Two Men Went To War (2004)

Strong and Moving!

Best movie ever!

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

TWO MEN WENT TO WAR 2002This World War Two film with a light comic touch is based on a true story. It is 1942 and two soldiers, Kenneth Cranham and Leo Bill are afraid the war will pass them by without getting into the action. Cranham is a WW One veteran now charged with training recruits to march etc. He has just been told he is too old for active service. Leo Bill is a trainee dentist in the Army Dental Corp. He knows he will never get near the actual combat. Cranham decides to prove the Army wrong. He comes up with a scheme to go to France and destroy the German battle cruiser, Scharhornst, in Breast harbour. Private Bill meets Cranham when the two accidentally blow-up an ammunition bunker. The explosion is blamed on a passing German bomber. Cranham's plans change went the Scharnhorst escapes up the channel back to Germany.Cranham grabs up Bill one night as well as several pistols and a rucksack full of grenades. They are going to invade France and do what damage they can. Before they set off, Cranham mails Bill's and his own pay-book to Winston Churchill. He includes a letter explaining what they intend to do. Now they leave camp and head to the coast. Stealing a small fishing boat, they set sail for France. After nearly being ran down by a passing ship in a fog bank, they hit land on France. At first, the pair believe they might have got lost in the fog, and circled back to England. They quickly find out they have reached France and just barely escape a German patrol. The pair now begin their campaign against the Third Reich, by cutting various telephone lines etc. They then accidentally cause the destruction of a German train by fiddling with the levers at a rail switching booth. Next the pair stumble onto a German radar station. They use the rest of their grenades to cause as much damage as possible before escaping on a German motorcycle.Needless to say, our intrepid pair return to their small boat, and set sail for England. They however have the bad luck to run out of fuel and then hit a floating mine. Rescued by a UK Air-Sea rescue launch, they are returned to England.Of course nobody believes their tale and they are soon up on desertion charges. The only thing that saves them, is that the letter finally made it through to Churchill's office. Plus that there had been a Commando raid on the same German Radar station that same night. The whole film is played out with a slight comic tone which works rather well. The film is not a world beater by any means. It could have done with a shorter runtime and a tighter story. It did however kill an evening in front of the television, as well as supply a few laughs.

What superb movie. The tale of two English dentists, who, before D-day, decide to invade France on their own. The result is one of the most enjoyable war-movies I have ever seen. It starts of quite slow, but the pacing suits the story. There are no big build-ups leading to massive machine-gun fights with lots of dead Germans and gore. Rather, you are kept in suspense to whether their comical blunders will bear any results or whether they will manage not to kill themselves by mistake in the process. It had myself and most of my family laughing within the first couple of minutes, and we never really stopped till the end. Bravo! I hope to see more movies like this.

(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...

A Brilliant film-this is one of the rare films that you can sit down and watch with all the family. Everett and Villiers have managed to write a fantastic tale of two courageous men- not content with being army dentists, they risk their lives by going to France to fight the war themselves! What makes this film so touching is that it's based on a true story. I experienced almost every emotion whilst watching this film...fear, hope, pride, delight...i came out exhausted and can't wait to see it again!