said and done this rather lengthy film feels quite a bit longer than it actually is. Midler's songs are the only real highlight, and the thing is indeed watchable... but only just. The DVD package isn't anything to write home about either, consisting of a handful of trailers and television spots. For hardcore Midler fans only. GFT, Amazon Reviewer
For The Desperate.
This was one of those movies that really sounded great with possibilities, but just fell flat. The premise of two show-biz veterans, who have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship, through 50 years of entertaining together in the U.S.O., television, amid changing public tastes, tragedies, ups, downs, wars, etc...should have made for a very entertaining saga. And, with Bette Midler as the musical female lead, how could it miss? Well, it did. Though it gets off to a promising start, and her number "Stuff Like That There" early in the film brings down the house in true Bette style, it went downhill from there. James Caan is opposite her as her sexist partner/nemesis, whose pairing with her, though a big success career wise, is rife with rivalry and contempt for the very success that the fluke of their pairing produces. They chew the scenery often, and certain scenes, such as when Bette's characters son is killed in front of her in VietNam, where she is entertaining, that are so stupidly overwrought that they are rendered emotionless. I actually went to a theater to see this movie, something I don't often do. What I still remember most about that experience is the collective audience reaction, of incredulous hilarity, when the "aged" Midler and Caan's characters meet after many years of non-communication for a begrudged public reunion. This is by far the worst "aging" make-up job that I have ever seen in a big budget motion picture... all the improbability of this movie came to a ridiculous head at the viewing of these supposed very elderly stars, who look more like burn victims, in mid-meltdown, than any elderly person I've ever known. This is a very over-long disappointment, the only value of which will be in a few musical clips that will no doubt be used in the inevitable retrospective of Bette Midler's career. Best forgotten, which it mostly is.
A Movie You Don't See Everyday!
For the Boys is a really good movie. This is one of my mom's favorites and I can always remember her watching it. I can also remember listening to the soundtrack. One time we got bored so my mom deciced we should watch a movie and we watched this one. The movie is about this women named Dixie Leonard and she is a singer. During WWII she goes to Europe to sing for the troops over there, with Eddie Sparks who is very famous. This movie is about there times performing together from WWII to Vietnam.This movie also has some really sad parts and this movie almost made me even cry!!! I highly recomend this movie and if you like the movie and the music I also recomend the soundtrack.
Great Musical
Musicals by the early 90s were extremely rare but this reminds one of the days when musicals were both popular and fun as Bette Midler and James Caan play two USO singers who go all the way from World War II to the Vietnam War entertaining and wowing the army boys. Along the way is the drama that they both experience as they try to court one another while James is still married. For Bette, this should have been another hit as it had a great song off the soundtrack which could have worked as a hit single EVERY ROAD LEADS BACK To YOU as well as a great performance. In fact Bette does a better job here than in BEACHES as she has to carry more of the film on her shoulders. Her sparky, brassy, witty attitude and humor are evidenced here and she and James have impecable chemistry which allows the movie to work. It also is intersting seeing them age from middle age 40-year olds to some 90 year olds receiving awards. A great movie reminding one of the old days of musicals as well as one that tugs at the heartstrings!!
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Stinker