Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)

Oh! What a lovely war.

This was a film which originated as a west end musical play long before being made into a film.
More recently it has been playing out in London.
It is an anti-war film and it could be superimposed over Irag and the Bush Administration.
It shows how the instigators are well away from the action and destruction
And how it is fought out by die for your country concepts.
The music is sincerely constructed from the minds of the trench soldier with a great deal of resigned vunerability and you must follow the leaders in command or you will be an outcaste.
The striking thing about the songs and lyrics are that they are light and bubbly when trenches are so very bad and cruel to these brave men.
It is a long film but I enjoyed every minute of it.
It can not be purchased by me in my home country Victoria Melbourne Australia so thank you so very much for the copy December 18, 2007

How music informed me about world war 1

This war along with the American Civil War displayed how the songs of both
wars changed to reflect the horror war and the massive deaths that fell on the ordinary soldiers. While the civil war gave freedom to the slaves,world war 1 settled nothing except for a few border changes, freed Belgian from german occupation,freed poland and led to the communist revolution. It is clearly an antiwar film made during the vietnam war and relects the feelings of actors and filmmakers attitude towards war. August 31, 2007

memory

I saw this at school 40 years ago and always wanted to see it again. Excellent creative and very different approach. wife and grown up kids accepted it at face value and enjoyed something different. July 24, 2007

Ageless

Still the best anti war film ever made. Still as fresh as when it was first made. June 27, 2007

Not Even A Lovely Film!

I remember seeing this film when it first came out. Much of the memory is a blur (and, after seeing the film again, I prefer it that way). Only two things about it do I remember vividly - the very clever way Maggie Smith was presented first at a distance and then in grisly closeup, and how many times I kept checking my watch to see how much longer the bloody thing would last.

The film, of course, is an anti-war piece made at a time when anti-war films were terribly fashionable. This and Richard Lester's How I Won The War are examples of the nonsensical and nearly unwatchable variety. Oh What A Lovely War was Richard Attenborough's first stab at directing and the kid-with-a-new-toy aspect is really apparent. The film is based on a trendy stage play and proves once again that what works sublimely well in a theatre does not necessarily translate well to the screen. While the play could engage its audience, the action on a movie screen remains detached. The mixture of music hall songs and trench warfare both seemed surreal on stage. But the extreme differences in style in Attenborough's vision are uneasy, abrupt, and at times seemingly arbitrary.

One of the big selling points of the film was its all-star cast which seemed to include just about all the big British names of the time as well as a few promising newcomers. All doing their bit to get The Message across. Although it is interesting to note how many of these stars were, at roughly the same time, also appearing in The Battle Of Britain, a war film with quite a different take on the theme.

Oh What A Lovely War makes its anti-war point. Then makes it again. And again. And again. I doubt if any warmongers ever changed their opinions because of a film, or if anyone who did not already have anti-war beliefs went to see the film anyway. In the end, we're left with a bunch of luvvies preaching to the converted in a rather heavy-handed and overly stylised "entertainment". Forty years on, this film is now as much a relic as The Great War itself. Sorry, Dickie, but there is no way I could ever be persuaded to sit through Oh What A Lovely War again! May 25, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...