This is one of those weird 60s movies. I only watched it to see Lennon but it wasn't worth it. It's not funny, it doesn't flow, it makes no sense and I would have been embarrassed working on it. Don't waste your time.
Plot summary
An inept British WWII commander leads his troops to a series of misadventures in North Africa and Europe.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
August 20, 2018 at 07:27 AM
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Perculiar Movie...
Borderline Unwatchable
Take a movie like this. You may have heard somewhere that it was pretty bad. But, being an inquisitive sort, you visit IMDb first anyway. Here, you are greeted with plenty of reviews that tell you that it's not so bad - some even call it a masterpiece and a hidden gem.
Then, you watch it and the cold hard reality hits you - it's just not that good of a movie. The first half an hour seemed to take about four. Yes, there are "innovative" aspects such as tinting people and scenes differently, but ultimately this is cheap and adds little.
There are far better anti-war films of the same period. "How I Won the War" with a big star (Lennon) was made in 1967. Steve McQueen's "The Sand Pebbles" of 1966 is, although a much longer movie, an infinitely better anti-war film that managed to convey all of the same philosophical points as HIWtW (and more) and do it with subtlety, class, and genuine humanity.
The saving grace of HIWtW should have been comedy - absurdist or otherwise. The ingredients were there - war and military life are just asking for the application of ironic and observationalist British wit. Alas, while the characters spend most of the time speaking in that fast British way as if they were saying something as clever as, say, Monty Python or Fawlty Towers, what they actually say is substantially less interesting. Pity.
This film is not particularly worth watching.
Biting Satire
Down in some places as a comedy, though there's little humour to be had in Rchard Lester's satire on the futility of war. At the time there was more to be said about John Lennon's participation than the film itself.
Michael Crawford stars as the inept and lucky Lt Goodbody and his unit and their escapades. Unfortunatley because of his ineptitude all of his unit meet an early demise.
Filled with satire about he nonsense of war and it's heirachy, there's plenty of great performances, including Crawford, Lennon as Gripweed, Roy Kinnear as Clapper and probably best of all Lee Montague as Transom.
As thought provoking as it is surreal it doesn't always hit the spot, but when it does it's a great watch.