Walking in fields of red poppies. Singing "We're here-- because we're here-- because we're here because ... " John Mills as the British Field Marshall war criminal General Haig, walking thoughtfully in those graveyards; whatever was he thinking-- if anything? Today is Armistice Day, 11 November 2004. I think of this film as one of the top film monuments in Western film-making. It captures the meaning of War, in a way in which few other films capture it-- I'm Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front, 1930 version); Black and White in Color (French/African, 1969), and a very few others. The songs resonate, even in 2004-- "There's a silver lining, 'neath this dark cloud shining ... turn the darkness inside out, 'til the boys come home." Tonight I watched on PBS the faces and names, in silence, of 20 more dead in Iraq. Have you seen the film or read the book, Johnny Got His Gun? The only books whose plates were seized by the FBI, in 1939? The War goes on (Herman Hesse, 1916). And so it goes (Kurt Vonnegut, 1969).
Review of Oh! What a Lovely War
