Oh! What a lovely war
Oh! What a Lovely War is a 1968 musical film revue about the First World War from Great Britain with satirical swipes. Directed by actor Richard Attenborough , who made his debut as a film director here, a wealth of highly respected British theater and film stars appeared in front of the camera in the roles of representatives of the European aristocracy and the acting World War II military, including the three pillars of the legendary London's Old Vic theaters Sir John Gielgud , Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir Ralph Richardson . The film is based on the stage musical of the same name by Charles Chilton , which was broadcast as a radio play The Long Long Trail in December 1961 and condensed into a play by Gerry Raffles in collaboration with Joan Littlewood in 1963.
action
The entire film is laid out like a great war revue with satirical undertones at the beginning and contemporary musical interludes, which seems like a single allegorical commentary on the murderous events of 1914–1918. The journey through time begins with the heads of state and their generals meeting each other in a fantasy location and talking to one another in a friendly manner. After a photographer presented the Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, two red poppies - symbols of the impending bloodshed and death - he took a group photo of everyone involved. Lightning illuminates the ensemble and the heir to the throne are dead.
This event has unforeseen consequences. The once good relations between those present break up: after an intrigue by his Foreign Minister Count Berchtold, Emperor Franz-Joseph is forced to declare war on the Serbs, Emperor Wilhelm II and Tsar Nikolaus proved to be incapable of facing their bellicose generals and strategists oppose. After Germany invaded Belgium, England, in the form of its Foreign Minister Sir Edward Gray, no longer sees any other option than the protective power of the invaded, neutral country to declare war on Germany for its part. Finally, in 1915, the Kingdom of Italy turned away from the old alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary and turned to the Entente, while the Ottoman Empire again decided to fight alongside Germany. This is the international starting point.
For the “little man on the street”, this initial situation does not seem dramatic at first; the war seems like an unexpected adventure to him. "Oh! What a Lovely War “is the motto everywhere. This is also the case for the average English family Smith, whose young men Jack, Freddie, Harry and George are soon drafted and sent to the front, into the trenches. But optimism and a thirst for adventure must soon give way to blood and tears, and the first doubts about the meaning of such a battle of nations arise. But there is still something to sing and dance to. After the Battle of Mons brought great losses to the British, the theater audience tries not to let the mood die too, and they cheerfully join in: “Are We Downhearted? No! ”(“ Are we down? No! ”). Choir girls perform and a music hall entertainer encourages the young men in uniform to take part and ambiguously promises to turn one of them into a “real man” on Saturday. But soon afterwards the reality looks different, it means: “March off to die!”. ... And the happy entertainer turns out to be a Xanthippe. Meanwhile, on Christmas 1914, there was a memorable encounter on the Belgian front: German soldiers within earshot of the enemy were singing German Christmas carols that the English liked. In a snow-white field you meet each other and, in a moment of fraternization longing for peace, exchange niceties and schnapps before the high-ranking military officers put an abrupt end to this peaceful "ghost".
The war progresses, and death moves its blood-soaked paths as mercilessly as it is boundless. The mood on the home front is becoming increasingly heated. The suffragette and peace activist Sylvia Pankhurst railed in front of someone hostile to her against the futility of war sui generis. Shrieking whistles drive them down from their podium. Soon red poppies are going to soldiers in abundance, a sign of their imminent mass death. The war has now drawn the faces of the men who were still hopeful and optimistic last year. Gray figures parading with numerous gunshot wounds, black humor has replaced the joy and lust for war as the supposed “last great adventure of a man”. There's a Long, Long Trail a-Winding is the accompaniment to this new darkness. And the red poppies don't want to end. A singer joins the song The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin to make the mood happier again, but finally she sounds the much truer song “Adieu la vie”. Meanwhile, the British are taking the first steps after their military failures and replacing the hapless Field Marshal French with General Haig. When he inspects British soldiers with a swollen chest and pithy words, their Australian comrades scoff at it by intoning They were only playing leapfrog to the tune of John Brown .
This war, which has not been “lovely” for a long time, is now also being questioned by the church. In a dilapidated abbey where an interfaith service is being held, a priest recalls that all religions once approved this war, even the Dalai Lama. The war year 1916 was particularly heavy on both sides. The mood is getting gloomy, accompanied by the songs 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 . Soldier Harry Smith has long since given up hope and indulges in dull, deep gray thoughts. When the Americans entered the war in 1917 and threw large numbers of fresh soldiers to the front, hope flashed again on the Entente side. The American quickly interrupts the consultations of the British General Staff, and the song Over There is sung with the slightly different ending line, which also does not give rise to hope: "And we won't come back - we'll be buried over there!" "And we will not come back - we will be buried over there!"). Jack Smith notes with disgust that after three years of relentless fighting he has got back to exactly where it all began for him: in Mons.
Fall 1918. The armistice is approaching, and Jack of all people is the last to fall. Again a splash of red blood turns out to be a poppy. Jack's mind wanders across the battlefields, and suddenly he finds himself in the room where the statesmen are discussing the upcoming peace order in Europe. But nobody notices his presence. Finally he finds his comrades on a secluded mountain slope who seem to be lying peacefully in the grass. But they are just as dead as he is and eventually turn into crosses. From above you can see a sea of graves, and the song We'll Never Tell Them (" We'll never tell them") can be heard from the voices of the dead .
Production notes
Oh! What a Lovely War was created in the summer of 1968 in several locations in Sussex , especially in and around Brighton . The premiere was, depending on the source, on March 10 or April 10, 1969 in London; in Germany the strip is said to have started seven years later, but an exact first performance cannot be determined.
Awards
The Golden Globe in 1969 went to Gerry Turpin for best cinematography. The 1970 BAFTA Film Award went to Laurence Olivier for best supporting role, to Don Ashton for best film architecture, to Gerry Turpi for best cinematography, to Anthony Mendleson for best costume designs and to Don Challis and Simon Kaye for best sound.
Reviews
The reactions of international critics were rather restrained and quite mixed. Often criticized was an unclear line of direction, a constant change between satirical and bloody-realistic elements and a tiresome boredom given the length of the film. Here are a few examples:
- Leonard Maltin found in the Movie & Video Guide that the film was “beautifully designed” and “unrestrained cinematic”, but also “too lengthy to leave an anti-war impression”.
- Halliwell's Film Guide, on the other hand, said that the flick was “an all-star attempt that only succeeds as a patchwork” and “the piece only works if it becomes cinematic”. Conclusion: with Oh! What a Lovely War gives “a lot of joy, but also just as many yawns”.
- In 1977 you could read in The New Yorker that this "musical mockery is there to stimulate your own feelings, arouse nostalgia and to make you react to the profanity of the battles and bloodshed".
- The film service saw in Oh! What a Lovely Was a "satirical theater revue that stages the British contribution to World War I episodically in the form of a soldier's song musical, partly as a cabaret fairground hype and partly as a realistic front-line event".
Individual evidence
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 953
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 749
- ↑ Oh! What a lovely war. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 2, 2017 .
Web links
- Oh! What a Lovely War in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Oh! What a Lovely War in the online movie database
- Oh! What a Lovely War at Rotten Tomatoes (English)