How I Won the War

An anti-war film in disguise... As a "fan" of war films but also a "peacenik" I love this movie. Aside from the fact that i am an overtly biased Beatles' fan this film is an intellectual riot. John Lennon co-stars with the star of Hello Dolly as members of a British military unit saddled with the ridiculous duty of building a cricket pitch during the invasion of North Africa! Filled with ironic black war humor, it suffers a little from the predictable muddle of most 60's films.

Something interesting to note is that John Lennon is first seen wearing his trademark round spectacles in this movie. Having been asked (for some reason) to wear the glasses for the film he continued to wear them for the rest of his life!

This movie is a must for all Lennon fans.

Although (unfairly) ravaged by critics at the time and so generally dismissed ever since, HOW I WON THE WAR is both a brilliant anti-war film and anti war film film (much more so than the usually heralded M*A*S*H). Filled with biting satire and brilliant performances from Michael Crawford, John Lennon, Roy Kinnear, Ronald Lacey, Michael Hordern and, well, the entire cast, HIWTW was perhaps a bit too odd for 1967 audiences who expected perhaps a more madcap adventure, but today it deserves not only a rethink - but a reissue on DVD. (Why this wonderful movie is not available on DVD (at least in the US) is yet another slap in its face.) Richard Lester and writer Charles Wood (who also wrote HELP! for the Beatles) have crafted a brilliant black comedy that easily stands with Dr Strangelove. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, granted, but if you forget your preconceptions and let it wash over you, you will be richly rewarded. RELEASE IT ON DVD!

Incompetent Lieutenant Goodbody leads a group of recruits who grow to hate their commander. They train in a mock up of WWI trench warfare. They land on North Africa to battle the Nazis. The biggest draw is John Lennon playing a supporting character. It's a surreal anti-war dark comedy. Director Richard Lester uses various methods including breaking the 4th wall and doing a faux documentary. I am often reluctant to rate foreign comedies when half of it is lost in translation. In this one, the thick British accents and unknowable foreignness make much of it incomprehensible. Mostly, it's not that funny. The bigger war footage is recycled while there are some smaller action. There is an anti-war message but it's a muddle of outlandish surrealism. On its most basic element, it's hard to follow and not that funny.

No, this not a "lost gem", as some reviewers excitedly proclaim. Far from it.

"How I Won the War? I Bored Them to Death". Main deficiency: a very boring movie. Another deficiency: the gags are practically all unfunny. It's a typical 60s British comedy; good cast, but an atrocious script. Well filmed, though; visually it's pretty decent. However, good for only one or two chuckles. And it was more like a hopeful chuckle, sort of like "I hope this is a sign that something genuinely funny is coming up soon". "How I Can Bore You" would be a more appropriate title. Very disappointing.

A little word about John Lennon, for all you left-wing Lennon fans. (The music is great, hence that's not the issue here.) Lennon was a working-class kid with very little education and even less natural intelligence. His pathetic attempts at "spiritual contentment" - or whatever he used to call it - with that charlatan of an Indian guru sect-leader, plus his marriage to the even bigger charlatan, the totally talent-free Yoko Ono, prove this without an iota of a doubt. He was a very gullible person, what Americans would call "a sucker". But if that isn't enough, his meddling in international politics proved that he had also completely lost his mind by the time he left "The Beatles" and the 70s arrived. Drugs? Too much fame going to his head?

He was also a stark-raving hypocrite, as most "do-gooders" are. All that the world's do-gooders care about is their fame and their image; after all, they have huge EGOS to feed. An example... Michael Caine, in his autobiography "What's It All About?", relates the following episode from the mid-60s when he met Lennon. They were in a luxurious French hotel, desperately looking for a bathroom. All the bathrooms were taken. So John went to a room and urinated from a window. Caine saw him and said angrily that John had stained the curtains. And what was John's reply to this?

"They're rich. F*** 'em."

Of course, the fact that he himself was rich at that point (not to mention later) was of no consequence. Because if someone had decided to stain HIS curtains, in HIS home with urine or excrement, I guess he would have blown his top, screaming injustice. And he'd probably have called the police. The "pigs". Yes, he was so anti-authority, except of course when he needed them to serve HIS little purposes. Just another "do-gooder" hypocrite...

"All we are say-ing, is give peace a chance". If peace is responsible for "heroes" like Lennon, then I'm all for war.

For my review of "Imagine", go to: http://rateyourmusic.com/collection/Fedor8/

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I just saw this film for the first time last Friday night at an American Cinematheque screening in L.A. I had pretty low expectations for it but was curious to see John Lennon in an acting role. You could see this film as a pre-cursor to M*A*S*H, but I think that's giving it too much credit.

In short, the film succeeded in meeting my low expectations. I've seen my share of British cinema and particularly a lot of Monty Python, which this film vaguely recalls, and this was a challenging film for me to watch in terms of understanding the humor, the language, and the slang being used by the characters. The bits of slapstick are good, but there aren't enough of them to save the film. Michael Crawford is really the star of the film, and I discovered that a little of him goes a long way. Ninety minutes of him is too much. As for Lennon, he's mostly a small supporting character, although he's given virtually equal billing with Crawford. If you saw Help! or A Hard Day's Night, you know a little about John's personality, and it shines through in the same way here.

I'd recommend watching this at home on video, where you can stop it and return to it if it gets tiresome, which it probably will. I understand that it's due for a DVD release sometime soon.