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Oh! What a Lovely War

Play trailer Poster for Oh! What a Lovely War G 1969 2h 24m Musical Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
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75% Tomatometer 16 Reviews 73% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
World War I gets the musical treatment in a series of a song-and-dance vignettes. Throughout it follows the Smith family -- stand-ins for the British working class -- who initially view the war with sunny optimism. But after the Smith boys -- Jack (Malcolm McFee), Freddie , Harry (Maurice Roëves) and George (Paul Shelley) -- witness the reality of trench warfare, their illusions are shattered, and the best they can hope for is survival.
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Oh! What a Lovely War

Critics Reviews

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Pauline Kael The New Yorker 02/05/2024
Oh! What a Lovely War repeats the satirical forms already exhausted in Richard Lester's How I Won the War and Tony Richardson's The Charge of the Light Brigade. Go to Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 07/03/2018
4/4
It is an elaborately staged tableau, a dazzling use of the camera to achieve essentially theatrical effects. And judged on that basis, Richard Attenborough has given us a breathtaking evening. Go to Full Review David Parkinson Empire Magazine 08/25/2014
3/5
The huge potential of this all-star vehicle was mainly squandered through a lack of subtlety or irony. Go to Full Review Eddie Harrison film-authority.com 02/12/2023
4/5
…It’s fast, often funny and always entertaining as a musical, and as a record of the thoughts of the many who sacrificed their lives for the cause, it’s still one of the greatest anti-war films ever… Go to Full Review Richard Whitehall Los Angeles Free Press 01/16/2020
It wears a heart so bleedingly on its sleeve one is almost blackmailed into praising it. Go to Full Review Penelope Houston The Spectator 07/18/2018
It may seem churlish to praise a film one admires not so much for what it gets right as for what it manages to avoid getting wrong. But Oh! What a Lovely War is perhaps a special case. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Andrea P @XAK179X Dec 19 The futility of war Very current See more Alec B 01/09/2024 The Brechtian representational elements work better than you'd think and everyone, from major star cameos to character actors are perfectly cast. See more Andy F 06/06/2023 An absolutely fabulous telling of the stupidity of World War I - accompanied by the songs of those that were there. Absolutely magnificent. See more 11/12/2019 The Brechtian representational elements work better than you'd think and everyone, from major star cameos to character actors are perfectly cast. See more 07/11/2019 Has to be top marks. Richard Attenborough's Masterwork combining the genuine horror of WW! with the genuine humour of the men in the trenches. Brilliantly constructed movie around songs of the time and who can forget that final horrifying scene peaceful though it is. Packed with wonderful mostly British stars who as expected give wonderful performances. See more 05/24/2017 Scathing with a killing satire of a glossy august musical, Sir Richard Attenborough's directorial debut is a cri de coeur against the lunacy, futility and bestiality of World War One never before seen. See more Read all reviews
Oh! What a Lovely War

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Cast & Crew

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Richard Attenborough

Director

Ralph Richardson

Sir Edward Grey

Laurence Olivier

Field Marshal Sir John French

John Gielgud

Count Leopold Von Berchtold

Kenneth More

Kaiser Wilhelm II

John Clements

Gen. von Moltke

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Oh! What a Lovely War

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Movie Info

Synopsis World War I gets the musical treatment in a series of a song-and-dance vignettes. Throughout it follows the Smith family -- stand-ins for the British working class -- who initially view the war with sunny optimism. But after the Smith boys -- Jack (Malcolm McFee), Freddie , Harry (Maurice Roëves) and George (Paul Shelley) -- witness the reality of trench warfare, their illusions are shattered, and the best they can hope for is survival.
Director
Richard Attenborough
Producer
Brian Duffy, Richard Attenborough
Screenwriter
Charles Chilton, Len Deighton
Production Co
Accord Productions
Rating
G
Genre
Musical, Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 11, 2017
Runtime
2h 24m
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