i can not judge it but bette midler have appear in about six movie where her performance be all excellent . these include the rise and the first wife club and ruthless people and beach and and this film . it can safely be say that she be more than just a great singer and entertainer and but ( when give the right material ) she be one hell of an actress in comedy or drama . although she get nominate for an oscar for the rise and and she have many fan for her performance in beach and i suspect her performance in for the boy may be her best dramatic role . she play dixie leonard and a new york base singer and whose husband be in the armed force in world war i. she live with her son danny in the city . her uncle and art silver ( george segal ) and get a notable entertainer eddie spark ( james caan ) to hire her for his ufo show . dixie be a success and but from the beginning she and spark have one conflict or another between them . eddie be pretty ambitious and determine to succeed and and so be dixie and but eddie can be more ruthless to do so even to cut his loss at the expense of other people . yet eddie can show a good side ( although one that suggest opportunism again and again ) . during the first ufo tour he arrange dixie to see her husband again after nearly two year . but he make sure that the scene be photograph and film for propaganda and career reason . after the death of dixie husband and eddie becomes close to dixie son danny . however and he teach danny to have contempt for school and and he put patriotic idea into the boy head lead to danny go into the military . danny ( christopher rydell ) be a captain at the time of the vietnam war . he too be kill during a war ( in front of his mother and on a well televise u. f. o tour ) . the film actually be tell in flashback by dixie and a she be be ask to appear at a special televised ceremony where she and eddie be be award medal by the u. s. government . she be a lonely and bitter woman and and she loathe the very thought of the program . eddie be go to get a medal too . will she go to confront eddie after all these year . will eddie finally admit how he felt about the loss of danny . the film be quite well do and capture the spirit of the ufo show in wartime london ( 1944 ) and wartime korea ( 1952 ) while and wartime vietnam ( 1967 ) although one song be slightly anachronistic . it also give u glance at the high water mark of radio programing in the late 1940s ( before television begin to impact upon it ) . finally there be a look at the effect of the mccarthy period and a it effect segal and midler . the three principal give first rate performance and middler best in the scene when her son dy and and caan early and when he witness the death of a boy soldier in korea ( his first witnessing of such a tragedy in a war ) . caan literally look like he have suffer shell shock a a result . a for segal and watch his bitter santa claus scene and where he give out christmas gift while swallow a tremendous amount of bile and anger .