Reviews & Ratings for
The Love War (TV) More at IMDbPro »

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17 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Duel wasn't the only good Movie of the Week..., 21 December 2004

Author: gravity3 from California

Like most of the comments here, I'm working off of my childhood memory. But the fact that I remembered the title after all these years has to count for the quality of the storyline, low-budget or not.

I have several scenes of this film stuck in my brain - which I won't give away here should we actually get a DVD box set of the Best of the Movies of the Week some day (hint, hint). But I have to go on record as saying that Spielberg's DUEL isn't the only TV film ABC produced under the Movie of the Week banner that is worthy of note. I'd venture to guess that there were a dozen of these suspense/horror/sci-fi genre films nearly as good (or better) as much of the summer movies we're seeing in theaters these days (and I'm talking about storytelling, not effects and explosions). That may not say as much about the quality of those TV movies as the lack thereof in modern films. But LOVE WAR in particular, was one I watched every time it was on and has held up - at least in my mind.

I'd love to see it again, if only for the sake of nostalgia.

16 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
A lost classic, 31 August 2002
Author: bio_cloner from America

One of those films where the Aliens look just like us unless seen through special glasses. That may remind you of the more recent movie "They Live", but this one has the more sophisticated feel of the old Outer Limits episode "Demon With A Glass Hand". I've wanted to see this movie again for 30 years, but it's never on television and I've never seen it on the shelf of any video rental store.

13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Well, it was amusing way back in the day ..., 14 August 2000
Author: DaCritic-2 (jasonbeast@aol.com) from Fairfax, VA

Okay, first of all, I was very young when I first saw this movie. I must have been all of ten years old. At that time, I thought it was pretty neat... two alien races conducting a discrete little war on Earth, unbeknownst to us mere Earthlings. When an alien agent kills another, they turn a key in the other agent's navel, and *sizzle* the corpse disintegrates. Decent suspense throughout, but remember ... we're talking a made-for-TV movie from 1970, no big-budget special effects.

What I find most amusing now is realizing who was in the movie .. Angie Dickenson, Daniel J. Travanti and LLOYD BRIDGES ... The Late Great Lloyd was very good in this, as an agent trying to protect a human woman (Dickenson) who had gotten caught up in the war, purely by accident.

I have no idea if this movie is available anywhere ... I'd like to see it again. No blockbuster of a movie, but it was fun.

9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
The Love War and The Challenge-- Siamese Twin flicks, 29 April 2001
Author: davidemartin (davidemartin@cs.com) from Milwaukee, Wisconsin

George McGowan must have liked this plot, as he did a second movie along a similar theme that same season for ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK. That film, THE CHALLENGE, had Darren McGavin in the Lloyd Bridges role. Both films had the same premise-- rather than an all-out war between two forces, a select group of champions is chosen to fight it out, winner take all. McGowan obviously did not care for the final version of THE CHALLENGE, as he attached the dreaded Alan Smithee name to its directorial credit. Maybe THE LOVE WAR is closer to how he wanted to end that other film?

Lloyd Bridges had a great deal going during those wonderful days of the MOVIE OF THE WEEK series. He got a wide range of roles, from action roles like this to horror flicks like HAUNTS OF THE VERY RICH to dramas like SILENT NIGHT LONELY NIGHT. In terms of number of films made, I'd say he and Darren McGavin were the most prolific actors (Bridges= 14, McGavin = 11), with Christopher George and Doug McClure fighting for 3rd and 4th places.

I was fourteen when I saw these and man, did that ending take me by surprise! 31 years later, I'm still not sure what happened after the film's events ended..... Talk about a "Lady or the Tiger" ending!

7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
When it was Love, Extraterrestrial Style..., 15 February 2007

Author: zillabob from United States

Back in the day, I saw this on a Sunday afternoon syndicated movie(about 1975). Apparently it was a 1970 ABC movie of The Week(Networks did some terrific-but cheaply made- movies of the week, back in those halcyon 70's days.. of a sci-fi or horror nature, like Earth 2, The Stranger Within,Killdozer, The People, Don't Be Afraid of The Dark, The Horror At 37,000 Feet, Gargoyles..way before Sci Fi Channel put on mostly made for TV garbage of recent years. In fact, Sci Fi Channel, in their old days of the mid-90's re-ran many of these old films as well as TNT/TBS back in their retro format years). I think the word "Love" was in style-Love American Style, Love Story, etc all coming out the same year. Lloyd Bridges (who did a lot of made for TV'ers in them days) plays an alien who comes to earth to fight other aliens as the two races have declared the earth their battleground. Bridge's alien claims he's fighting the good fight and going to win the battle and, the earth will be left alone by his race, as he says that if the other race wins, they'll take over earth. Or will they? It's his word against theirs.He falls in love with the earthly Angie Dickinson and reveals his secret to her-you can guess the twist ending to that. Done kind of like a color Outer Limits episode made into a film. Special effects are not bad, for the day, and we only once ever glimpse, quickly, the alien's true visage, from a distance, before it turns... so we know while they look like us, they're quite alien. The aliens can see each other apart from the earthlings via special glasses. Fun stuff for, and of the time.

7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
It doesn't insult our intelligence!, 14 October 2005

Author: F Gwynplaine MacIntyre from Minffordd, North Wales

I saw 'The Love War' more than 30 years ago on Australian television, while I was working double shifts in a Sydneyside slaughter-yard. I found this low-budget TV-movie deeply enjoyable, for two reasons: firstly, it was science fiction at a time when I was starved for even half-decent SF. Secondly, I've always maintained that science fiction is about *ideas*, not hardware and special effects. 'The Love War' has no ray guns, no spaceships: if you watched this movie with the sound off, you'd barely realise it's science fiction.

The film begins in an airport jetty. We see Lloyd Bridges come hirpling along, with an extreme limp. We never do learn the precise explanation for how he got the limp ... but we learn very shortly that he's an extraterrestrial, or at least that he claims to be one. This raises a lot of questions that never do get answered: if the aliens are able to equip themselves with human bodies, then why has Bridges got a body with a gimpy left ankle?

Anyroad, it soon turns out that there are two different alien species on Earth. Two planets are at war with each other, and their best soldiers have decided to duke it out on Earth rather than on their homeworlds. Sucks to any humans who get hurt. Apparently, the two rival sets of aliens are able to disguise themselves so perfectly as humans that the only way they can rumble each other is through sunglasses with special lenses. (Why don't they get contact lenses?)

Bridges is on the run from the aliens, although it's not immediately clear whether he's on the run from the aliens on the *other* planet -- his enemies -- or whether he's on the run from his own people, because he wants to defect to Earth and live as a human. This raises still more questions that never do get answered: if Bridges successfully goes to earth on Earth and lives out his days as a human, what will happen to this body he's wearing -- presumably not a genuine human body -- when he eventually dies? Will he just self-combust, like the dead aliens in 'The Invaders'?

Well, Bridges crosses paths with gorgeous blonde Earthwoman Angie Dickinson, who falls in love with him surprisingly quickly. There is a 'surprise' ending which I saw coming from about twelve parsecs away, but I enjoyed the trip it took to get there. The actors give such earnest performances that I accepted them as extraterrestrials, despite very little evidence. At the very end of the movie, we get a glimpse of two of the aliens through a pair of sunglasses. Still, this movie might have been more interesting if the actors and director had played it for more ambiguity, making Bridges's haggard protagonist more like the enigmatic character played by Kevin Spacey in 'K-PAX': is he a genuine alien, or is he a deluded human who has convinced himself he's an alien, as a defence mechanism against insanity?

Part of the problem with 'The Love War' (besides its irrelevant and generic title) is that this story didn't really have to be science fiction: it would have worked much more credibly if the two rival sets of aliens had been human all along: two rival mafia clans, for instance, or modern incarnations of the Hatfields and McCoys. Or the Jets and the Sharks. Worse luck, this TV movie bears a strong resemblance to a science-fiction story by Kris Neville that was published about twenty years earlier: anyone who's read that story will have no trouble guessing the end of this movie.

I enjoyed 'The Love War', but would like to have seen the same premise without the science-fiction garnishes. I'll rate this TV movie 7 out of 10. It doesn't insult the viewer's intelligence, and that's a rare achievement indeed.

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
One of the earlier sci-fi movies of aliens secreted amongst us in malice., 27 July 2005

Author: S J from Australia

I saw this movie on TV when I was a lot younger but it impressed me. Mainly because despite the unlikely pairing of Loyd Bridges and Angie Dickinson in a Sci-Fi movie it worked quite well. The plot was complex but while moving quickly enough did not become garbled or incoherent as some movies do when trying to achieve the "unexpected". The partnership between the main characters develops quite naturally although it may seem cliché to some in this day and age. Perhaps much of it's charm for me is that it came before many other similar movies and was in its way a ground breaker in this genre. I would love to see it again but as another commented I have yet to see it on either tape or DVD. Not many resources even list it. The title of lost sci-fi classic is quite appropriate and I feel many sci-fi fans would enjoy it if it were available to them.

7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Thank god for the internet!, 10 July 2007
Author: Orman Beckles from Boston, Mass

Like most of the other comments I also saw this as a kid...I don't even think I knew it was a sci-fi movie at the beginning...but as they chased each other and fired their guns...I got very involved.

So I was excited to see it available for download on the internet! I don't want to start a discussion about downloads! I would have paid to obtain this movie thru normal channels (will if someone tells me where..seriously I feel that strongly about it...Tori Spelling maybe?) I didn't even think it was possible since I don't think VHS was even around back then. Any ways I set it to download...since its so rare it took 6 1/2 months (not kidding...I think only one other person was making it available) and this morning 5:47 est, to my surprise it had finished.

Like Indiana Jones holding a diamond....I pressed the "PLAY" button.

Yes I enjoyed it! The whole war issue it brings up is a great a conversation piece now as it was back then. It has lost nothing...

But the most important part for me! After 37 1/2 years later I get a second look thru those glasses! I can finally cross it off my list of things to do...seriously...I never thought I would see it again..but really wanted to...and now I have.

Just a trip to the moon and my list is complete and I can die a happy man...

...I really thought the trip to moon would be crossed off before I saw this movie again! (wink)

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
A closet Classic, 14 October 2007

Author: souldeep47 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This film is a true closet-classic. I must say i do not recall watching it in the Spring of ' 70 on the TV movie of the week. I was only 10, so i probably was doing homework. I saw it five years later on a "afternoon movie of the week". I was instantly captured. I have not seen it since. I recall Lloyd Bridges running through the streets with some device. I do remember the glasses and the appearance of the Aliens. I would love to see this again. Does anyone on here know how to obtain it? I was a big Outer Limits fan (original series 63-65). And the guy on here that cast this movie as a "Colorized" Outer Limits episode is a great description. It had the same dramatic music in the background if i remember right. These types of films cement the reality that old time TV was better than anything today.

6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Prime re-make material, 23 September 2000
Author: mitcheroo from Mobile, AL

Whole decades have passed since I've seen this one. Up until the late-70's, "The Love War" was TV grist for the afternoon just-home-from-school crowd or nightowls on the independent stations. It has since vanished.

Lousy title, but a terrific premise: aliens fight a low-level, unseen war in a U.S. city for territorial control of the Earth. Some neat special effects (for 1970), a starry cast and a twist in the tale make this worth another look. Certainly worth consideration for a re-make.

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