"Oh What A Lovely War!" Nearly Banned

Personally, I hate the movie. But that's just me.
"The family of a senior First World War commander tried to get Lord Attenborough's film Oh! What A Lovely War banned because they regarded it as a 'sordid' insult to his memory.
Descendants of the late Field Marshal Sir John French, who led the British Expeditionary Force from 1914 to 1915, took LEGAL ADVICE and appealed to the film censor.
On July 7, 1968, his son Colonel John French, who has also since died, wrote to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), calling it a 'despicable attempt to create sensation for the sordid purpose of MAKING MONEY'. The family's letters have been found in the BBFC archive.
When told of their concern, Lord Attenborough said he had hired a 'battery of lawyers' to ensure that the musical satire was not offensive or libellous.
He said that it was anti-war, but very 'pro-soldier'.
In his letter to Sir John Trevelyan, the then Director of the BBFC, French is particularly alarmed by reports that his father who is to be played by Sir Laurence Olivier will be seen DANCING while the casualties CONTINUE to mount up on the front line.
He wrote: 'It appears to be a disgraceful performance making fun of a time of great national peril and falsely portraying the Commander-in-Chief as indulging in dancing while the fighting was going on and his men were being killed.'
'In appealing to your board to prevent this despicable attempt to create sensation for the sordid purpose of MAKING MONEY, I would point out that not only the reputation of a great soldier is involved but the prestige of the British Army."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2845729/How-family-WW1-commander-tried-ban-film-Oh-Lovely-War-thought-sordid-insult-memory.html#ixzz3JwUMvxFJ

 

It is a film that makes me uneasy but you have got to applaud Attenborough's valiant attempt to satirise war yet make it very moving at the same time. Blackadder Goes Forth has the same effect and left me in tears. Has there been a similar satire on WW2? I cannot think of any offhand.

 

It was a piece of left wing propaganda put on as theatre by Joan Littlewood. People like stories told in a simple and familiar way., WW2 is easily told as good v evil.

WW1 doesn't fit the fairy story model. Oh What a lovely war! is the First World War as a disaster movie, with the politicians and generals as villains, callous , incompetent and profiteering. It is an old testament prophet story The people did not listen to the prophet Karl Marx and the capitalists took them to the brink of destruction. This is a simplistic way of telling WW1 which absolves all our grandparents from urging our politicians to take us to war. .

Note that the show ends in 1917 - the year of the Russian revolution. It does not end in 1918 with a failed German attempt to win the war. Old testament disasters don't end in victories .

 

Only one I can think of is the Burt Lancaster one about a castle(?).

 

Hmmm

Satire on WW2??

Catch 22
Kellys Heroes
How I won the war. (John Lennon's only non musical)

WW2 musicals

South Pacific
The Sound of Music

 

Cheers, forgot about those.

 

I wish they would ban Oh what a lovely war... Though as that goes against my basically libertarian principles, maybe always show it with A useful intro declaring 'this isn't actually quotable history, you silly buggers. Read a few books too'.

Catch 22, however; book or film, now yer talking.


To add to the WW2 satirical list:
Spike Milligan.
Though obviously I'm not certain, they may be the most accurate coverage of the war out there.

 

That and bloody Braveheart

 

Bloody braveheart indeed...

 

There was the John Lennon film and one about a Tommy lost in a town run by members of a mental asylum, and of course Catch 22, so lots of satire's

 

I would never have thought that South Pacific was a satire about World War 2. Although it was set in that period it was more a satire on American views of racism. I do not think that many in the audience would have come away thinking that the war was ridiculous which is after all the aim of satire. Other than that they would have been too busy humming the fabulous tunes.

 

If we are looking at books then

Helmut Kirst is your man:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Hellmut_Kirst
The Gunner Asch stories
Officer Factory

 

Would "life is beautiful" sort of count as a bit satirical? (I thought it was a decent movie)