British Universities Film & Video Council

moving image and sound, knowledge and access

Oh! What A Lovely War

… a wonderfully entertaining but moving kaleidoscopic history of the war

The representation of the Christmas truce of 1914 is particularly significant for it is here that the men of both sides realise they are comrades in suffering who had no desire for war. This leads them to question why they are fighting each other, and the first realisation that their real enemies might well be the self-righteous politicians who have sent them to the trenches to suffer and die, and the incompetent generals who blindly continue to believe that just one more push will win the war. There is nothing heroic here, just a bleak and terrifying reality. It is also one of the few films to deal with the causes of the war, which it cynically dismisses as a family squabble among the crowned head of Europe, into which the British government has been drawn through its own self-interest and imperial ambition – an entertaining but simplistic view.

What the film does do so well is powerfully evoke the world of the patiently enduring, uncomplaining Tommy, the pointlessness of their endless sacrifice, the shoddy way they were treated by those charged with their welfare, and the super-charged patriotism that sent them to suffer and to die. The generals, the donkeys of popular historiography, are unmercifully condemned – ruthless backstabbers, they jostle for position in the military hierarchy but once in command are hopelessly incompetent as they sacrifice yet another division or two.

Despite the fact that Oh! What A Lovely War was made nearly forty years ago, it still remains visually exciting – the seamless transition from the sketches on the pier to the more realistic episodes set in France are beautifully handled by Attenborough and his cinematographer Gerry Turpin. The cast, reading like a who’s who of British cinema, turn in some wonderful cameos, particular John Mills as a prissy Douglas Haig who, in the scenes dealing with the Somme, stands bemused before the scoreboard that records British casualties, completely incapable of understanding why his strategy has not prevailed. The film is rich in such moments – John Gielgud as the oily Count Berthold, Dirk Bogarde as a particularly obnoxious armchair patriot bemoaning the poor showing of his investments in Alsace, and giving up German wines as his contribution to the war effort.

Don’t look to Oh! What A Lovely War for historical accuracy, for despite quoting from the speeches and diaries of leading participants, it still makes many factual errors. It’s partial, biased and sometimes careless in its interpretation of the war, but it’s also a heart-felt expose of the brutality and futility of war – a message that is still highly relevant today.

Michael Paris

 

Other film and TV productions about WW1 currently available on DVD / Bu-ray include:

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
US. Universal. 125 minutes.

Paths of Glory
(1957)
US. MGM. 84 minutes.

The Great War (1964)
GB. BBC. 1105 minutes.

Gallipoli (1981)
Aus. Paramount. 107 minutes.

Blackadder Goes Forth (1989)
GB. 2 entertain. 374 minutes.

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