Review of How I Won the War (1967) by Stuart K — 02 Sep 2011
After the successes of A Hard Day's Night (1964), Help! (1965) and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1966), Richard Lester chose for his next film this dark war satire based upon Patrick Ryan's 1963 novel, which questions the need and relevence of war.
It's gallows humour, but it's alot more relevent now than what you might think. This one follows the exploits of an army regiment, 3rd Troop, the 4th Musketeers, led by Lieutenant Earnest Goodbody (Michael Crawford), who is naïve and accident prone.
He's been assigned by Colonel Grapple (Michael Hordern) to go out behind enemy lines in Tunisia to set up an "Advanced Area Cricket Pitch." His team of soldiers include Gripweed (John Lennon), Clapper (Roy Kinnear), Sergeant Transom (Lee Montague), Juniper (Jack MacGowran), Spool (Ronald Lacey) and Drogue (James Cossins).
But, Goodbody's attempts at heroic derring-do end up getting most of his regiment killed, but still they press on into the desert to set up the cricket pitch, and the remaining men take on Holland and Germany, where Goodbody recalls his tales to Odlebog (Karl Michael Vogler) at the Rhine bridgehead in 1945.
It's a very peculiar film, using surreal dialogue and characters to question the idealism and philosophy of warfare. Crawford does Frank Spencer stunts, and Lennon is his usual self if underused. But, you could use this to question the wars our world is in now.
This review of How I Won the War (1967) was written by Stuart K on 02 Sep 2011.
How I Won the War has generally received mixed reviews.
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