Oh! What A Lovely War – Special Edition (DVD)
Video: B- Audio: B- Extras: B Program: B-
Sir
Richard Attenborough’s 1969 feature film directorial debut, Oh! What a Lovely War, has finally made
it to DVD. There aren’t many movies that
occupy a space on the World War I musical list, as this piece does, and in fact
it might be the only movie musical set during the Great War. Boasting a stellar cast of some of Britain’s
greatest talents — Ian Holm, Dirk Bogarde, Lawrence Olivier, Ralph Richardson,
Maggie Smith and John Mills, to name a few (even Jane Seymour turns up in an
uncredited cameo performance) — Oh! What
a Lovely War, based on a play by Joan Littlewood and Charles Chilton,
follows British involvement in World War I through elaborate, fantastical set
pieces (a pier operates as the World War One amusement park, recruitment site
and headquarters for British officers), musical numbers based on period songs,
and the experiences of the Smith family, which sends all of its men to the
front.
There are
a couple points of interest with this movie.
One is that it’s Attenborough’s first crack at directing. He would win the Academy Award for direction
in 1982 for Gandhi (reviewed
elsewhere on this site) and watching his work here is revelatory as much for
planting the stylistic seeds of his later triumphs (Gandhi, Chaplin) as for
its lack of distinction between theater and cinema. On one hand, Attenborough humanizes the
inhumanity of the war by focusing not on the carnage but on the people in the
trenches. Bombs go off, bullets zip by,
but it’s always about the people and their reactions and their relationships to
one another and to the enemy. The scene
between British and German soldiers singing carols and, later, exchanging food,
alcohol and tobacco in No Man’s Land at Christmastime is an immensely powerful
moment. On the other hand, Attenborough at times adheres too strictly to the
machinations of the theater. The opening
scene, a stagy dramatization of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
the formation of allegiances and the beginning of the war, plays out like the
opening scene of a stage production. The
glistening white set, with its wrought iron and steel ribbing making it look
like the inside of a ship and its map of Europe carpet, is an excellent piece
of design. However, it serves a non-cinematic moment, a posturing of players on
the stage complete with a chorus of sorts, a winking-and-nodding character
nudging us along as we witness the outbreak of The Great War. It’s a glaring misstep from an otherwise
excellent director who becomes surer of his skills as the movie progresses.
The other
way to engage Oh! What a Lovely War
is through its place as a World War I musical.
The World War I piece of the equation is spot on. This is primarily due to the filmmakers’ (and
certainly playwrights’) commitment to accuracy.
After the credits, we are given the following piece of information: “The
principal statements made by the historical characters in this film are based
on documentary evidence and the words of the songs are those sung by the troops
during the First World War.” This is an
excellent thing to see because we’re set up for a picture that will sound
authentic rather than how some screenwriter thinks people in 1914 might have talked. For the most part, the actuality of what is
said is woven seamlessly into the movie.
One notable exception comes during the ill-conceived opening scene. Sir Edward Grey (Richardson), after hearing
of allegiances being made across Europe and judging war to be inevitable, says,
“The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in
our lifetime.” This is a fairly famous
quote, and when it’s coupled with an uncharacteristically stilted delivery from
Richardson, stands out as an “Oh, someone really did say that” moment.
As a
musical, the movie struggles a bit, mostly because of the expectations the term
“musical” brings. There are a few
traditional numbers in Oh! What a Lovely
War, but these come in fairly motivated forms: a recruitment song sung by
burlesque actresses at a dancehall, a lively song sung by a lady at a bar full
of troops, an upbeat song of triumph sung by a French soldier on a carousel at
the amusement park on the pier. The
other songs are equally motivated but they aren’t numbers. When a group of soldiers sing in the
trenches, for instance, it makes sense for them to be singing. There’s a war on, after all, and they’re
trying to liven their spirits. These
moments are more common, happening within the context of the scene as opposed
to parallel to it, and no one simply breaks into song because it tickles their
fancy to do so. In this way, to call
this movie a “musical” is a bit misleading, yet as a musical it expands the
genre’s boundaries, the way another British artist, Dennis Potter, would do
almost a decade later with Pennies From
Heaven.
Oh! What a Lovely War has quite the reputation in
Britain, as well it should, yet it’s relatively unknown in the United
States. Paramount’s DVD release might
not change the lack of American recognition, but it’s a start. The anamorphic widescreen presentation is
crisp and clean, with only the occasional mark showing up on the source
print. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
soundtrack leaves something to be desired, however. Dialogue is more common here than explosions,
but there is a lot of ambient sound that could use the space a 5.1 surround
mix.
There
aren’t many extras here despite Paramount calling this a “special collector’s
edition.” There are two features, a
commentary with Attenborough and a one-hour documentary about the making of the
movie, broken into three parts: “Welcome
to World War I,” “The Smith Family
Album” and “Keep the Home Fires
Burning.” The documentary covers a
lot of ground, with Attenborough going into excruciating detail about his love
of the movie, how it was made, how he got all the actors into it, and on and
on. Some of the actors and a couple
members of the crew appear as well, and while they’re interesting voices it’s
hard not to think that if they weren’t there Attenborough would go on and on
and on for the entirety of the documentary.
Bless his heart, the movie is still special to him and he’s still
excited about it.
Oh! What a Lovely War is a little long at 144 minutes,
and Attenborough, as an unseasoned director, tends to ramble on screen and play
it too close to the play, but it’s necessary nonetheless. It’s stark and brutal, the way any war film
should be, while sympathizing with the common man duped into being led to
slaughter and painting a none-too-flattering portrait of the commanding
officers, the way any anti-war film should.
Most importantly, it presents an interesting approach to dealing with
World War I on film — presenting it was a musical rather than a straight war
film — which is something not many movies, from Britain or the US, can claim.
- Dante A. Ciampaglia
