Oh! What a Lovely War is a 1969 British satirical film directed by Richard Attenborough (in his directorial debut), with an ensemble cast, including Maggie Smith, Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Jack Hawkins, Corin Redgrave, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Ian Holm, Paul Shelley, Malcolm McFee, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Nanette Newman, Edward Fox, Susannah York, John Clements, Phyllis Calvert and Maurice Roëves.
The film is based on the stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War!, originated by Charles Chilton as the radio play The Long Long Trail in December 1961,The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century English Literature, ed Laura Marcus & Peter Nicholls, page 478. Cambridge University Press, 2004. , . and transferred to stage by Gerry Raffles in partnership with Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop in 1963.Banham (1998, 645), Brockett and Hildy (2003, 493), and Eyre and Wright (2000, 266–69).
The title is derived from the music hall song "Oh! It's a Lovely War", which is one of the major numbers in the film. The film uses contemporary songs and allegorical settings to criticise the conduct of the First World War.
Synopsis The diplomatic manoeuvring and events involving those in authority are set in a fantasy location inside the pierhead pavilion. Foreign ministers, generals and heads of state walk over a huge map of Europe, restating their notable quotes. A photographer takes a picture of Europe's rulers – after handing two red poppies to the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, he takes their picture, "assassinating" them. Many of the heads of state enjoy good personal relations and are reluctant to go to war: a tearful Emperor Franz Josef declares war on Serbia after being deceived by his foreign minister, and Tsar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm II are shown as unable to overrule their countries' military mobilisation schedules. The German invasion of Belgium compels Sir Edward Grey to unwillingly get involved. Italy reneges on its alliance with the Central Powers, but Turkey joins them instead.
An archetypal British family of the time, the Smiths, is shown entering Brighton's West Pier to purchase tickets from General Haig. The film follows the young Smith men through their experiences in the trenches. A military band rouses holidaymakers from the beach to rally round and follow – some even literally boarding a bandwagon. The first Battle of Mons takes place.
When British casualties start to mount, a theatre audience is rallied by singing "Are We Downhearted? No!" A brightly coloured chorus line recruits a volunteer army with "We don't want to lose you, but we think you ought to go". A music hall star enters a lone spotlight and lures the doubtful young men in the audience into recruitment through song. The young men pass over the stage into military life, and the music hall singer is revealed to be a coarse, over-made-up harridan. The red poppy reappears, often handed to a soldier being sent to die. Inside the pavilion, now housing the top military brass, a scoreboard shows the loss of life and "yards gained". Outside, Sylvia Pankhurst addresses a hostile crowd on the futility of war who remains unreceptive to her upbraiding for believing everything printed in the newspapers.
The second year of the war contrasts darkly. Wounded men parade past with grim faces. Black humour has replaced the enthusiasm of 1914. During "There's a Long, Long Trail a-Winding" soldiers march in torrential rain, the only bright colour being the red poppies. British soldiers drink in an estaminet as a Soubrette leads them in a jolly chorus of "The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin" then shifts more darkly to the sombre "Adieu la vie". At the end of the year, amidst manoeuvres in the pavilion, Douglas Haig replaces Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in France. Haig is mocked by Australian troops while he inspects British soldiers with the song "They were only playing Leapfrog".
At an interfaith religious service in a ruined abbey, soldiers are told each religion has endorsed the war: Jewish soldiers are permitted to eat pork if Jewish, Catholics have dispensation for meat on Fridays, and all religions have put the sabbath in abeyance. Even the Dalai Lama has blessed the war effort.
1916 passes ("The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling", "If the Sergeant Steals Your Rum, Never Mind" and "Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire"). The wounded are laid out in ranks at a dressing station.
The Americans arrive as a "disconnected reality" of the pavilion, interrupting the deliberations of the British generals by singing "Over There" in a reprise. The resolute-looking American captain seizes the map from an astonished Haig.
Jack notices with disgust that after three years of fighting, he is back where he started, at Mons. As the Armistice is sounding, Jack is the last one to die. A splash of red, at first glance blood, comes into focus as a poppy. Jack's spirit wanders the battlefield, first into the room where the elder statesmen of Europe are drafting the coming peace, oblivious to his presence, and finally on a tranquil hillside, where he lies with his brothers on the grass before their figures morph into crosses. The film closes showing a giant cemetery with countless soldiers' graves. The voices of the dead sing "We'll Never Tell Them".
Cast (in credits order)
Smith family
At the time, the Beatles were interested in making an anti-war film. At Bertrand Russell's suggestion, Paul McCartney met with the producer Len Deighton to discuss the opportunity of the band portraying the Smith family, although in the end it was not possible to arrange their appearance.
Also starring
Vincent Ball as Australian Soldier Pia Colombo as Estaminet Singer Paul Daneman as Tsar Nicholas II Isabel Dean as Sir John French's Lady Christian Doermer as Fritz Robert Flemyng as Staff Officer in Gassed Trench Meriel Forbes as Lady Grey Frank Forsyth as Woodrow Wilson Ian Holm as President Poincaré David Lodge as Recruiting Sergeant Joe Melia as the Photographer Guy Middleton as Sir William Robertson Juliet Mills as Nurse Nanette Newman as Nurse Cecil Parker as Sir John Natasha Parry as Sir William Robertson's Lady Gerald Sim as Chaplain Thorley Walters as Staff Officer in Ballroom Anthony Ainley as Third Aide Michael Bates as Drunk Lance Corporal Fanny Carby as Mill Girl Cecilia Darby as Sir Henry Wilson's Lady Geoffrey Davies as Aide Edward Fox as Aide George Ghent as Heckler Zeph Gladstone as Chauffeur (uncredited) Peter Gilmore as Private Burgess Ben Howard as Private Garbett Norman Jones as Scottish Soldier Paddy Joyce as Irish Soldier Angus Lennie as Scottish Soldier Harry Locke as Heckler Clifford Mollison as Heckler Derek Newark as Shooting Gallery Proprietor John Owens as Seamus Moore Ron Pember as Corporal at Station Dorothy Reynolds as Heckler Norman Shelley as Staff Officer in Ballroom Marianne Stone as Mill Girl John Trigger as Officer at Station Kathleen Wileman as Emma Smith at Age 4 Penelope Allen as Solo Chorus Girl Maurice Arthur as Soldier Singer Freddie Ascott as 'Whizzbang' Soldier Dinny Jones as Chorus Girl Carole Gray as Chorus Girl Bernard Jarvis as the whistle-blowing soldier in the trench Jane Seymour as Chorus Girl (uncredited and film debut)
Guest stars
Production The producers were the novelist Len Deighton, photographer Brian Duffy and Richard Attenborough, who was making his directorial debut. Alt URL The Deighton Duffy production company had produced the film adaptation of Deighton's Only When I Larf starring Richard Attenborough. Deighton wrote the screenplay for Oh! What a Lovely War and the opening title sequence was created by Len Deighton's lifelong friend Raymond Hawkey, the designer responsible for many of Deighton's book covers in the 1960s. In an attempt to shame other people who he thought were claiming credit for things they hadn't actually done, Deighton decided not to be listed in the film credits, a gesture he later described as "stupid and infantile".
The 1969 film transferred the mise-en-scène completely into the cinematic domain, with elaborate sequences shot at West Pier in Brighton, elsewhere in Brighton and on the South Downs, interspersed with motifs from the stage production. These included the 'cricket' scoreboards showing the number of dead, but Deighton did not use the pierrot costumes. However, as many critics, including Pauline Kael,Kael, Pauline (1971) 'Off with the statues' heads!' in Deeper into Movies, Calder Boyars noted, the treatment diminished the effect of the numbers of deaths, which appear only fleetingly. Nonetheless, Deighton's final sequence, ending in a helicopter shot of thousands of war graves is regarded as one of the most memorable moments of the film. According to Attenborough, 16,000 white crosses had to be hammered into individually dug holes due to the hardness of the soil. Although this is effective in symbolising the scale of death, the number of crosses was in fact fewer than the number of deaths in a single battle: depicting the actual number killed in the entire war would have required the scale to have been replicated more than 1000 times.
The film was shot in the summer of 1968 in Sussex, mostly in the Brighton area. Many of the extras were local people, but a great many were students from the University of Sussex, Falmer, on the outskirts of the town. The film's locations included the West Pier (now gutted by fire and wrecked), Ditchling Beacon, Sheepcote Valley (the trench sequences), Old Bayham Abbey, near Frant (the church parade), Brighton station and Ovingdean (where thousands of crosses were erected for the classic finale).
The song The song was written by J. P. Long and Maurice Scott in 1917 and was part of the repertoire of music hall star and male impersonator Ella Shields.Max Arthur (2001) When This Bloody War Is Over. London, Piatkus: 47 The first verse and the chorus follow:
Two pre-musical renditions, one from 1918, can be found at Firstworldwar.com.firstworldwar.com Almost all of the songs featured in the film also appear on the CD41 album series Oh! It's a Lovely War (four volumes).
Release The film had its premiere at the Paramount Theatre on Piccadilly Circus in London on 10 April 1969 before opening to the public the following day.
Reception