How I Won the War

Among the first of the late 60s anti-war films that reflected growing concern over the Vietnam War, How I Won the War takes a cold, dark look at the Good War, World War II. In adapting Patrick Ryan's 1963 novel, screenwriter Charles Wood and director Richard Lester offered a narrative fractured by ...more

Director Richard Lester's first "serious" film, coming after the successes of his two Beatles musical comedies, hearkens back to his association with The Goon Show, and his first short, The Running Jumping Standing Still Film. It's filled with literate, densely allusive dialogue and sight gags that leave no sacred cow alive. Lester and screenwriter Charles Wood not only take on the most holy of modern wars, World War II, but they also satirize the conventions of war movies (the diverse company ...more