“Oh! What a
Lovely War”: The First World War in Popular Culture during the 1960s
In this second
blog, we shall take a look at the First World War in the world of Popular
Culture in the 1960s through two widely viewed popular history works, the 1963
and 1969 stage and film versions (respectively) of Oh! What a Lovely War. Whilst it is not uncommon to hear about the
late Richard Attenborough’s 1969 film version of Oh! What a Lovely War, it is less commonly known that the film was based
on a 1963 stage musical, which in turn was inspired by the writings of Alan
Clark’s The Donkeys.
The stage musical, written by ex-Communist
Party of Great Britain member and pacifist Joan Littlewood, was developed by
her stage company Theatre Workshop as a comedic satire on the vulgarity of war
and how people can so easily suppress their independent spirit in the face of a
higher authority. As such, she refused the use of military uniforms or even the
visible death of characters on stage, instead using theatrical costume inspired
by traditional Italian theatre (Commedia dell’arte) and whilst it was written with
a script, the actors were permitted considerable leeway to ad-lib or improvise sections based on how they emotionally reacted
to the scene. Also present (where theatre technology permitted) was a projector
displaying statistics of various battles in a manner of Grandstand or Match of the
Day, which added to the surrealism of the production as it continued
largely unannounced and uncommented by the actors on stage.
Picture:
An Early rehearsal of the stage musical, The
Daily Telegraph, 1963
The stage show
was popular, but the reaction of critics was mixed, with both The Guardian and The Times agreeing that a negative portrayal of the First World War
was really something of a “sitting target” for Littlewood to aim at. At a time
of theatre censorship, it was not permitted to be performed to a London theatre
until it was patronised by Princess Margaret. A transition to New York occurred
in 1964, ending after 125 performances, with reaction much the same as in
Britain: popular, but with a mixed reception amongst critics.
In contrast, the
film version, in Richard Attenborough’s first directing role, was very explicit
in its use of uniforms and death, with the final scene of thousands of white
crosses in a windswept field being particularly memorable. This, in Littlewood’s
opinion, had rather missed the point of her production, which was supposed to
be comedic, rather than violent. By 1969 however, the film was no longer really
just about the First World War,
contemporary politics had seeped in, with a general anti-war feeling linked to
the ongoing Vietnam War being widely seen in print and on television screens
around the world. Many of the “extras” in the film were students from the University
of Sussex, known for its student radicalism and anti-Vietnam War protests. Despite
containing many “A-List” actors and actresses of British cinema, it only managed
to achieve 19th in the yearly cinema rankings in the UK and did not
even score in the top 30 in the USA, being easily outranked by more well-known
cinematic classics like Oliver!, Ture Grit and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Picture: Cinematic poster
of the 1969 film production
Changing theatrical and
cinematic tastes of the decade of the 1960s saw a changing way in which we
look at the First World War. Whilst the
early sstage production was more focused on a comedic satire, the later 1960s
saw little to laugh about in the brutality of a war that was all to close to
comfort in the light of the Vietnam War and the wider Cold War. Although having
a mixed reception from ciritics and poor contemporary viewership in light of
the wave fo other stage and cinematic classics which were in prudction at the time,
Oh! What a Lovely War remins for many
an important visual representation of the First World War’s massive death toll
and a reflection of contemproary views on warfare, class and gender issues at
to points in the 1960s.
Philip A. Bennett
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