Customer Reviews

How I Won the War

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Many people watch this movie for the same reason as did I: they were Beatles fans and wanted to see Lennon. I was about 13 when I stayed up until about 5am watching this movie on cable, and, for one thing, being exhausted really adds an element to it, but I think that people who are disappointed in it because they were expecting something different are missing the point. I though the movie was a brilliant farce and is one of the greatest British comedies ever. Keep in mind that British comics have very little compuction about what they do. I thought that Lennon's performance was very natural and irreverent, just as it was in A Hard Days' Night and Help! and I certainly wasn't disappointed in it in the least. Crawford was surprisingly thin, but also gave a great performance. The movie is just meant to be a weird, eye-opening experience and one must approach it from that angle. Granted, it isn't for everyone, but all the people whom I've shown the movie loved it and got a copy for themselves. So, if you're a wee-teensy-bit off-kilter and daring when it comes to movies, watch this one several times, because you catch new stuff everytime (mostly due to the actors speaking so fast). It's one of my favorites.

Richard Lester created in "How I Won the War" a film that simply cannot be categorized.

Symbolism abounds in the film, and in alternating instances, its overtness and its subtlety can prove confusing. For this reason, the film needs to be viewed more than once.

The blatant attack on the military mindset is brilliantly executed. In swift strokes he makes a mockery of military officers and warmongers; one scene in particular has two British officers exchanging bubble gum cards of war scenes, with one insisting in a haughty accent "I want school bombing ... I do."

Michael Crawford and John Lennon are joined by an excellent supporting cast, including Victor Spinetti the brilliant (but unfortunately "late") Leo McKern. Crawford plays the role with just the right amount of smarminess, egoism and overt stupidity that it calls for. Lennon and McKern's innocence causes the closing segment to be doubly powerful.

Overall ... a fine film worth seeing, especially for any fans of social commentary.

Rented it AGAIN and watched it wearing headphones. I understood every word and loved it. I will now spring for the the big bucks to buy it. This movie is a classic...still Richard Lester madness but that is part of its message. War is madness.I recommend this movie...with headphones.

Wasn't it St. Anna who said, "those who forget old movies are condemned to have a minor part in the remake"? Obviously the crew who brought us Iraq never saw this film. I've been waiting for years to see this again [having been disappointed by how badly Oh What a Lovely War! was dated] and it was worth the wait. Hard to remember this was before Monty Python, before Ricky Gervais, when Richard Lester just meant a bunch of floppy mops running around London [and Robert Hardy had just a bit part]

And, yes, Mr. Ebert, I do remember Lennon on the cover of Ramparts, but it didn't dilute the films impact then or now. Watch this as an antiwar movie like All Quiet or Strangelove, or watch it as a surreal black comedy - "just put them under the taps,luv "- or just try to absorb it at all levels. It worked then [rememeber, in 1967, the NY Times, among other liberal voices, was just beginning to realize what Vietnam was doing to us. ] and it works now

"How I Won the War," starring Michael Crawford and John Lennon, was a strange movie that I enjoyed watching over and over again as a teenager, desperately trying to understand exactly what the heck was going on at any given time. Now that I'm older and wiser, I still have no idea! However, this quirky British dark comedy will force you to laugh for reasons you may or may not understand. It's just crazy. One of my goals in life is to become enlightened and understand this movie before I die (which hopefully won't ruin it).

anyone who sees this film will never be able to watch a war movie again without remembering the questions posed by richard lester in this film. lester holds accountable the military traditions of all countries, and in no way spares his own england. this movie is a must see for any serious student of warfare and its part in the human experience....this is a great film!

All I can say is that when I saw this movie in 1968 I had no idea what to expect and, taken by surprise, we laughed our socks off from beginning to end. I'm tempted to get the DVD but it's a possibility that I'll be disappointed all these years later. Remember that this was before Monty Python, and though that kind of surrealistic comedy had been around since the Goons, this apparently mainstream movie (it wasn't) came as a brilliant and hilarious ambush. I can imagine that many moviegoers would have been completely mystified. I think I was also discovering that I like my humour to be dark, and you don't get much darker than a war comedy. The combination of the surrealism and the black, black comedy was very potent at the time, and made the anti-war message very tellingly. The cast is great - some of Britain's best actors of the day, including a Beckett favourite JacK MacGowran - and Lennon doesn't do a lot but is Lennon and that's enough. It would be very poignant to see his demise in the film post 1980: "I knew this would happen - you knew it too, didn't you?"

Richard Lester's war satire "How I Won The War" is, unfortunately, most famous for John Lennon's only solo performance as an actor in a film. That's too bad because Lester's film which chronicles World War II as seen from the eyes of the often inept aptly named Lt. Ernest Goodbody (Michael Crawford)is quite a good one. Told by Goodbody as he is being held prisoner by the Germans, it's a miracle that anyone UNDER his command survived given his inability and, dare I say it, jingoistic attitude.

As much a broader satire of war as it was about the Vietnam War, Lester's film may lack some of the inherent charm of some of his other films ("The Three Musketeers", "A Hard Day's Night", "Help!", "Petulia", "Robin and Marian")but the film still holds up remarkably well. Making a satire on a dire subject like war or the end of the world requires not just the right attitude but the right skills to mix comedic insanity with a dry sensibility ("Dr. Strangelove"). "How I Won the War" misses as often as it hits its target but when it is on target it's very witty.

The film looks extremely good in its latest DVD incarnation which is from a newly remastered transfer supervised by Richard Lester himself. My only complaint is that this really should have been issued on a regular DVD not a DVD-R. While the quality is high for this particularly DVD-R they tend not to stand up to wear and tear or last as long as regular DVDs. If like me you don't want to shell out (pardon the pun)again for this release, you may want to search out the previous release (although the transfer wasn't quite as good from what I recall)which was released on a regular DVD.

The disc comes with the theatrical trailer for the film and some people received a commemerative book with behind-the-scenes photos. Perhaps that's an amazon exclusive because my edition did not feature the book either that or the retailer I ordered it from forgot to include it.

"How I Won The War" will be of interest to fans of Lester's other films and Beatles fans for Lennon's solo acting appearence (although he is just a supporting player despite having him on the cover of the box). The movie is a solid satire with a number of witty moments.

Under Richard Lester's direction, Patrick Ryan's "How I Won the War", which he wrote with Ernest Goodbody(portrayed by a lean, freckled, and witless young Michael Crawford)is brought to the big screen.
Not having read the book on which the darkly comic film was based, I will note that the film stands on its own as a notable feature of the British anti-war film genre, during which an artistic community depict the very war which imperiled them during their earliest years of life as a device to express their objection to U.S. involvment in Vietnam.Inevitably the war depicted in the film, and the time of its release play key factors in the significance of this film, and given that the same destruction of life, families, and property take place in all wars, the film still has much relavance now.
In flashbacks, fantasy sequences, actual footage of World War II campaigns, and via Goodbody's stint in a German P.O.W. camp where he converses with the German officer, Odlebog(Karl Michael Vogler), we learn of his ordeal, and that of the ill-fated unit serving under him, including Gripweed(Beatle John Lennon, who though in reality going against military regulations, manages to keep a bit of his trademark shag hairdo), Clapper(Roy Kinnear)who worries about his wife's (Fanny Carby) infidelity, Juniper(Jack MacGowran), Transom (Lee Montague), and the non-compliant Melancholy Musketeer(Jack Hedley).
The objective of this unit --the 3rd Troop, the 4th Musketeers of a fictional regiment, is to set up an "Advanced Area Cricket Pitch" behind enemy lines in Tunisia. In fact, we catch our first glimpse of most of the principals on a lovely English cricket field before they go into uniform.
Goodbody is under the command of officer Grapple (Michael Hordern). In a scene where he takes his place in a trench before an entrance way with a triple 13 over it, we have our first omen of the dreadful situation at hand, and Goodbody's not having gone much further than Grammar School in a key factor in the disaster that is to come.
We periodically glimpse the homefront, but spend much time following these men through the desert of North Africa to the theme song from "Lawrence of Arabia".At one point they accidently shoot down an Allied plane, The Melancholy Musketeer is confronted for hiding when he should be performing his duties, and a series of events during which Goodbody proves to be an inept leader cost him one man after another. But their differently colored ghosts, dressed in World War I uniforms complete with puttees and pan-shaped helmets, return to perform their duties in silence.
A scene of a bullet-ridden and felled John Lennon in a German field, facing a camera, and saying, "You knew what was going to happen to me, didn't you?" would develop more ominous tones some thirteen years after this film's release.
Along for this misadventure (which Goodbody is too blind to view as such) are Ronald Lacey's Spool, James Cossin's Drogue, Alexander Knox as and American General, Robert Hardy as a British General, Bill Dysart as a paratrooper, and many others.
It all ends with a haunting reunion whose moral a contemporary audience of Vietnam War protesters could appreciate upon the revelation that one officer's so-called cowardly behavior resulted in his being the only other man in attendance.
While the absurdist style and skipping back and forth can make it difficult to watch, "How I Won the War" serves as a warning against the jingoism, megalomania, and arrogance of incompetent leaders in all areas of life.

Excellent film! Not about the John Lennon icon, the Beatles ("I don't believe in . . ."), popular music, or much else in the way of escapist diversion. It reminds me of Spike Milligan's "Mussolini" and " Hitler" "Downfall" works - and there's a reason for this: Lester (a younger cohort of Milligan) was an eight-year old kid during the blitz. For anyone who was in THAT molar-grind of remote-controlled war, how do you process that?
Our lives and bodies will be lucky if the response - from those who've been hurled into teeth of the current (2008) global nihilist feeding frenzy - is a satire as sublime as "How I Won the War." You'll bust a gut - and it may be a vital organ, like your liver, or somewhere to the north, or south, or east, or west of there.
Now if I could just get a Region 1 version of this for my US DVD player.