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Amazon.co.uk Review
It's a product of its Vietnam era just as surely as Robert Altman's M*A*S*H, and like that film Oh! What a Lovely War is ostensibly about a different war. Based on a celebrated anti-war stage piece produced by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, the film chronicles the various madnesses of the First World War. Along with vignettes involving the members of the fictional Smith family, the movie lands its punches with a two-pronged attack: by using the songs of the war, mostly patriotic; and by using the real-life words of various figures from WWI. You can see how this would have fit a stylised stage show; in the more literal, realistic realm of film, it mostly comes across as heavy-handed pretentiousness. Richard Attenborough, who would later explore the lives of Gandhi and Chaplin, first made his way to the director's chair here, and he enlisted a staggering who's who of his fellow British actors for roles in the large ensemble: Olivier, Gielgud, and Richardson among them. John Mills plays the most bull-headed of the generals, blithely measuring out yards of territory gained by the thousands of casualties involved. The songs are a historically fascinating lot, mostly given an ironic or sinister treatment in this incarnation, as jolly patriotic tunes that mask the utter carnage at the front. Among the high points is Maggie Smith singing (well, declaiming) an ode to recruitment, promising war as a grand adventure. The blending of arch content with Attenborough's realistic staging of trench warfare just doesn't take, but what does hit home are the actual quotes and the statistics of killing; World War I set a bloody standard for sheer, blind slaughter. --Robert Horton
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), Danish ( Subtitles ), Dutch ( Subtitles ), English ( Subtitles ), Finnish ( Subtitles ), Norwegian ( Subtitles ), Swedish ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Black & White, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Commentary, Documentary, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: A movie about the First World War based on a stage musical of the same name, portraying the "Game of War" and focusing mainly on the members of one family (last name Smith) who go off to war. Much of the action in the movie revolves around the words of the marching songs of the soldiers, and many scenes portray some of the more famous (and infamous) incidents of the war, including the assassination of Duke Ferdinand, the Christmas meeting between British and German soldiers in no-mans-land, and the wiping out by their own side of a force of Irish soldiers newly arrived at the front, after successfully capturing a ridge that had been contested for some time. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, Golden Globes, ...Oh! What a Lovely War
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
107 of 112 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm bemused by the tendency to assert that this film is a veiled Vietnam film, "ostensibly" about another war, as this Amazon review puts it. It IS about another war, one that was far more important to the nation where it was written and filmed, and in which the father of writer and director Charles Chilton was killed. Anyway, I watched it as a First World War film, and that is how it has always seemed to me: it comments on all other wars, implicitly, of course.
It's silly to compare or measure this against most other war films, because it is so unlike any other, but it stands out as a dramatic, cinematic, narrative gem. A serious musical about the horrors of war: sounds as likely as a serious musical about living in Nazi Germany. Oh, wait...someone did that too. Cabaret must owe quite a bit to this film, not least in the "tomorrow belongs to me" scene, although they wrote their songs from scratch for Cabaret.
The songs here are real, some the official versions from popular music hall, and some the unofficial versions sung by the troops, with considerably darker lyrics (though they omitted the rudest of the unofficial lyrics). The humour is black and dry as a tomb, and you don't quite know whether to laugh or wince in a lot of places (just do both). But the real beauty of the film is in the settings, which are sparse, only partly realistic, and sometimes subject to extraordinary changes. The most impressive are slow 360 degree pans, during which everything changes behind the camera's back, so that when you get back the character you started with, they are in a completely different situation. These and other rapid scene shifts are part of whole film's unreal, nightmarish quality that matches the subject matter perfectly.
If you haven't seen it, make sure you do. If you saw it long ago and dimly remember it and wonder if it was as good as you remember (or maybe better than you thought), I'd say yes, and you should refresh your acquaintance. This seems an almost absurdly cheap price for it.
It's silly to compare or measure this against most other war films, because it is so unlike any other, but it stands out as a dramatic, cinematic, narrative gem. A serious musical about the horrors of war: sounds as likely as a serious musical about living in Nazi Germany. Oh, wait...someone did that too. Cabaret must owe quite a bit to this film, not least in the "tomorrow belongs to me" scene, although they wrote their songs from scratch for Cabaret.
The songs here are real, some the official versions from popular music hall, and some the unofficial versions sung by the troops, with considerably darker lyrics (though they omitted the rudest of the unofficial lyrics). The humour is black and dry as a tomb, and you don't quite know whether to laugh or wince in a lot of places (just do both). But the real beauty of the film is in the settings, which are sparse, only partly realistic, and sometimes subject to extraordinary changes. The most impressive are slow 360 degree pans, during which everything changes behind the camera's back, so that when you get back the character you started with, they are in a completely different situation. These and other rapid scene shifts are part of whole film's unreal, nightmarish quality that matches the subject matter perfectly.
If you haven't seen it, make sure you do. If you saw it long ago and dimly remember it and wonder if it was as good as you remember (or maybe better than you thought), I'd say yes, and you should refresh your acquaintance. This seems an almost absurdly cheap price for it.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
It is particularly difficult to categorise this film. Yes, it's a film about war, the pity of war, the pity war distils, but it manages to avoid the vainglory and the heroic thrill that almost always categorises war movies. Even the impulse to anger at the waste of war, and the stupidity of humankind is effectively suppressed in the representation of pity that is poetically evolved here. The film doesn't even fit well into the `musicals' category, as it uses music, in the form of songs popular during WWI as tokens of the irrepressibility of the human spirit, rather than for their musical essence. Many showings on TV are edited for length, reducing its impact, but this is the real deal. It even passes muster in its history of the complex inevitability of the war and of its mindless waste of life. And it does this using a densely glowing aurora of famous acting stars: Redgrave, Gielgud, Richardson, Olivier, Hawkins, More. It's funny and it's heartbreakingly sad at the same time, and it's beautifully photographed, with a final scene that brings tears to many eyes. This film is to movies what Wilfred Owen is to Poetry. It speaks for itself.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Having watched this DVD shortly after seeing a revival of Joan Littlewood's stage version at the Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield, I can honestly say that despite hearing from some that it is 'dated' and 'of its (Vietnam war era) time, it still seems as fresh as ever. This is because OWALW is essentially a satire of the attitudes to war and how these change and develop as the conflict goes on - which seem to follow a similar pattern across time. So we get to see the political muddle and confusion that sows the seeds to World War I, the patriotic 'King and Country' reaction to the declaration of war and then the brutal reality and consequences of all this. All this is seen through a series of vividly realised musical vignettes, featuring authentic popular music from 1914-18.
Of course, not everyone will agree on the straight [simplistic]anti-war stance of the film, and it can also be criticised for being a little overlong and repetative, as one musical number gives way to another. But this is a powerful, close to unique film, which is both thought provoking and entertaining.
Of course, not everyone will agree on the straight [simplistic]anti-war stance of the film, and it can also be criticised for being a little overlong and repetative, as one musical number gives way to another. But this is a powerful, close to unique film, which is both thought provoking and entertaining.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Oh What A Lovely War
The goods were as described and arrive quickly. I wanted this movie for some research I was doing into WW1. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Sony Buyer
Classic
What a joy. This film is a masterpiece and should be appreciated for the process of how a film should be written and produced.
Published 28 days ago by Kathy Warbey
O What a Lovely War
Very prompt delivery. The quality of the sound and picture was excellent although the added features described on the box could not be accessed( at least by me). Read more
Published 3 months ago by andrew
Worth a watch,but the stage version is better.
OWALW was written for the stage in 1963.You can ignore any comment that it is a product of the Vietnam era-it was written before the US involvement in that war had even started. Read more
Published 5 months ago by PygmyTwylyte
Oh what a lovely war.
What can I say about this you will either love it or hate it depending on your taste in shows, personally I find it very provoking and watchable.
Published 6 months ago by astray
Utimately tedious and doesn't do justice to the text of the stage...
The production values are of course very good (typical of an English period movie) and the film is a nice reminiscence on the sights, sounds and looks of the time of World War One. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Miami
Oh! What a lovely war
Such a brilliant film and one I highly recommend to see, whatever your age as it gives the viewer an insight into how the attitude of some of our people at the time.
Published 8 months ago by Jane Austin
History on Brighton Pier
A refreshing portrayal of the lead up and consequences of WW1 . Perhaps the willingness to volunteer was simplified but the songs capture the spirit of the times . Read more
Published 11 months ago by John Synnot
Oh! What a Lovely War: The Special Collector's Edition (DVD)
This film is a must to see and now that it is on DVD is a must for collectors. The music and songs are great, but the must thrust of the film about the futility of was is really... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. H. R. Jenman
WW1
Having read "Regeneration" by Pat Barker with our book group, this video was especially apt - superb cast and a wonderful satirical take on the ghastly, incompetent running of WW1... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Anna English
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