Oh! What a Lovely War

G

1969

2 hr. 24 min.

Musical

Comedy

List

75%

16 Reviews

Tomatometer

73%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

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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Alec B

The Brechtian representational elements work better than you'd think and everyone, from major star cameos to character actors are perfectly cast.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/09/24

Full Review

Andy F

An absolutely fabulous telling of the stupidity of World War I - accompanied by the songs of those that were there. Absolutely magnificent.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The Brechtian representational elements work better than you'd think and everyone, from major star cameos to character actors are perfectly cast.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

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.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A surreal critic of war, but this comic style which is just as much a satire enhances the ludicrously pointless loss of life the 'Great War' was, and the pompous attitudes of the British elite towards it.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

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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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Pauline Kael

New Yorker

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.

Feb 5, 2024

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

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.

Rated: 4/4

Jul 3, 2018

Full Review

David Parkinson

Empire Magazine

The huge potential of this all-star vehicle was mainly squandered through a lack of subtlety or irony.

Rated: 3/5

Aug 25, 2014

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…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…

Rated: 4/5

Feb 12, 2023

Full Review

Richard Whitehall

Los Angeles Free Press

It wears a heart so bleedingly on its sleeve one is almost blackmailed into praising it.

Jan 16, 2020

Full Review

Penelope Houston

The Spectator

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.

Jul 18, 2018

Full Review

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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
Screenwriter: Charles Chilton, Len Deighton
Production Co: Accord Productions
Rating: G
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 11, 2017

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