How I Won the War (1967)
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Physical Media
The wardrobe department gave him a pair of round wire-rimmed spectacles. He wore them for the rest of his life.
The Beatles had just played their last concert. John Lennon cut off the hair, took a part he had no particular reason to take, and went to the desert.
HOW I WON THE WAR (1967) is Richard Lester's anti-war satire, made by the man who directed A Hard Day's Night and Help!, and it is nothing like either.
Michael Crawford, Broadway's original Phantom of the Opera, plays a cheerful idiot of a lieutenant, sent behind enemy lines to build a cricket pitch. Dead soldiers come back and keep marching with the platoon. Lennon plays Private Gripweed for approximately eight minutes.
There was a great deal of waiting between setups. Lennon had a guitar. Over about six weeks he wrote a song about a Salvation Army children's home in Liverpool and played it to the only person around.
Michael Crawford was the first human being to hear "Strawberry Fields Forever."
About the Film
"There's been some marvelous advances in surgery, thanks to war!"
- Directed By
- Richard Lester
- Runtime
- 109 minutes
- Released
- October 18, 1967
- US Theatrical
- October 23, 1967
- Certification
- NR
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Starring
- Michael Crawford, John Lennon, Roy Kinnear, Lee Montague, Jack MacGowran
More Credits
- Genres
- Comedy, War
- Language
- English
- Origin
- US, GB
- Studios
- Petersham Pictures
- Written By
- Charles Wood, Patrick Ryan
- Produced By
- Richard Lester
- Cinematography
- David Watkin
- Music
- Ken Thorne
- Also Starring
- Michael Hordern, Jack Hedley, Ronald Lacey, James Cossins, Ewan Hooper
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And of course there was the I NEED YOU music video from Help where the Beatles perform surrounded by British Army soldiers and Centurion Tanks.
Tommy Matic IV I dont understand
Mike Cohen https://youtu.be/6GBVK7iKHaA?is=ca4ncC1g7tgONBYJ
Tommy Matic IV Yes, AnAIwhere But Hollywood states that it’s “nothing like either [AHDN or Help!]”, but I thought particularly of the Salisbury Plain/Military scene, its images and implied themes, as well as the healthy amount of absurdist dialogue throughout Help! (though not as densely absurdist as the dialogue in HIWTW). These two Lester films in particular are a bit more similar than implied by the OP.
I saw it when I was in art school. We did things like that back then.
Based on his Frank Spencer role in “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em”, no one could portray an idiot better than Michael Crawford. And what a singing voice. His recording of “Oh Holy Night” is amazing.
I always thought this was a loose adaptation of Spike Milligans war diaries… never seen it
Antony Smith I thought that as well. I’m sure he referred to the last book as being the fourth book of a trilogy, not it was a long time ago that I read them.
Antony Smith I trust you’ve seen the actual film of those with Jim Dale? #lastturkeyintheshop
Antony Smith It has nothing to do with Spike Milligan.
Scott Andrew Brass that’s what I said
I’m pretty sure they anonymous guys are replacements and not ghosts.
Sven Hillring I thought they were the dead, color-coded as to where they fell, and now (as someone’s later memories) appear to be the perfect soldiers.
Barry Stentiford They _are_ the dead, color coded, played by the same actors.
ONE OF THE WORST MOVIES EVER MADE‼️ 😫 🎬
William Burke You’re not British, are you?
Peter Stanford No, just a bit Irish.
William Burke I wanted to like it, I really did. I LOVED the book it was based on and devoured it. Im also a fan of the WW2 British films you described. Theres an obscure one (at least for Americans) called Nine Men that I love. The Way Ahead with David Niven is also superb. Anyway, even though I give HIWTW a chance about every decade or so, I just cant get into it. And I also say this as a ardent Anglophile and Beatlemaniac.
Chris Brennan I only expected it to be funny, but it was just dumb.
William Burke not as long as Velvet Goldmine is around
Apart from Lennon, the film is full of Dick Lester’s repertory company. See “A Funny THing Happened on the Way to the Forum” for the same lot, cheerfully giving their all behind the Broadway stars.
If Hw I Won the War has not dated well, it is because people don’t watch the old British war films of the period, in which the stiff-upper lipped officers, and working-class men fought the same type of Germans as we see here. In the 1960s and 1970s the War was refought every evening on the television, for the entertanment of those who had actually fought in it. Only since most of the actual combatants have died of old age, has this snowflake mentality of being “triggered” crept in.
Peter Stanford triggered?
Richy Widmark Try making the mildest historical post referring to [actual 1926 – 45] Nazis, and see who complains, it will be the ones born in this century.
Those aren’t prop glasses, those are prescription
Thomas Horne I believe they were both. He was nearsighted and was self-conscious wearing glasses. My understanding is that wearing them for this film helped him embrace the look. I’m sure he didn’t literally wear the exact same pair forever but this was apparently the origin of the look.
I saw this film but never knew the rest of the story
The best part of that film was Michael Crawford’s squawk, when he sat on the grappling hook, in the life raft.
This style of glasses was issued by the NHS, National Health Services, for those who couldn’t afford them. No wonder John liked them.
He originally hated them, which is why he got his Aunt Mimi to pay for black plastic Buddy Hollyesque frames. John can be seen wearing them in candid photos taken in the studio in the early days of their recording career. For years, John didn’t like going out in public with them on, and would actually prefer having to climb a pole just to read street sign, according to one account.
Douglas Eisenstark Health service glasses are, of course, a reason to be cheerful
Steven Fletcher along with gigolos and brasses…
David Hill And round or skinny… bottoms 😉
Steven Fletcher during lockdown I set myself a challenge of posting an image of a new Reason to be Cheerful on FB every day – it started when someone bought me a pair of yellow socks for Christmas
David Hill I like that, might try it myself!
Douglas Eisenstark we had black framed glasses in the US Navy that were so ugly, they were named “Birth Control Devices”.
Douglas Eisenstark yes, I wore them for years from 1970
Douglas Eisenstark so that’s why when he switched from not wanting to be seen in public wearing glasses to wearing the most conspicuous ones made. 😳
They were the standard NHS glasses
let’s be frank… without the genius of george martin do you think this song would have been finished enough to be released. the same george martin who never did drugs?
Brian Wolle let’s be frank..the song was finished…there are demos of it available for all to hear. George Martin did a brilliant job with embellishing it, with the change of speed etc…your comment is nauseating, to be frank.
Leon Vander-Molen yeah. fucking lennon could not even decide ehat key to play it in and threw it in georges lap. thank god he made such a masterpiece of it
Brian Wolle the demos were beautiful before he went to the studio. Luckily George Martin had such great material to work with. You seem to forget who wrote the song. You seem to forget Lennon was murdered. But you still have to have a go…tell us about your achievements…
Neither you are Frank.
John Lennon is my all time favorite musician, and because of that I bought this film on dvd, but it is literally unwatchable. I gave up when I tried to watch it. Completely incoherent, incomprehensible, and painfully unfunny. But I have it.
Dennis Holmberg Granted, it’s not a masterpiece!
Dennis Holmberg completionism???
Dean M Dent As in collector’s completionism? Yes, a silly thing to suffer from, but I do, I admit.
Non, les dirées pour ne faire “l’intello” furent un eidée de Ricard Lester dés Hard days nignt, pour les photos, ce que m’a confirmé Macca: “oui il nous a un peu accouché, ou plutôt differencié”.
He did not wear these particular glasses for the rest of his life. Look at the photos of him later on. And the horrible picture of the glasses with blood on them when he was killed. Sorry to bring that up. So sad.
Agreed. I’m sure he did not wear this exact pair forever, but my understanding is that this is where he embraced the look.
Carol Hutter yeah!!!
He wore round wire rims and a beard as a disguise in HELP 2 years earlier. He looked exactly as he would in 1970.
C R White House eerie
John Lennon
had the most
screen presence
and was the best Beatle actor…
by far…
Ringo only got the rep
as The Beatles
“actor” because he pursued it in a way that John Lennon refused to because, he said,
he thought it was “silly”…
which really betrayed the
lack of self belief which characterised and plagued
much of his life, despite the enormous success and
his substantial abilities to sing, perform, write and record
The prop glasses weren’t exactly like the iconic glasses he would get inmediately after returning to England that autumn. Similar, but not the same. But yes, Lennon cutting off his beatle haircut and start wearing round glasses marks the exact middle of The Beatles’ career. The date was 6th September 1966.
His death scene and last words still haunt.
Simon Webster Wise i agree!!! So startling and sad now
Down where I live, here in Almeria
He looks great,
how nice, for like 30 years ive been believin he was the main character.
showbiz can sod off now.
John had been working on Strawberry Fields Forever as early as 1964. There is film of him playing parts of it in a hotel room during the first Beatles US Tour.
David Nash Bollocks! That’s a clip of him playing a bog standard progression on a melodica in 1964 which sounds vaguely similar to the mellotron introduction that PAUL came up with 2 years later .
John began writing “Strawberry Fields” in Spain during the making of How I Won The War. His work tape has been widely bootlegged and is probably on YouTube.
Whatever you say…
David Nash Is the actual fact of the matter. Yes . You can prove anything with facts.😂
Scott Andrew Brass but that is your opinion. I heard the SFF opening and I have also seen a video/film timeline of the evolution of the song. But you believe what you want.
The bit that always gets to me is when his character gets shot and he looks at the camera and says ‘you knew it would end like this’ , getting emotional thinking about it
Ste Cassidy right in the chest too
Ste Cassidy yes, that was really spooky!
Ste Cassidy “I knew this would happen… You knew it’d happen, didn’t ya?” 😳
Unfortunately, it was a real bad film. If not, Lennon might have had a film career… One shouldn’t forget that the Beatles turnés down Lesters last offer of à new film because the screen play was too poor!…
I think the extreme prescription he needed also worked better in a round lens. But I might be wrong about that
Peter Cheney Seems I read somewhere that along with having a strong nearsighted prescription, he also had astigmatism. When I first got ’round Granny glasses’, I had the optometrist grind a couple of notches on the outer sides of my lenses so that I could tell if the lenses were starting to turn, which would throw the astigmatism correction off if they did start drifting off. They usually stayed pretty good, as I would frequently tighten the temple screws that kept the lenses from turning.
A lousy movie.
The film is garbage, but there is something magical about the photos of John at the set.
No he didn’t, in 1980 he wore different glasses
Philippe Manteau Of course, I don’t believe he literally wore the exact same pair of glasses forever. My understanding is that he was nearsighted and self-conscious about wearing glasses in public. The movie prop helped him get over that self-consciousness and was the origin of that look. At least that’s what I’ve read!
I think he stopped wearing the grannies in 1973
I’m lucky to have an original paperback of How I Won the War with that photo on the cover
Mine were rose tinted, and my new husband forced me to throw them away.
Carolyn Swanton Our first home came with membership in a local church where a well-established professional level guy found out my wife wore several types of granny glasses in the 60’s. They were cute. She made an attractive hippie chick to my thinking. The yearning to be respectable won out and she never spoke of the fun years again.
Mike McBride that’s just plain sad. Another reason not to go to church.
Carolyn Swanton should have thrown him away.
Michael F Galvin He sold my ski equipment without asking me, which up set me more. He said “I don’t ski, so you won’t”. It was the 1970’s.
Carolyn Swanton hope you are not still with that gobshite.
“Approximately 8 minutes” massively undersells his presence in the film. He doesn’t have many lines but he is part of the central cast and is there throughout the whole story.
I bet he didn’t. I bet he took them off to sleep. To shower, and to clean them.
The short family moment commenting about El Alamein would’ve gotten my father, who was there, but he didn’t care for the Beatles, so he never saw it. We didn’t get along, but that made me feel sad for him, his life permanently altered by Adolph Hitler
That wasn’t the first time John wore those glasses. He briefly did in Help in 1965.
Anthony Craig
Soooooo the Beatles played their last concert before John wrote strawberry fields?
Man its too bad they never played on a roof with cops watching them.
Dylan Tilly Turnquist Yes, it can be tough striking a balance between conciseness and absolute literal accuracy. It was the last stop on their final tour. Of course, there was the rooftop concert several years later. I’m actually surprised you’re the first to say that.
While we’re here, I’ll add that John didn’t literally wear that same pair of glasses for the rest of his life, but the experience on the film seems to have been where he embraced the look.
He’s in it for eight minutes…and all the home video releases and such feature him prominently on the cover: “John Lennon in How I Won The War!”
But… (spoilers ahead)…
.
.
.
…that death scene for his character late in the movie: “I knew this was going to happen. (looks right at screen) You knew it too.” BRRRRRR.
Jennifer Lynn Schillig 37 years later……I still remember that scene
Can’t stand him or his glasses
I knew that, I have the movie on DVD LOL
I remember seeing this when it came out!
It’s quite a silly movie, about the foibles of the military, not really a serious anti-war film as many probably assumed.
NHS glasses, nothing to do with the movie.
and I could not stand Michael Ingram (Crawford) the guy who bullied me at school.
Pauvre John, perdu dans sa notoriété…
Eight minutes? Crawford and Lennon play the two central characters in the satire.
Wouldn’t Neil or someone have heard it first?
National Health glasses
Didn’t Richard Lester direct the Musketeers movies? The good ones?
“I knew this’d happen! You knew it’d happen, too, dincha?
They lived together for a while during filming.
This is also where his Fat Beatle period was ending.
Watched it in Bolton when it came out .didnt get it but do now
Definitely a Richard Lester movie….. Anyone interested should read Patrick Ryan’s original book.It is a wonderful send up of a clueless lieutenant’s war memoirs