User Reviews

Take a movie like this. You may have heard somewhere that it was pretty bad. But, being an inquisitive sort, you visit IMDb first anyway. Here, you are greeted with plenty of reviews that tell you that it's not so bad - some even call it a masterpiece and a hidden gem.

Then, you watch it and the cold hard reality hits you - it's just not that good of a movie. The first half an hour seemed to take about four. Yes, there are "innovative" aspects such as tinting people and scenes differently, but ultimately this is cheap and adds little.

There are far better anti-war films of the same period. "How I Won the War" with a big star (Lennon) was made in 1967. Steve McQueen's "The Sand Pebbles" of 1966 is, although a much longer movie, an infinitely better anti-war film that managed to convey all of the same philosophical points as HIWtW (and more) and do it with subtlety, class, and genuine humanity.

The saving grace of HIWtW should have been comedy - absurdist or otherwise. The ingredients were there - war and military life are just asking for the application of ironic and observationalist British wit. Alas, while the characters spend most of the time speaking in that fast British way as if they were saying something as clever as, say, Monty Python or Fawlty Towers, what they actually say is substantially less interesting. Pity.

This film is not particularly worth watching.

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.

This is one of those weird 60s movies. I only watched it to see Lennon but it wasn't worth it. It's not funny, it doesn't flow, it makes no sense and I would have been embarrassed working on it. Don't waste your time.

I would have gave this film a 1 but the directing and camera work I though were pretty good. First off let me say this does not star John Lennon as they imply, he plays a small role in this film. This is a gag they use to sell a movie, Call it Murder (Midnight) with Humphrey Bogart comes to mind the only difference between the two is Midnight was a good movie. The movie jumps around a lot and is kind of hard to follow and if there is a message of anti war it's not a very clear one but this is the baby boomer era so you have to consider the source. There are some humorous parts to the film but for the most part it seemed to me that it was a bunch of rambling on by the characters in the movie with some Monty Pythonish humor thrown in. I was going to buy this film for my collection but was glad to see it on Netflix so I did not have to waste any hard earned dough. So if your looking for a lost classic you won't find it here, I would say check out Bogart in Midnight or currently going as Call it murder at least there for 1934 you will see great directing technique and a great film.

Simply and absolutely one of the most boring and self-important films ever made. When it came out in 1967, director Richard Lester made no secret of his conviction that he'd produced the greatest antiwar statement since 1930's All Quiet on the Western Front. In reality, it's one of the worst films of any kind since 1930.

Here's Lester's antiwar strategy. Take a small number of British soldiers in a wear against Hitler and Nazism and show them to be a bunch of fools, cowards, and lunatics. Show that their mission - to build a cricket-pitch in enemy territory - is absurd. Show John Lennon's idiot minor character bloodily killed.

That's it. Doesn't it make you hate war? Doesn't it prove that soldiers are suckers? Doesn't it make you want to protest Vietnam? Well, maybe all Richard Lester really wanted to do was make an amusing service comedy. Maybe his self-promoting comments were just trying to cash in on the antiwar feelings of the day.

In that case he still failed. There are more laughs in five minutes of "Sgt. Bilko" than in this entire movie.

I remember vividly being unable to stay awake watching this turkey in the theater forty years ago. I walked out, even though I'd paid good money. (Only two other movies in my entire life have had such a sleep-inducing effect on me, and "How I Won the War" may well be the worst of three.) A few years back somebody gave me the video. With access to coffee I managed to stay awake a just little longer. When I snapped awake I shut the thing off.

Way back in 1967 I actually read Patrick Ryan's comic novel that was the basis of this film. It was funny in an aimless kind of way.

This movie is unfunny in each and every way.

Sorry, Fab Listeners, but after almost 50 years of Beatlemania, it's time to get over the juvenile idea that everything done by, influenced by, or connected to one or more of The Beatles MUST be wonderful. Take John Lennon (whose role, BTW, is actually a minor one) out of this film, and you would remember it even less than the home movies your second cousin took of his daughter's 4th birthday party.

In its favor, I will say that some of the battle scenes are rather effective. But aside from that, there is little worth watching here. The script is terrible, and the thick British accents and colloquialisms make half of the lines nearly incomprehensible to American audiences. Over and over, I found myself saying "Huh? What was that? What did he say?". The film's continual use of non sequiturs doesn't help matters, and after an hour or so, I was still trying to figure what exactly this movie was getting at. I was left to conclude that it was a rather feeble attempt to address the horrors of war in much the same comic way as M*A*S*H did, with far more brilliance and success, a couple of years later. No dice; this film simply does not cut it.

'How I Won the War' has to be one of the most original, bizarre and imaginative war films ever made. I first saw it late one night as an impressionable kid and immediately was drawn by its unusual style and narrative. To have the film tinted in several different colours to show the stages of the war was both daring and cool. One gets the feeling of having witnessed something larger, more intimate and important than just a mere war movie.

There are no real heros in this film, certainly Michael Crawford and his troop are pretty cowardly and inept, whereas the Germans are depicted, in the raid on the fuel dump scene, as being content with religious service and a bit of soccer.

It is true that history is written by the victors and Michael Crawford's character, Goodbody, is one of only two survivers from his regiment. He proudly states at the very end of the film that he "won the war". Maybe he did, but his actions and his balmy enthusiasm show us just how idiotic war can be.

My favourite scene was the one with Goodbody and the German officer who befriends Goodbody for much of the film. Together, they talk about how cruel both the British and Germans are, and how the German officer has killed many Jews. Goodbody then talks about how he got his commission and why he is fighting. It ends with the German officer telling Goodbody that he (Goodbody) is a fascist. "Am I?", replies Goodbody, "but I don't particularly dislike Jews."

When the very affable German officer, who is attempting to surrender, is blindly run over by an advancing British tank, we know that in this war the good, the bad and the ugly become mixed up and inseperable.

I currently own a very worn out video of the film and am hoping it will be released soon on DVD here in Australia.

After a string of solid film successes, director Richard Lester earned the right to join the ranks of the self-indulgent. Freedom can sometimes allow a director to show something artful, and sometimes not. In this case, you get a solid dose of the latter. Most obviously, Mr. Lester had the wrong war, time period, and esoteric. A black comedy about World War II, for an audience beginning to argue about what the United States was still doing in Vietnam (mentioned herein), wasn't what the doctor ordered. More importantly, "How I Won the War" wasn't very amusing or engaging.

The story really only comes to life during the final scenes, by which time many viewers would had found something more stimulating to do with their time. War baby Michael Crawford (as Ernest Goodbody) performs up to the level of his character's name. Most notable among the "Third Troop of the Fourth Musketeers" is bored anti-war hero and musical artist John Lennon (as Musketeer Gripweed). Studio executives at United Artists, as well as the world at large, would have preferred another Lester-directed musical starring The Beatles. "How I won the War" was bound for disappointment.

*** How I Won the War (10/18/67) Richard Lester ~ Michael Crawford, John Lennon, Roy Kinnear, Lee Montague

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!

...thought it was pure pony-and-trap! I reckon it was written in some bloke's lunch-time in the UK's swinging sixties when he was high on some form of psychedelic "Bob Hope". Someone had a laugh and wrote in his review: "a must all John Lennon fans"???? Rubbish.

I have to write a comment because I have to answer the published commentator. This movie is against all wars, not especially against the war in vietnam. The special mentality from english upperclass is shown as a cartoon. The group from Goodsloe is sent to north africa to build up a cricket field behind the enemy front. This is so nasty!

Richard Lester is an underestimated director. Without him such a success like monty python would had not been possible.

But nonetheless this movie is now no revolution anymore. You are used to such movie cuts after all these music videos.

BTW, I'm very lucky, that we lost the war. The second, I mean.

7/10

I remember that when this film was released there was a great uproar at this attempt to satirise World War 2.Too many of the generation were still around and objected to the contents.I read the critics in the papers ,who all panned it,and so I did not go to see it.I have to say that I am pleased that I did not bother.I have just gotten around to watching it and all I can say is that it is an incoherent mess.Lester seems to try and continually go for cheap laughs,and the insertion of archive film from Dunkirk does nothing to help.It is probably the most unfunny and boring film that I have seen in a long time.So thankfully I saved my 6/- by not watching it at the local Odeon.

There is a reason for the old theatrical axiom that satire is what closes on Saturday night: satire by itself is just not very entertaining. It has to be funny, too. The target here is war, and just how silly men get when caught up in the middle of it, and this is pretty obvious by the five minute mark of the movie. The production looks very good, recreating the appearance of WWII's North African Theater quite well, but the key weakness is the central story conceit: that a unit of the British Army would be sent into a hellishly dangerous area to set up a cricket pitch. The idea must have had some appeal on paper to somebody, since the movie got the go-ahead, but unless it had actually been based on a true incident or something, the idea is just too obvious and far a reach to build a movie around, and the occasional shots at army tradition and military thinking (there's an oxymoron) just aren't funny enough to keep things interesting while the absurd story plays out. Michael Crawford, a brilliant comedian in other material such as Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, tries hard to keep an edge to his work, but the material for the large part just isn't there. John Lennon, for all that he is second billed, doesn't have much of a character or much screen time. He just pops up occasionally as a kind of PFC Greek Chorus to comment on the goings on. This would seem a good use of the eccentric and sardonic Lennon, but once again the problem is that he is simply not given much to work with. Richard Lester can be a funny and creative director, but here he isn't and as co-writer of the thing he should have realized that the material was lacking. He didn't. Not a terrible movie, but definitely lower echelon stuff. Catch-22 is a better and more ambitious movie, and so is Oh What a Lovely War.

I seem to recall liking this upon its original theatrical release and certainly looked forward to seeing it again. My interest had been rekindled by a recent visit to Ameria, in Spain where the cast and crew retired to each day after filming in the nearby desert location, popularly known as 'mini Hollywood'. Unfortunately, although very well intentioned and in some ways hard hitting, for me the encouraged silliness of Crawford and others, now makes it a difficult watch. Undeniably famous for introducing the 'working class' spectacles to John Lennon and for being the time and place where he would compose 'Strawberry Fields Forever', there are at least lasting elements to a brave but flawed venture.

I can't say something bad about this film, 'cus it's very accurate about that days. Cast it's just amazing. Every single actor did the best they can, and it's nice. Also, seeing Lennon on big screen - just a another sign of how talanted he was.

Richard Lester's "How I Won The War" is a confusing, absurdist fantasy satirising attitudes to class, comradeship and of course the war. That's about all I got from it I'm afraid as its offbeat, experimental structure and technique left me cold.

Michael Crawford's Captain Goodbody leads a motley troop of musketeers (in the Second World War?) with the avowed aim of creating a cricket pitch behind enemy lines. He's answerable to a madcap, gung-ho general, played by Michael Hordern, but the film is more concerned with his interaction or lack of same with his troop members, who comprise the likes of Roy Kinnear, Lee Montague, Jack Hedley and in his first and last acting role, John Lennon on furlough from the Beatles.

I found it all something of a mess, with Lester throwing every film school trick he can at it, whether that be his actors stepping out of character, breaking the fourth wall in addressing the viewer directly, changing the colour tone and interspersing the action with vérité war footage.

To tell me what exactly? That war is hell, mad and class-driven? I sort of knew that already before I submitted myself to nearly two hours of unfunny, head-scratching tedium.

Crawford's affectations irritate the longer the film progresses, Hordern and Hedley at least bring some gravitas to proceedings and Lennon sort of does okay although it's noticeable that most of his scenes are done directly to camera and not in interaction with his fellow-actors, perhaps betraying his lack of experience. He's certainly no worse than the succession of musicians who followed him into straight acting roles, like Jagger, Dylan and Bowie to name but three.

As a whole though, the movie just didn't connect with me at any level which may in the end say more about me than the direction of the piece. Still, there is consolation in that it inspired, in different ways, two of Lennon's greatest songs "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "A Day In The Life".

Overall as far as this film was concerned, for me at any rate, to paraphrase another 60's song, I fought the war and the war won.

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.

Very "good" anti-war movie from 1967. I wish I would have seen it back then, I probably would have been even more "virulent" in my peace feelings.

Of course that would have made me much more likely to be a felon!

I had this in my Netflix queue for a couple of months, then it was bumped down to my "Saved" section for a few years, then it was removed completely from Netflix. Because I'm a World War II film enthusiast and a John Lennon fan, and because the trailer made it look like it might be mildly entertaining, I decided to just go ahead and purchase it on Amazon, otherwise I'd probably never be able to see it and not be able to review it for my list of over 1200 films about the European Theater in WW2.

It is not funny at all, and despite Lennon's top billing, obviously because he was one of the top ten most famous entertainers in the world at the time, he played a only a minor supporting role (not that he was ever a great actor anyway). It's a poorly written and poorly acted slapstick comedy with over-the-top attempts at juvenile humor that never at any point end up being funny.

I'm sure that the only reason it still exists is because Lennon is in it, but for films in which he is actually funny sometimes, one is much better off sticking to "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help". At least those have great music, if nothing else!