Oh What A Lovely War

Richard Attenborough, UK, 1969, 144 minutes

This adaptation of Joan Littlewood's play was the first film that Attenborough directed, and it is quite incredible. It is about the First World War and combines stage-bound scenes with surrealistic sequences and straight filming. It has an amazing cast of "extras": Olivier, Gielgud, Richardson and Maggie Smith, to name a few. The whole film is very ambitious, and is not without faults, but certain scenes linger in the memory. In particular, soldiers on a sea front marching under a fairground arch which reads "World War One", while being cheered by the crowds, and soldiers, enticed to join up by Maggie Smith's show girl, immediately finding themselves in the middle of the trenches. Despite being notorious for weeping at every opportunity, in his films Attenborough is restrained in his treatment of events, and is never sentimental. Consequently, there is no feeling that the emotions are being manipulated. This is particularly evident in his latest film Shadowlands, The film is at times very savage, calling to mind the bitterest of Wilfred Owen's and Sassoon's poetry, particularly in its portrayal of the rich and the leaders of the army. This isn't about the glories of war; at the end, in one of the best uses of anticlimax, the Treaty of Versailles is signed and a soldier from the trenches walks unnoticed around the conference table, while a little girl plays in a military cemetery.

This is particularly relevant to History students, but is worth coming to see anyway for its sheer energy and very funny Monty Pythonesque scenes; in particular all the senior officers playing leapfrog.

Review by Katherine Edge
Taken from EUFS Programme 1994-95