Richard Attenborough's interpretation of the 1963 musical by Joan Littlewood, is an accusation of war never relying on violence or sudden brutal deaths. It is so unpretentious it shames all use of fake heroism and vanity. It doesn’t lessen or belittle the ones who took part but brilliantly underlines the collective stupidity that made such a mass slaughter possible. Oh What a Lovely War is a brilliantly written film, combining both symbolic irony and English humour.
The opening scene takes place in a wrought iron building where diplomats of the world are attending a gala. The guests comport themselves with all the social rules of higher rank and propriety until they break out in argument over which nation is the best.
The film uses symbolism throughout. The declaration of war is shown by a photographer taking a picture of the upper class. He hands two red poppies to the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife and as the flash goes off they both drop dead. The wrought iron room is used theatrically for both galas and diplomatic manoeuvres, for example when the generals walk over a giant map of the world or when they discuss tactics with audible gun shots and warfare in the background.
A strong metaphorical representation is used when a band is playing in the streets rallying people from Brighton beach and leads them towards the pier that has World War 1 in lights at the front. The scene is very optimistic and joyful and we see the Smith family buying tickets from a general and walking onto the pier in a way that they are entering life during the war.
Another use of symbolic is when the scene takes place at the theatre and a row of pretty young girls are encouraging the young men to volunteer for the army. They appeal to the men by patriotically singing “We don’t want to lose you, but we think you ought to go”. Maggie Smith then appears as a stage dancer in single spotlight looking attractive and desirable. She lures the men to come and sign up using appealing lyrics like “On Saturday I’m willing, if you’ll only take the shilling, to make a man of any one of you”. The boys are seduced and slowly all walk up on stage. Everybody is cheering for them and they look like brave heroes. As soon as they arrive on stage they see Maggie Smith covered in make-up and they start to think that things may not be what they seem. Once they are all backstage, the pretty girls have disappeared and they are left with a strict and brutal general. This is when everybody realises that reality is much different and the war is not attractive or appealing.
Throughout 1915 and 1916 the scenes are much darker. We see many shots of parading wounded men in torrential rain illustrating endless stream of grim and hopeless faces. The scenes are smoky or wet; the colours are browns, greys and khakis. The women’s costumes back at Brighton are dirty, darker colours, clothes that would be worn for work or by the lower class and not the pretty mousseline and white lace from the beginning. “The Bells Of Hell Go Ting-a-Ting”, “If The Sergeant Steals Your Rum, Never Mind” and “Hanging On The Barbed Wire” capture the mood of despair and the miserable conditions look more like the gritty realistic portrayal of war rather than a hyperbolic musical. The only colour is the red from the poppies which are handed out to the soldiers who one by one end up dead confirming the poppy’s symbolic of death. The enthusiasm of the earlier days have long gone and been forgotten. Still the English humour remains when we see the general exit his quarters by sliding down the swirly slide.
The ending scene is particularly moving. As the armistice bell rings we see that last of the Smith boys is running in full uniform through thick smoke. The scene slowly changes as the smoke gets thinner and his costume gets lighter until he is in a sunny field wearing his own clothes. A blurry shot of red seems to be blood all over the floor until we realise they are poppies out of focus. The shot changes to the Smith girls having a picnic and we see the boy appearing behind them. At first, the audience thinks this is a reunion scene until we realise the girls cannot see the boy and he walks over to take his place on the floor with his comrades who are happily sleeping in the sun. A bird’s eye view in long slow pan then shows the girls walk through millions of white crosses as the sound of dead soldiers sing “We’ll Never Tell Them”.
