University of Virginia Library

Black Comedy

'How I Won The War' Worth Seeing

By Dan Shipp

How I on The War. University
Theater, 5, 7, 9 p.m.

Everyone is more or less familiar
with The War Film. Fresh out
of college ROTC, the well-fed,
clean cut kid we all know goes to
war, runs into opposition from
the old soldiers, eventually does a
heroic deed or two and wins their
respect, as well as the war. Making
a film of this nature was seen as a
great gesture of patriotism by the
folks back home who built monuments
to their heroes who were
dying so that truth and justice
could prevail, etc.

Now the British director Richard
Lester has made a war movie of
his own which deflates the glory
of its predecessors in one fell
swoop. By combining elements
of the traditional elements of the
War Movie and intertwining them
with frightening scenes of war's
effect on men, as well as a great
deal of comedy (black and otherwise),
Lester has succeeded in
making the War Film a powerful
statement of the absurdity of war.

All the traditional elements are
there: Ernest Goodbody, grammar
school boy, enlists and is commissioned
as a lieutenant of
musketeers (his mother knows the
King). His musketeers include recruits
as well as experienced
soldiers. He delivers a number of
stirring speeches about glorious
conflict in which they are engaged,
and leads his men valiantly, if
stupidly, into battle.

The framework within which
these men must show their valor
reflects Lester's keen sense of the
ridiculous: they are to go behind
enemy lines and set up an advance
cricket pitch for the British soldiers
in North Africa. The absurdity of
their goal is matched by the absurdity
by which the men go about
it: they are given vehicles which
no one knows how to drive; their
first victory is the shooting down
of one of their own planes; they
take their objectives by striding
down a hill whistling the Colonel
Bogey March were the Germans
surrender without a shot, and the
only casualty is a British soldier
shot by accident.

But for all the humor in his
manner of death, the man still
bleeds, and dies painfully. His
death, like that of all men killed
in war, is horrible and meaningless.

Although there are a great number
of farcical scenes and good
belly laughs for all, much of the
humor in this film is uneasy.
Audiences laugh at the fulminations
of the unkillable Lt. Col.
Grapple, MC VD, but realizes
all too well that many of his
breed occupy high places in the
armed forces. The clown Juniper
stages music hall sketches in the
midst of battle ("working what is
known as his ticket, sir") and collects
enemy medals, but ends up
riding off with a group of generals
planning battles.

Occasionally the film seems to
be going in all directions at once,
the disparate elements having little
apparent relation to one another.
This, however, can be overcome by
the audience. Lester assembles a
series of sketches the total effect
of which may seem about as relevant
as a series of vaudeville acts.
But assembled in the mind of the
viewer, these sketches acquire
meaning as a whole, more a visual
impression than the story of men
at war.

The film's cast is excellent.
Michael Crawford as Goodbody
is a model of youthful naivete?
and well-intentioned ineptitude.
John Lennon, Karl Michael Vogler,
Roy Kinnear, Lee Montague,
Jack MacGowran, Michale Hordern
and Jack Hedly all perform
well in their supporting roles. One
thing must be mentioned here:
to give John Lennon equal billing
with Crawford is a lamentable
example of the use of a name to
draw crowds. Not that Lennon
does not do a fine job; it's just
that he plays a role far less important
to the film than, for example,
Juniper, Grapple, or Cpl.
of Musket Transom.

By the end of the film, all of
Goodbody's men have been killed,
although they still march along in
colorful array. Never before has his
troupe been so well turned-out.
It is obvious that the dead are
the best soldiers after all, at least
in memories. Monuments will be
built.

In the last war scene Goodbody
urges his ghostly troop into Germany,
exhorting them to "show
'em who's won the war." To the
audience the answer is obvious:
no one.