Oh! What a Lovely War
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| Oh! What a Lovely War | |
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 Oh! What a Lovely War movie poster |
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| Directed by | Richard Attenborough |
| Produced by | Richard Attenborough Brian Duffy |
| Written by | Len Deighton |
| Starring | John Mills John Gielgud Laurence Olivier Michael Redgrave Maggie Smith Susannah York |
| Cinematography | Gerry Turpin |
| Editing by | Kevin Connor |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 10 March 1969 (UK release) |
| Running time | 144 min |
| IMDb profile | |
Oh! What a Lovely War is a stage musical and 1969 musical film. The title is derived from the music hall song Oh! It's a Lovely War, which is one of the major numbers in the productions.
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[edit] Radio musical documentary
Charles Chilton[1], producer of the film, created a radio musical of World War I songs called The Long Long Trail (1962), named for the popular music hall song, There's a long, long trail a winding[2]. The piece was a radio documentary that used facts and statistics, juxtaposed with songs of the time, as an ironic critique of the reality of the war[3].
[edit] Stage musical
Joan Littlewood created a stage adaptation at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, in 1963 as a production by her Theatre Workshop. The play was based on The Donkeys by historian Alan Clark, with some scenes adapted from The Good Soldier Švejk by Czech humorist Jaroslav Hašek. The play was an ensemble production with no "stars" as such, but featured members of the company, such as Brian Murphy, Victor Spinetti and Glynn Edwards playing multiple roles. The play opened at the Theatre Royal on 19 March 1963, the production transferred intact to Wyndham's Theatre in June, the same year[3]. This satire on World War I (and by extension against war in general), was a surprise hit, and the stage musical was adapted by the BBC for radio more than once
The stage show is traditionally performed in pierrot costumes, and features such World War I-era songs as It's a Long Way to Tipperary, Pack up Your Troubles and Keep the Home Fires Burning. Harsh images of war and shocking statistics are usually projected onto the backdrop, however, providing a contrast with the comedy of the action taking place before it.
[edit] Film
In 1969 Richard Attenborough transformed it into a film. His star-studded cast included Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Jack Hawkins, Corin Redgrave, Michael Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Maggie Smith, Ian Holm, Malcolm McFee, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Nanette Newman, Edward Fox, Susannah York, John Clements, Phyllis Calvert and Maurice Roëves. This film has been released on DVD.
[edit] Film Synopsis
Oh! What A Lovely War summarizes and comments on the story of World War One, strongly using popular songs of the time. Many of these songs are much older popular songs that have been sarcastically re-worded by the soldiers serving on the front lines. Made in 1969, the film is as much a comment on the Vietnam War as the war it depicts.
The film uses a variety of symbolic settings to portray vast summations of historical and societal forces at work. Brighton's West Pier, as a location, represents the First World War, with the British public entering at the turnstiles, and General Haig selling tickets. The protagonists are named as the Smith family; which serve as allegorical representations of the working and middle classes of the nation. The film follows several young Smith men through their experiences in the trenches, most notably Freddy (Malcolm McFee), Harry (Colin Farrell) and George (Maurice Roeves).
The opening sequence is set in a wrought-iron building intended to not look like a real location. This use of Brechtian staging illustrates the ruling class' fundamental disconnect from the realities of war as diplomatic farces, galas, and events involving the aristocracies of many European nations are shown only in this location throughout the film. As various diplomats and aristocrats walk over a huge map of Europe summarising the treaties, nationalism, and lust for expanding empire that were factors leading to the war, the scene ends with a group photo of the upper class being taken by an unnamed photographer. He hands out two red poppies to the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife and takes a picture. As the flash goes off, they fall over dead as he declares they have been assassinated.
The start of the war in 1914 is shown as a parade of optimism. A band playing patriotic music rouses citizens lounging by the beach to rally round it and follow it - some even literally boarding a bandwagon. They are led to the idea of war, illustrated on film as a the cheerful seaside carnival on Brighton West Pier. The first Battle of Mons is similarly cheerfully depicted yet more realistic in portrayal. Both scenes are flooded in pleasant sunshine. When the casualties start to mount, a shocked theatre audience is rallied by singing "Are We Downhearted? No!", a song which attempts to express the English psyche of the moment: "While we have Jack upon the sea/And Tommy on the land/We needn't fret".
The curtains on the stage lift to reveal several attractive young women dressed in frilled yellow dresses who recruit a volunteer army. They appeal to the patriotism of the crowd in the 'Roedean' section, singing "We Don't Want To Lose You, But We Think You Ought To Go." Maggie Smith then enters a lone spotlight as the curtain is drawn, and lures the roused but still doubtful young men in the audience into "taking the King's Shilling" by singing a song about how every day she has sex with different men in uniform, and that "On Saturday I'm willing, if you'll only take the shilling, to make a man of any one of you." The young men take to the stage and are quickly moved offstage and into military life.
As scenes from the war are depicted with less symbolism, the red poppy crops up again as a symbol of impending death, often being handed to a soldier about to be sent to die on the front lines. These scenes are juxtaposed with the white wrought-iron building which now houses the top military brass and the pier. There is now a scoreboard showing the loss of life and 'yards gained,'
1915 is depicted as darkly contrasting in tone. Many shots of a parade of wounded men illustrate an endless stream of grim, hopeless faces. Black humour among these soldiers has now replaced the enthusiasm of the early days. "There's A Long, Long Trail A-Winding" captures the new mood of despair, and the scene with the soldiers filing along in torrential rain in miserable conditions looks less like a hyperbolic musical and more like a gritty realistic portrayal of war. Red poppies provide the only bright color in these scenes. We also see English soldiers on leave and recovering from wounds, often singing songs about wanting to stay home and no longer fight. There is a scene of English soldiers drinking in an estaminet. The chanteuse (Pia Colombo) leads them in a jolly chorus of "The Moon Shines Bright On Charlie Chaplin, a reworking of an American song, then shifts the mood back to darker tone by singing a soft and somber versions of "Adieu la vie.
A pan-religious service is held in a ruined abbey. A priest tells the gathered masses of soldiers that each religion has endorsed the war by way of allowing soldiers to eat pork if Jewish, red meat on Sundays if Catholic, and work through the sabbath if in service of the war for all religions. He also mentions the Dalai Lama has blessed the war effort.
1916 passes, and the film's tone darkens again. The songs contain contrasting tones of wistfulness, stoicism, and resignation; including "The Bells Of Hell", "If The Sergeant Steals Your Rum, Never Mind" and "Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire". The wounded are laid out in ranks at the field station, a stark contrast to the healthy rows of young men who entered the War. Harry Smith's silently-suffering face is often lingered upon by the camera.
The Americans arrive, but are shown only in the 'disconnected reality' of the pier and white iron building, singing (in travesty of Cohan) "And we won't come back - we'll be buried over there!" Freddy notices with disgust that after three years of this nightmare, he is literally back where he started, fighting at Mons.
As the Armistice is sounding, Freddy is the last one to die. The film closes with a long slow pan out that ends in an aerial view of soldiers' graves, dizzying in their geometry and scale, as the voices of the dead sing, "We'll Never Tell Them".
[edit] Themes and Social Commentary of the Film
Most visited in the film is the sense of fundamental class differences. The symbolic settings of the pier and the white iron building show all the upper classes completely disengaged from the harsh realities of the war and the effects their decisions have upon the ones doing the fighting. Wounded men from the lower ranks have to wait for treatment, but officers have taxis laid on to take them to hospital. A wounded man arrives back in England, relieved to be out of the hell of war, and is told by a nurse, "Don't worry - we'll soon have you back at the Front". Upper-class war dodgers carry on as before, but they think they are making noble sacrifices - "I'm not using my German wine - not while the War's on". The staff officer who visits the Front is patently unfamiliar with life there, and desperate to get away, but happy enough to have the men live (and die) in these conditions.
There is one scene in which the war brings an aristocrat to converse with one of his retainers, but the conversation is hollow and awkward, as if the men speak different languages. The working-class men in the trenches fraternise with their German 'brothers', and a staff officer in the comfort and safety of England punishes them for their inappropriate behaviour. The pacifist who addresses the workers on the pier falls foul of the crowd's jeered and screamed patriotism.
The religious service set in a crumbling abbey points to the lack of moral foundations of the many religions who 'endorse' the war by way of the priest's statements.
[edit] Film Production
The 1969 film transferred the mise-en-scene completely into the cinematic domain, with elaborate sequences shot at West Pier, Brighton, elsewhere in Brighton and on the South Downs, interspersed with motifs from the stage production. These included the 'cricket' scoreboards showing the number of dead, but Attenborough did not use the pierrot costumes. However, as many critics, including Pauline Kael[4], noted, the treatment diminished the effect of the numbers of deaths, which appear only fleetingly. Nonetheless Attenborough's final sequence, ending in a crane shot of hundreds of war graves, each individually hammered into the South Downs chalk for the shot, is regarded as one of the most memorable moments of the film.
[edit] The song
The song was originally part of the repertoire of music hall star and male impersonator Ella Shields. These are the lyrics:
- Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war,
- Who wouldn't be a soldier, eh?
- Oh, it's a shame to take the pay;
- As soon as reveille is gone,
- We feel just as heavy as lead,
- But we never get up till the sergeant
- Brings us breakfast up to bed.
- Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war,
- What do we want with eggs and ham,
- When we've got plum and apple jam?
- Form fours, right turn,
- How shall we spend the money we earn?
- Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war.
- Up to your waist in water,
- Up to your eyes in slush,
- Using the kind of language,
- That makes the sergeant blush.
- Who wouldn't join the army?
- That's what we all inquire;
- Don't we pity the poor civilian,
- Sitting beside the fire.
- Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war,
- Who wouldn't be a soldier, eh?
- Oh, it's a shame to take the pay;
- As soon as reveille is gone,
- We feel just as heavy as lead,
- But we never get up till the sergeant
- Brings us breakfast up to bed.
- Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war,
- What do we want with eggs and ham,
- When we've got plum and apple jam?
- Form fours, right turn,
- How shall we spend the money we earn?
- Oh, oh, oh, it's a lovely war.
Two pre-musical renditions, one from 1918, can be found at http://www.firstworldwar.com/audio/ohitsalovelywar.htm
[edit] External links and References
- ^ Charles Chilton had been personally affected by the war, his father having been killed before he was born.
- ^ There's a long, long trail a winding 1913, by Stoddart King (1889-1933) and Alonzo Elliot (1891-1964)
- ^ a b The Cambridge History of British Theatre pp 397-401 Jane Milling, Peter Thomson, Joseph W. Donohue (2004 Cambridge University Press) ISBN 0521651328 accessed 19 Oct 2007
- ^ Kael, Pauline (1971) 'Off with the statues' heads!' in Deeper into Movies, Calder Boyars
[edit] References in popular culture
- BBC Radio 4's 15 Minute Musical portrayed Tony Blair's premiership in the style of Oh! What a Lovely War in a September 2006 episode entitled "Oh! What a Lovely Blair"
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