Oh! What a Lovely War war movie

Oh! What a Lovely War (1969, United Kingdom)

Categories: political movies trenches movies

Oh! What a Lovely War

Director: Richard Attenborough

Czas: 140 minut

Laguages: English

war movies infoAdam 'Frey' Barczynski
2024-04-07 / 1970-01-01

Film adaptation of popular stage play that showed all the insanity behind World War I by presenting the songs that were popular at that time, the atmosphere among soldiers on the front and their families back home.

In 1914 Europe empires were divided into two equally powerful alliances so there would never be war again. That concept kept the peace among the countries for some time, but there was just one flaw in the idea - none of the empires was actually happy when there was the peace. In 1914 the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the sparkle that both sides needed to start another war - not for the political reasons, not for religious, not for the national nor any greater ideas, it was a war that no one wanted, but each side seems to be needed. So to stop the generals from getting rusty they have enlisted all the available young men to start another conflict and again prove how great they are by sacrificing the lives of the others. Among the recruits was Freddie Smith, young man, who leaves his family and joins the Royal Infantry when war starts in the fields of Belgium.

Film adaptation of 1963 stage musical by Joan Littlewood, expressing the anti-war climate that came after the World War I in Great Britain and other countries. The political background in the early years of 20th century was suppose to prevent any further wars, but then World War I (or the Great War as it was called back then) came and again took the lives of whole generation of young men. During the war there were voices that this is the war so horrible that it will end all the wars, but then the World War 2 happened and everything started from the beginning. Oh! What a Lovely War was written after World War 2, but the universal anti-war message is still the same - generals and politicians start the wars, but they are not the ones that fight them. Through the songs from that era we see the official propaganda as well as the atmosphere among the civilians and soldiers when they face the horror of the war. In simple scenes we see all the most important parts of the war - from draft propaganda, through Christmas Truce to insanity of Battle of the Somme. As war movie it is perhaps not very impressive, it is musical after all, but it shows all you need to know about the reality of World War I.

Our rating

5.2

Film value

7 / 10

Realism factor

2 / 5

Adventure factor

1 / 5

Historical accuracy

3 / 5

2024-04-07

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Oh! What a Lovely War