HOW I WON THE WAR

Ravaged by critics at the time, How I Won the War is by no means a wretched film. It is a big rambly and slapsticky, with that sort of late-60s style of ADD pop filmmaking. But it is quirky and funny, and very clearly anti-war.

Despite John Lennon's face famously being associated with this film--on the cover of Rolling Stone, bedecked in a soldier's helmet--he is really only a supporting character in the story. Scene-stealer? Yes, but I expected much more of him here!

Taking place in WWII, the story centers around one particularly inept British officer, Lieutenant Goodbody (Michael Crawford, who went on to great fame as Broadway's Phantom of the Opera). Goodbody literally has to practice putting one foot in front of the other to march, so you can already sense that this film is a war spoof. Full of snappy one-liners, mainly insults and babbling confusion, this is really broad, goofy comedy.

Most of the action takes place as Goodbody and his men end up in North Africa, where everything goes to hell in a handbasket, including one soldier turning completely green (later complemented by a pink soldier), another fellow flipping out and taking off his clothes, and the men being assigned the ridiculously pointless task of setting up a cricket pitch.

Crawford, reminded me of a young Michael Palin, all hysteric and babbling in his pale, skinny British gawkiness. He's a know it all that knows absolutely nothing. How I Won the War skewers the military in this way, especially the higher ups. But rather than completely offending the seriousness of the matter, there are occasional images of real footage, as well as actual death in the film.

At one point, there is a significant (and I'm sure very purposeful irony) as Goodbody thoughtfully muses that this will be the last world war fought by civilians. And at that very moment while the movie was being filmed, young civilian men across the world were being drafted to fight in Vietnam. In that sense, How I Won the War shows that even though war is absurd, men's need to fight wars will always be present.

DVD NOTES

The DVD includes an original trailer for the film.