“Oh! What a Lovely War” is a different kind of war movie. It was released in England in 1969 and has an all-star cast of familiar British faces. It is based on a play and was directed by Richard Attenborough in daring style. It is without doubt the best war musical ever made, not that it has much competition. The script uses actual songs and quotes from World War I. The movie was critically acclaimed. It was nominated for 9 BAFTA awards. It was an also-ran for Best Film Director, Supporting Actress (Mary Wimbush), and Editing. It won for Supporting Actor (Laurence Olivier), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costum Design, and Soundtrack. It won a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film.
The film opens with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and we know this will be a different movie because it is depicted via a group photograph of the leaders of Europe. The photographer hands the royal couple red poppies and they fall dead. It is a not a good thing to get handed a poppy in this film. The red poppy symbolizes death in the movie, as it did during the war. It helps to know the basics of the war, but the movie works well as a tutorial. For instance, one scene has the world leaders discussing the run up to the war while standing on a map of Europe. Actual quotes are used very effectively. It is sometimes chilling to hear the belligerent remarks spouted by the political and military leaders. If you don’t know that they are quotes, you would guess the screenwriter laid in on too thick.
The movie uses a ballroom for the upper class and leader scenes, but the most important set is the Brighton West Pier which stands in for the home front and the jumping off point for Tommies headed to the Western Front. On the pier, Gen. Haig sells tickets to the war including to the five Smith brothers who we follow through the movie. It’s not a spoiler alert to tell you they won’t all make it to the armistice. The film jumps between these sets and the Western Front. We follow the Smith boys as the movie balances the scenes of the upper class with the lowly Tommies. The soldiers are generic, although Robert Brooke (not identified) recites one of his poems (“1914 V: The Soldier Poem”). It also jumps into songs – all of which are authentic to the period. The first is cavalry on a merry-go-round. The best are set in a music hall where beautiful girls sing patriotic songs encouraging young men to enlist. “We don’t want to lose you, but we think you ought to go.” Maggie Smith seals the deal by crooning sexily “take the king’s shilling and I’ll make a man out of you.” It turns out that sex sells war as well as tooth paste. By the way, when the new enlistees go up on stage they find out Maggie is not so beautiful and in fact is caked with make-up. Get it? The movie focuses on the Battle of the Somme. There’s a board with the casualty total – 60,000. But Haig is optimistic and insists on pouring more men into the meat grinder.Although most of the action takes place on the pier, the film does make trips to the Western Front. The combat is small-scale, but no man’s land and the muddy trenches are well-rendered. These scenes are what separates the film from the play.
ACTING: B
ACTION: N/A
ACCURACY: A
PLOT: A
REALISM: B
CINEMATOGRAPHY: B
SCORE: A+
SCENE: recruiting in the theater
QUOTE: Haig: In the end, they shall have 5,000 men left and we shall have 10,000. And we shall have won.
The movie is very harsh on the upper class. They are twits who are out of touch with reality. They watch fireworks and drink champagne while the soldiers suffer. They are literally profitting from the war. But it’s the brass that are damned and by their own words at that. When Haig discusses the Battle of the Somme, it is infuriating. He watches the war through binoculars from the pier. The regular officers do not come off well either. They are callous and clueless. On the other hand, the Tommies (including the Smiths) are the heroes of the movie. The movie agrees with the famous description “lions led by donkeys” They literally sing their way through the maelstrom of the war. Interestingly, several of their songs are songs the soldiers would have sung in the trench.
The movie explores various themes. One is the peer pressure the public put on the men to enlist. “Your man is digging in his garden, when he should be digging trenches.” Another theme is the public support for the war remains high while the enthusiasm of the men in the trenches wanes. The public is depicted as clueless and when anyone calls into question the war, they are met with animosity from the public.
The film is a series of vignettes. The ones with the soldiers are the best, the ones with the generals and upper class are the most incisive. The vignettes include the Christmas Truce, which is nicely done. There is an extended religious scene which makes fun of the role of religion in condoning the war. It turns out that all the various religions blessed the killing. There is a powerful scene of anti-war activist Sylvia Parkhurst quoting George Bernard Shaw to a heckling crowd of naïvely patriotic civilians. The Americans arrive via the pier singing “Over There”. “And we won’t come back – we’ll be buried over there.”
The songs are wonderfully rendered and there are a lot of them. It’s like the greatest hits of WWI. The acting is good, especially John Mills as Haig. Laurence Olivier was nominated for a BAFTA for portraying Gen. French. It is a very British movie so it is not well known in America even though you would think it would have struck a chord with the anti-Vietnam War crowd. Most war movies are anti-war, but few are as anti-war as “Oh! What a Lovely War”. Kudos to Attenborough for going out on a limb to bring the play to the screen. He managed to recruit an outstanding cast. The sets are amazing. The use of the pier is genius. The scenes set on the Western Front are appropriately hellish. The movie concludes with an awesome tracking shot of a white cross laden cemetery. Attenborough had 16,000 crosses hammered into pre-dug holes for the shot.
I am a big fan of this movie. If you have seen a lot of war movies, you need to watch it because it is so different. If you don’t see a lot of war movies, watch it because it is not a typical war movie.
Up to
your waist in water,
Up to your eyes in slush –
Using the kind of language,
That makes the sergeant blush;
Who wouldn't join the army?
That's what we all inquire,
Don't we pity the poor civilians sitting beside the fire.
Chorus:
Oh! Oh! Oh! it's a lovely war,
Who wouldn't be a soldier eh?
Oh! It's a shame to take the pay.
As soon as reveille is gone
We feel just as heavy as lead,
But we never get up till the sergeant brings
Our breakfast up to bed
Oh! Oh! Oh! it's a lovely war,
What do we want with eggs and ham
When we've got plum and apple jam?
Form fours! Right turn!
How shall we spend the money we earn?
Oh! Oh! Oh! it's a lovely war.
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