SYNOPSIS
Having begun his career as an actor celebrated for his performances in the likes of Brighton Rock, The Great Escape and Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Richard Attenborough made his directorial debut in 1969 with Oh! What a Lovely War, a satirical history of World War I told through the British music hall tradition.
Adapted from Joan Littlewood’s 1963 stage musical of the same name (itself a reworking of Charles Chilton’s 1961 radio play The Long Long Trail), Oh! What a Lovely War restages the events of the Great War. As the film traces the progression of the conflict from the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 to the Armistice of November 1918, it intertwines the fortunes of the everyman Smith family with performances of popular wartime music, from the recruitment song “I’ll Make a Man of You” to the airmen’s anthem “The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-ling-a-ling.”
Featuring a who’s who of British acting talent from Dirk Bogarde to Michael Redgrave and Maggie Smith, Attenborough’s first film as director earned him a raft of BAFTA nominations and set him on the path to making A Bridge Too Far, Gandhi and Chaplin. The Masters of Cinema Series is honoured to present Oh! What a Lovely War on Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the world.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Limited edition O-card slipcase featuring original poster artwork [2000 copies]
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on Oh! What a Lovely War by Andy Dougan, author of The Actors’ Director: Richard Attenborough Behind the Camera [2000 copies]
- 1080p HD presentation from a restoration by Paramount Pictures
- Original English mono audio
- Optional English subtitles (SDH)
- New audio commentary with British cinema scholars Melanie Williams and Lawrence Napper
- Archival audio commentary with director Richard Attenborough
- Your Country Needs You – new interview with film historian Simon Brown on depictions of World War I in British cinema, from The Battle of the Somme to 1917
- Extensive making-of documentary presented in three parts: “Welcome to World War I,” “The Smith Family Album” and “Keep the Home Fires Burning”
