It’s a mammoth shame that this film has slipped down the back of the sofa of movie history, even if it is easy to see why. A musical? About the Great War? Directed by lovely cuddly Lord Dickie Attenborough? Pre-Life Is Beautiful, such a brazen jollification of ‘tragic’ was almost unheard of...
But this isn’t easy-listening Ypres, it’s an intelligent, hugely stylised satire – beautifully executed, brutally abstract and, on occasion, stunningly perceptive. Forget Gandhi: Attenborough’s never matched his debut for unmitigated balls.
DVD Extras:
Shame the extras chuck a cold bucket of water over all that, then. The three-part Making Of doc is a cosy collection of talking heads, all luvvily telling you how great everyone else was. It screams out for a proper narrator to tie it all together. Attenborough’s commentary covers all the right bases, but, lordy, is Dickie a dull speaker. Load up on Pro Plus if you want to sit through it all...
