DM's Beatles forums
A part of DM's Beatles site
Meet people from all over the World
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Pages: [1] 2

Author Topic: How I Won the War  (Read 7784 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Sondra

  • That Means a Lot
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 6978
How I Won the War
« 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.
Logged

  • Guest
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #1 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.
Logged

Sondra

  • That Means a Lot
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 6978
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #2 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!
Logged

SieLiebtDich

  • A Thousand Pages
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 2439
  • ("\(#^_^)/")
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #3 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?
Logged

The End

  • That Means a Lot
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 8216
  • Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream...
    • The End
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #4 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!
Logged

HFleen

  • A Beginning
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 61
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2004, 01:46:43 PM »
Hmmm...I'd have to agree...it's pretty bad, actually!!

HFleen
Logged
============================
www.thebeatlesforum.com
"Love, love me do..."

Sadie4

  • Getting Better
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 649
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #6 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...

Logged
JOHN LENNON is my Sun King!

  • Guest
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #7 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
Logged

Mendips

  • Getting Better
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 490
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #8 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.
Logged
John: You're just a lonely old man from Liverpool.
Grandfather: But I'm clean!
John: Are ya?

Sondra

  • That Means a Lot
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 6978
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #9 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!!
Logged

The End

  • That Means a Lot
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 8216
  • Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream...
    • The End
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #10 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'!).
Logged

The End

  • That Means a Lot
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 8216
  • Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream...
    • The End
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #11 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").
Logged

Sondra

  • That Means a Lot
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 6978
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #12 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!
Logged

  • Guest
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #13 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
Logged

The End

  • That Means a Lot
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Gender: Male
  • Posts: 8216
  • Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream...
    • The End
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #14 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
Logged

Sadie4

  • Getting Better
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 649
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #15 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

Logged
JOHN LENNON is my Sun King!

raxo

  • Sun King
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 10680
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #16 on: December 30, 2005, 12:43:09 AM »
Can anybody help us?
Logged

raxo

  • Sun King
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 10680
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #17 on: March 05, 2006, 07:14:05 PM »



Logged

MandyBuglet

  • A Beginning
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 123
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #18 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?
Logged

Pilzkopf

  • A Beginning
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 181
Re: How I Won the War
« Reply #19 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.  
Logged
Pages: [1] 2
« previous next »
 

Page created in 2.464 seconds with 80 queries.