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Beatles forums => Films, TV Shows, Interviews => Topic started by: Sondra on September 02, 2004, 11:54:43 PM

Title: How I Won the War
Post by: Sondra on September 02, 2004, 11:54:43 PM: Anyone ever see it? It's actually on cable right now and I'm TRYING to watch it. So far it's a bit boring. The main guy is annoying and I have to really concentrate if I want to understand what these British guys are saying!! They talk too fast! Anyway, I think I'll hang in there for John.

John's first line in the film: "May I rub your ball sir? It gives me great pleasure."

Heh, the funniest part so far.
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: on September 03, 2004, 01:42:27 AM: An AWFUL film. Tho repeated viewings help make more sense of what Lester was after.

Yet John shines. Even if what he says is incomprehensible (mainly to non-Brits...folks in the UK presumably get a lot of the sayings and jokes better than anyone else) his cheery acting is great fun to watch, brightens up the whole picture.

Then when he's off screen it's time to get up, go to the bathroom, feed the cat, get something to eat...anything until he comes back.
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Sondra on September 03, 2004, 03:22:08 AM: Yeah, I bailed. It was way too boring and John's hardly in it! You're right though, he is very good when he's on, but it's just not enough! Plus I don't get half the stuff they're talking about. What's with the 'green, green, green' thing? Oh well!
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: SieLiebtDich on September 03, 2004, 06:42:53 AM: :-D silly John, thats the only reason why any beatle fan would watch that film :-), I was wondering if they still sale that film?? does anyone know?
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: The End on September 03, 2004, 12:01:44 PM: I'm British and even I don't get most of what the film's about?!!! What's with the different coloured soldiers?! John's good though!
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: HFleen on September 03, 2004, 01:46:43 PM: Hmmm...I'd have to agree...it's pretty bad, actually!!

HFleen
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Sadie4 on September 03, 2004, 02:30:25 PM: [quote by=Maccalvr link=Blah.pl?b=films,m=1094169283,s=2 date=1094181728]Yeah, I bailed. It was way too boring and John's hardly in it! You're right though, he is very good when he's on, but it's just not enough! Plus I don't get half the stuff they're talking about. What's with the 'green, green, green' thing? Oh well![/quote]

That's a very good point. Me being a Spaniard I never knew what JOHN meant with that "green, green green" thing...
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: on September 03, 2004, 02:56:07 PM: Quote
That's a very good point. Me being a Spaniard I never knew what JOHN meant with that "green, green green" thing...

Means the enemy is in the proximity
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Mendips on September 03, 2004, 04:53:10 PM: I don't think it's so terrible!
;D

"And I'm not a thief, really. I've never found anything worth keeping. " - Private Gripweed

And don't forget that if John wasn't away in Spain doing this film he might never have written Strawberry Fields Forever.
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Sondra on September 03, 2004, 10:33:20 PM: [quote by=Sadie4 link=Blah.pl?b=films,m=1094169283,s=6 date=1094221825]

That's a very good point. Me being a Spaniard I never knew what JOHN meant with that "green, green green" thing...

[/quote]

Being an American doesn't help either. Even with the close proximity thing it fails to make sense to me! "he said green, green, green. So I did." HUH??? It also took me a while to figure out he was saying Musketeer Gripweed. Of course I wasn't paying attention so I had no idea that was his name. Or that their soldiers were called musketeers!!
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: The End on September 03, 2004, 11:51:24 PM: [quote by=Maccalvr link=Blah.pl?b=films,m=1094169283,s=9 date=1094250800]Even with the close proximity thing it fails to make sense to me! "he said green, green, green. So I did." HUH??? [/quote]

OK, here's a wild guess (I haven't seen the film for ages so please humour me!)... when John says "green, green, green. So I did..." doesn't he fire a flare gun afterwards? Well, is the flare green by any chance? If so, perhaps that's what the phrase "so I did" means... if it was a red flare, this theory is total crap of course!!! LOL ;D

Michael Crawford went on to star in 'Phantom of the Opera' and 'Barnum' on Broadway (and no doubt our British members also remember 'Some Mothers Do 'ave 'em'!).
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: The End on September 03, 2004, 11:54:28 PM: "I saw a film today, oh boy,
The English army had just won the war,
A crowd of people turned away,
But I just had to look,
Having read the book"

Apparently this was a reference to the film's poor box-office attendance ("a crowd of people turned away").
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Sondra on September 04, 2004, 02:18:37 AM: [quote by=The_End link=Blah.pl?b=films,m=1094169283,s=10 date=1094255484]

OK, here's a wild guess (I haven't seen the film for ages so please humour me!)... when John says "green, green, green. So I did..." doesn't he fire a flare gun afterwards? Well, is the flare green by any chance? If so, perhaps that's what the phrase "so I did" means... if it was a red flare, this theory is total crap of course!!! LOL ;D

Michael Crawford went on to star in 'Phantom of the Opera' and 'Barnum' on Broadway (and no doubt our British members also remember 'Some Mothers Do 'ave 'em'!).[/quote]

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!!! I was trying to think of that guys name! He was also in Hello Dolly. That voice is SO annoying. Oh, by the way, the flare is just a regular flare. So there goes that theory! And I thought YOU would know!
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: on September 04, 2004, 05:07:32 AM: I've never seen it. I have a photo of John that was taken on the set. ;D
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: The End on September 04, 2004, 02:23:22 PM: [quote by=Maccalvr link=Blah.pl?b=films,m=1094169283,s=12 date=1094264317]
there goes that theory! And I thought YOU would know!
[/quote]

DOH!! :(

Hee hee - was just a wild guess! ;D
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Sadie4 on September 04, 2004, 02:34:08 PM: [quote by=Nowhere_Man69 link=Blah.pl?b=films,m=1094169283,s=7 date=1094223367]

Means the enemy is in the proximity[/quote]

Thank you!!

But then, I don't understand what he says after that. "Green, green, green... So I did
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: raxo on December 30, 2005, 12:43:09 AM: Can anybody help us?
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: raxo on March 05, 2006, 07:14:05 PM: (http://img308.imageshack.us/img308/5863/almeria52dk.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img308.imageshack.us/img308/7503/howiwon23xt.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/8417/almeria36eg.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
(http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/6918/almeria64rb.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: MandyBuglet on March 12, 2009, 01:34:18 AM: Ok, I looked through all 18 John threads and didn't see a thread about this movie (let me know if I missed it), so I decided to start one :).

Have any of you seen this movie?
I ordered it from Moviemail and watched it with my brother the other night.

We liked the movie.  It's a bit slow at times, but at times it's hilarious.

John's the best thing about this movie, of course.

For those of you who have seen it, what do you think?
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Pilzkopf on March 12, 2009, 08:06:36 PM: I saw it when it came out in '68 (I think). I've seen it once since then, on TV about 20 years ago. John was surprisingly good. He had a flair for acting, which he never pursued after that. But the revelation was the young Michael Crawford, as the young bungling fool of an officer. He never really had a movie career, I don't know why. The film was quite surreal in places, but it was basically an allegory of class structure in Britain at the time of WWII.
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Bobber on March 12, 2009, 08:15:44 PM: Quote from: 1927
Ok, I looked through all 18 John threads and didn't see a thread about this movie (let me know if I missed it),

Ah! But you didn't check the Films section!
No worries, the threads will be merged.
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: aspinall_lover on March 12, 2009, 10:23:04 PM: I have it on VHS tape, but is it available on DVD???? I heard something a few years back Yoko had it held up for DVD release until 2010. Please correct me if I'm wrong and shed some light. I'd LOVE to have this on DVD. I thought it was a pretty good movie.............of course, my late Neil Aspinall played one of the "colored ghost soldiers" in the film.....
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: MandyBuglet on March 13, 2009, 05:46:33 AM: Cool, thanks! I didn't even think to look in this thread, lol.

Great pictures!
John was a fox in this! 8)

Yes, aspinal_lover, it is available on DVD!
You can find it on Amazon!
I got mine from MovieMail because it was cheaper there :).

As for Michael Crawford...who would've thought that HE would turn into the Phantom of the Opera!

P.S. I don't know what John's line about "green green green" means either :(.
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: BlueMeanie on March 13, 2009, 09:26:59 AM: Quote from: 1927
Cool, thanks! I didn't even think to look in this thread, lol.

Great pictures!

There is also the search facility, just in case you doidn't know. ;) It's not perfect but worth a try.
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Euan Buchan on March 13, 2009, 10:42:47 AM: Quote from: 1255
I have it on VHS tape, but is it available on DVD???? I heard something a few years back Yoko had it held up for DVD release until 2010. Please correct me if I'm wrong and shed some light. I'd LOVE to have this on DVD. I thought it was a pretty good movie.............of course, my late Neil Aspinall played one of the "colored ghost soldiers" in the film.....

It is available on DVD I have it but only watched it the once
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: aspinall_lover on March 13, 2009, 05:09:27 PM: Thanks everyone for letting me know it's on DVD. I will have to have it!!!!
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: DarkSweetLady on March 13, 2009, 07:19:58 PM: This is like the only "beatle" movie I haven't seen. It's not really a Beatle movie, but I classify it that anyways. :)

I really really really really want to see it. They don't sell it anymore at like the stores, perhaps you can order it. I'm gonna check that out because I really want it!
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: aspinall_lover on March 14, 2009, 01:43:46 AM: Ok..........I think most of y'all were thinking DVD's from another country/format. I can't find one "USA compatible" to my DVD players. Any help or info on this????? Let me know...
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Pilzkopf on March 14, 2009, 02:17:17 AM: Quote from: 1255
Ok..........I think most of y'all were thinking DVD's from another country/format. I can't find one "USA compatible" to my DVD players. Any help or info on this????? Let me know...

Multi-region players are cheap enough these days, but if you don't want to buy one, sometimes existing DVD players can be made region-free with a fairly simple manoeuvre. If you give me the make and model number I can try and find out for you.
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: aspinall_lover on March 14, 2009, 07:34:10 PM: Quote from: 1943

Multi-region players are cheap enough these days, but if you don't want to buy one, sometimes existing DVD players can be made region-free with a fairly simple manoeuvre. If you give me the make and model number I can try and find out for you.

I'll tell you what..............we're gonna buy our son a PlayStation 3 for his birthday. the 80gb version plays Blueray disc and DVD's in high definition. Now..........would it work on that????
Title: Re: How I Won the War
Post by: Pilzkopf on March 14, 2009, 08:10:27 PM: ^ I'd be surprised if it didn't. But why don't you try it on your computer first? Their DVD players are all region-free, as far as I know. If it works on there, I'm pretty sure it would go on your playstation.