It tells the story of the Rohan family (Billy, his sisters Sue and Dawn, and his parents Grace and Clive), who live in a suburb of London.

The nightly raids do not provide the only drama, as Billy's older sister, Dawn, falls for Canadian soldier Bruce, becomes pregnant, and, finding her life turned upside down, discovers the value of her family.

When the Rohans' house burns down (due to an ordinary fire), the family moves to the bucolic Thames-side home of Grace's parents.

George drives the boy to his old school, only to find the block filled with ecstatic children, as a stray bomb has destroyed the building.

According to TCM-host Dave Karger's afterword to an April 2021 broadcast of the film, Boorman re-created the street on which he lived.

The main film set was built on the disused runway at the former Wisley Airfield in Surrey, and the scenes by the river were shot near Shepperton Lock.

In his new, autobiographical film, he has had the inspiration to desentimentalize wartime Britain and show us the Second World War the way he saw it as an eight-year-old.

[12]Critic Emanuel Levy's review was also positive, writing: "Director John Boorman offers a warmly nostalgic view of his childhood in a London suburb during WWII.

"[13] In 1987, Roger Ebert wrote: Maybe there is something in the very nature of war, in the power of guns and bombs, that appeals to the imagination of little boys.

John Boorman's Hope and Glory is a film about that precise season in the life of a young British boy who grows up in a London suburb during World War II.

All of the cars and signs look right, and there are countless small references to wartime rationing, as when the older sister draws seams on her legs to make fake nylons.

[28] It was selected to be screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival,[29] and received a general theatrical release in 2015.