One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Incompetent Lieutenant Goodbody leads a group of recruits who grow to hate their commander. They train in a mock up of WWI trench warfare. They land on North Africa to battle the Nazis. The biggest draw is John Lennon playing a supporting character. It's a surreal anti-war dark comedy. Director Richard Lester uses various methods including breaking the 4th wall and doing a faux documentary. I am often reluctant to rate foreign comedies when half of it is lost in translation. In this one, the thick British accents and unknowable foreignness make much of it incomprehensible. Mostly, it's not that funny. The bigger war footage is recycled while there are some smaller action. There is an anti-war message but it's a muddle of outlandish surrealism. On its most basic element, it's hard to follow and not that funny.

I would have gave this film a 1 but the directing and camera work I though were pretty good. First off let me say this does not star John Lennon as they imply, he plays a small role in this film. This is a gag they use to sell a movie, Call it Murder (Midnight) with Humphrey Bogart comes to mind the only difference between the two is Midnight was a good movie. The movie jumps around a lot and is kind of hard to follow and if there is a message of anti war it's not a very clear one but this is the baby boomer era so you have to consider the source. There are some humorous parts to the film but for the most part it seemed to me that it was a bunch of rambling on by the characters in the movie with some Monty Pythonish humor thrown in. I was going to buy this film for my collection but was glad to see it on Netflix so I did not have to waste any hard earned dough. So if your looking for a lost classic you won't find it here, I would say check out Bogart in Midnight or currently going as Call it murder at least there for 1934 you will see great directing technique and a great film.

Very "good" anti-war movie from 1967. I wish I would have seen it back then, I probably would have been even more "virulent" in my peace feelings.Of course that would have made me much more likely to be a felon!

Maybe true heroism is less than heroic. "How I Won the War" is a very funny movie that in its own surreal way depicts very real and less than heroic motivations for war. The setting is North Africa and Europe during WWII. The insinuations of absurdity could be any place and any time. Aptly portraying the soldiers is a cast that includes a young Michael Crawford playing the group leader -- bumbling, patriotic, and self-possessed of a desire to be rewarded. Roy Kinnear competently plays the jolly and slightly addled, clear-thinking (albeit mumbling) realist. Michael Hordern is the Blimpo commander with the proverbial blinkers on, never letting his men down when it comes to providing them with exhortation. There is also John Lennon who renders a very capable job of portraying a naive pessimist (perhaps a reflection of his feelings at the time about his role as a member of another group). No one ever really dies in this movie; they merely change colors. And in the end, the entire experience of war is capsulated into a home movie. Look for Alexander Knox playing an American general.