Always (1989 film)

Lore & Background

The film stars Richard Dreyfuss as Pete Sandich, an aerial firefighter whose risk-taking deeply troubles his girlfriend Dorinda Durston (Holly Hunter) and his best friend Al Yackey (John Goodman). After Pete dies in a firefighting accident, he meets a spirit named Hap who explains that Pete must guide others as spirits once guided him. Pete watches as Ted Baker (Brad Johnson) falls in love with Dorinda, and must learn to let her go. Audrey Hepburn appears in her final film role before her death in 1993.

Reader's Guide

Always holds significance as Steven Spielberg's remake of a film that inspired him to become a director, and as the final film appearance of Audrey Hepburn. The movie was a mild success, earning $74 million worldwide on a $31 million budget, and received mixed reviews. Critics noted its excessive sentimentality but praised Spielberg's sense of adventure. The film was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and has been considered a progenitor of later ghost genre films such as Ghost (1990). Its production involved extensive location filming in Montana and Washington, and used footage of Yellowstone National Park's 1988 fires.

Did You Know?

• Audrey Hepburn donated much of her $1 million-plus salary from Always to UNICEF.
• The film was a remake of the 1943 romantic drama A Guy Named Joe, which Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss had quoted to each other while making Jaws.
• Principal photography took place in northwestern Montana's Kootenai National Forest, with some 500 local residents recruited as extras.
• The film's soundtrack includes 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' performed by The Platters, which the romantic couple call 'our song.'

A Decade in the Making: Spielberg and Dreyfuss's Shared Dream

While filming Jaws in 1974, Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss found themselves trading memorable lines from the 1943 war drama A Guy Named Joe, a film they both regarded as a classic. That casual exchange planted a seed that would take roughly a decade to germinate into a full production. Dreyfuss had watched the original melodrama at least thirty-five times, while Spielberg recalled seeing it as a young child, late at night, and credited it as one of the films that first inspired him to pursue directing. The story also carried a deeply personal resonance for Spielberg, whose father had served in the wartime air force, linking the narrative to a generation of lived experience. The two friends would quote specific shots to one another for years, and when the opportunity finally materialized, they were determined to bring the wartime fantasy to a new audience. The project was originally slated for MGM but underwent a long, protracted development period. Tom Cruise was reportedly considered for the Ted Baker role, and Dustin Hoffman was offered a part before declining.

Spirit, Grief, and the Architecture of Letting Go

The narrative follows Pete Sandich, a wildland firefighting pilot whose reckless flying terrifies his partner Dorinda Durston, a pilot who also serves as air traffic controller for the crew, and his closest friend Al Yackey. After Pete sacrifices himself to save Al during a firebombing run, he awakens in a charred forest where a spirit named Hap explains his new role: channeling what he calls Spiritus to guide the living. Time moves non-linearly for Pete, and six months in the real world have already passed when Ted Baker, a trainee pilot, enters Dorinda's life. Pete watches in anguish as the romance blossoms and attempts to interfere, but Hap reminds him that his purpose is to inspire Ted and to say goodbye to Dorinda. In the film's climax, Dorinda flies a rescue mission herself, guided invisibly by Pete, and after an emergency water landing, he leads her hand to the surface. On the shore, he releases her from his heart, steps aside so Ted can be with her, and walks away into the afterlife.

Shooting on Location: Montana, Washington, and the Sky

Principal photography kicked off on May 15, 1989, and the crew spread across several Pacific Northwest locations. Much of the work took place in northwestern Montana within the Kootenai National Forest, with scenes shot in and around the town of Libby, where roughly five hundred local residents were recruited to play wildland firefighters. The opening and closing lake sequences were captured at Bull Lake, south of Troy, while the fictional Flat Rock, Colorado, was actually the Ephrata airport area in eastern Washington. A wheat-field walk between Pete and Hap was filmed over two weeks in June at Sprague, southwest of Spokane. For the fire sequences, the production incorporated real footage of Yellowstone National Park's devastating 1988 wildfires. In the air, two Douglas A-26 Invader fire bombers served as the primary aircraft, flown by veteran film pilot Steve Hinton and Dennis Lynch, the aircraft's owner. Aerial photography, rear projection, and miniature models were combined to build the flight sequences. A dozen or more additional aircraft types appeared in supporting roles. Production wrapped in August 1989.

Hepburn's Farewell and a Modest Box-Office Run

Always marked Audrey Hepburn's final on-screen appearance before her death in 1993, and her involvement carried a charitable dimension: much of her salary, reported at over one million dollars, was directed to UNICEF, a cause close to her heart. The rest of the principal cast included Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, and Brad Johnson, with singer-songwriter JD Souther making a small appearance as a pianist-singer at an early dance scene. Universal Pictures released the film in the United States on December 22, 1989. Critics offered mixed assessments, and the audience response was modest rather than spectacular, with the picture grossing approximately seventy-four million dollars worldwide against a production budget of thirty-one million. As a remake of the 1943 drama A Guy Named Joe, the film transplanted the wartime setting into a contemporary aerial-firefighting context while preserving the core story of a dead pilot mentoring a successor and watching him court the woman he had loved. Most character names carried over from the original, with only minor changes such as Ted Randall becoming Ted Baker and the surname Sandidge shifting to Sandich.