Watch Two Men Went To War For Free

Why so much hype?

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Blistering performances.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Two Men Went to War, 2002 5/10, 32nd best of 2002, 220th best of the 2000's, 671st all timeA war comedy from England, Two Men Went to War is based on the true story of two British dentists who invaded Germany with pistols and grenades months before the invasion of Normandy, and actually lived to tell about it. The movie was alright, and actually had some pretty funny moments. However, the movie certainly had its faults. The actor playing the young soldier played him a little two goofey and stupid, the older soldier was played quite a bit better. Overall this movie was just okay. If it sounds like something you'd like, you'll probably think its all right, if it sounds like you wouldn't like it, you probably won't.

Two Men Went To War is a based-on-fact WW2 story about a couple of disgruntled British Army dentists who decide to 'invade' France and cause havoc among the enemy. Purloining a load of hand-grenades, the pair go AWOL and travel down to Cornwall, where they steal a boat. Setting off for France in the dead of night, the sequence of shots features the hotel where they had stayed and the harbour they were departing - all picked out with 'practical' lights blazing through the hotel's windows and other bright lights strung all around the harbour walls! This, in wartime blackout Britain, on a coastline facing enemy-occupied France, in waters regularly patrolled by German e-boats! Another commenter in this section states that the lighting was authentic in that the Cornish locals at the time figured that as they had never been attacked before, there was no reason to assume that they ever would be attacked then or in the future. However, even is this is true, the script should have made reference to this hard to believe 'fact' in dialogue, simply because the situation was so unusual and would have breached the strictly enforced wartime regulations concerning the blackout. Usually in movies, such 'blackout lighting', considering a story's authenticity, would be restricted to moonlight effect only. Another oversight in the film is the lack of anti-shatter window tapes which criss-crossed every pane of glass in Britain during the war. It's hard to believe that this glaring error went unnoticed by cast and crew. I suspect someone in authority said, 'Oh, they'll never realise," and simply let it go.

Richard at the Flicks makes a number of interesting points. However I would like to comment on two of them.The harbour scenes were shot in Charlestown in Cornwall just a few miles from where the two dentists actually sailed. While making the film the elders of the village pointed out that although harbour lights should not be shone at night, their village kept them on during most of the war. There reasoning was that no one had ever bombed them and nobody would. That part of Cornwall was not bombed and was out of way of most German flight paths.Also from a purely technical point of view if there had been no lighting in that scene the audience would not have been able to see anything.When King & Cuthbertson actually landed in France there was no enemy along that particular stretch of the coast. This was well documented in newspapers at the time. For the Germans to patrol every bit of Northern France would have taken hundred's of thousands of men, men who could not be spared. The crossing at Cherbourg was long and few at the time thought this would be an area that soldiers would land. (On their return to their boat they did encounter a German officer, as can be seen on the deleted scenes on the DVD).Also it was 1942. Up to that point the war had not been going well for the British and an invasion of France at that time was not considered feasible both by the Germans and by the British. The Germans were convinced that it was only a matter of time before Britain fell. The British they thought were no threat to the mighty German Army.

(Spoilers)Two Men Went To War is an unambitious, entertaining film, if ultimately somewhat slight. Apparently based on a true story, it is a dramatised account of a passed-over sergeant and a somewhat gormless private (from the Royal Army Dental Core, for whom "an army that can't bite, can't fight!"), who go to war on their own account in 1942. Absconding from camp, they steal a fishing boat, invade occupied France, and are lucky enough to gain some military honour before facing a court martial upon their return. Those familiar with some British WWII films of the period will quickly recognise the stereotypes: well meaning amateurs undertake derring-do in their own eccentric fashion and, against all the odds, make a success of things. Over familiar too is the national coyness towards adult relationships, as one of the two protagonists blunders in and out of two encounters with women with due virginal surprise. Replace Sergeant Peter King (Kenneth Cranham) with a Tommy Trinder or Arthur Lowe, or Private Leslie Cuthbertson (Leo Hill) with a Claude Hulbert or George Formby, and we are in the territory of The Foreman Went To France (1942) or the hugely popular antics of BBC TV series Dad's Army, which it most easily recalls. As the AWOL duo en route to France to "take Mohammed to the mountain," King and Cuthbertson make an attractive, odd-couple pairing, whose mutual contempt and distrust, turning inevitably to self-reliance and then friendship, makes up much of the film's dramatic interest. The sergeant, nicknamed 'The Kaiser' by his fellows, has a medal from the First World War (gained, it turns out, in less than heroic circumstances) and wants to do more than stay behind during the new conflict. Private Cuthbertson wishes to live up to the memory of his father and prove himself in his own eyes and in those of his family. He daydreams of valour, either being transfixed by the aircraft that overfly the backwater of his training camp or fantasising with a live hand grenade - the incident which first brings the two men together. Much of the film is well shot and the detail of the period is effectively reconstructed. There are niggling inaccuracies however: under threat of invasion place names and signs were removed throughout the UK to confuse likely enemy paratroopers, so it's very unlikely that Plymouth station would be conveniently indicated as here. Equally unbelievable, at a time when the blackout was mandatory, is the well-lit harbour that the two soldiers sail out of when attempting their channel crossing. Least convincing of all is the evident ease in which they arrive and leave the French coast: completely unchallenged, and stepping through light barbed wire - as if mines and fortifications of any sort had not been invented. Composer Jonathan Harvey provides a score that contains both original elements and from such period acts as Flannigan and Allen. This is well done, making the film seem richer than it is - although this viewer at least felt that the heavy handed use of Elgar during the final attack was a step too far, the blaring patriotism threatening a descent into bathos. Parallel to the unorthodox expedition by our two heroes are the preparations back in London for the start of the African campaign by Churchill and his advisors. While the two amateurs are seen as active, ambitious and enthusiastic, the military professionals in the War Rooms are shown perpetually planning and gloomy. The lethargy of those bigwigs in the know is in contrast to the get-up-and-go of those who don't know any better, the one by implication commenting on the other. By the end of the film Churchill, and presumably, via his uplifting, that of the whole war effort, has been saved from a fit of depression by the actions of the two rogue soldiers. The characteristically excellent Derek Jacobi steals the show as Churchill's top intelligence officer while, as the leader himself; David Ryall does a passable impersonation. One suspects that this small scale, likeable film will be better received in other countries than in the UK (where critical response was limited and fairly dismissive) as its gentle eccentricities can be charming. The events it portrays and the gentle irony employed are far from those in the typical Hollywood blockbuster, while its modest proceedings mean that it looks better on the small screen than the large. At the end of the day, it's a plot that needed a greater sense of absurdity and real danger than was the case here, although it remains consistently watchable. At least it's not another dismal British gangster picture...