This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Really Surprised!

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

In the last days of the second world war a German U-Boat sinks a British merchant ship on the Orinoco river . As the survivors flounder in the river they are massacred by the Germans . One survivor is left , an Irishman called Murphy who becomes obsessed with revenge All the ingredients of a very good war film are here . Big name star , sadistic Nazis , exotic locations and yet for some reason MURPHY'S WAR fails to take off completely . The Nazis are portrayed as fascist brutes and the film does revolve around Murphy's obsession with revenge . This might work very well in another medium but on film it doesn't translate very well because emotions are internalised and difficult to portray on screen . and this makes for a rather uninvolving film .MURPHY'S WAR does contain long sequences where no one speaks and while some people may admire the qualities of sound editing I didn't . The whole unlikely subplot of Murphy learns to fly a plane become redundant anyway and seems to be included simply to show off the sound editing as if to ask " Please can you give us an Oscar " . The film ends on a bitterly ironic plot turn and like PLAY DIRTY from around the same time leads the film to stick out in the mind but before we get to the cynical ending we have to endure something of a hard slog .

This film was fictionalized so that it could be viewed by civilians. What actually happened was far worse than shown in the movie. When the Germans invade the native hospital they killed the doctor and all of the civilian natives they could find. They did this to conceal their presence and activities from the world once the war was over. The film crew had to use a Grumman Duck because they could not find a Vought Kingfisher. The mechanic that was trying to learn to fly the plane would never have looped and rolled it but like any producer they did it to maintain interest in the film. The river used in the movie was the Orinoco in Venezuela even though the incident happened on the amazon in Brazil. The fact that the crew and captain might have been tried for war crimes had they left any of the survivors alive led them to eliminate all known survivors. The movie tries to show what survivors would have had to do in reality to achieve justice. Of course no one tried the victors. The German crew killed less than 300 people while the fire bombing of Tokyo killed 200,000 people. Perhaps the message the film tried to establish was that only the meek shall survive. I loved the scene near the end when Louie walks off abandoning his only source of income to a lunatic. In reality he would have refused to let the tug go to sea in the first place. When Peter would scream full speed ahead, in the real world Louie would have shut off the fuel line. This is one of the best movies around and the flying sequence is magnificent. Having flown a Giles 202 for five years the aerobatics were something I know about from first hand experience and the loops and rolls were easy. I was also in a Sabreliner when it was rolled but to roll the Duck is something I would never have done. To take a plane that had been so severely damaged and and then to loop it is beyond any form of possibility. The plane, as shown in the movie, did not have enough power to go vertical and once it got inverted the engine would have quit as the plane stalled inverted.

It arises in every war. Destruction on a grand scale and then a private battle on a more secular stage. "In every massacre" quotes the sage, "there is always a survivor." Such is the premise in the film "Murphy's War." During the final months of World War Two, a German U-Boat commander, (Horst Janson) cruising the South American coast line, attacks and sinks a British ship of war, killing all aboard. Examining the ship's wreckage, the German commander is satisfied he not only destroyed the English ship, but did in fact kill the entire crew. Leaving the carnage behind, the audience realizes an English sailor from the stricken ship, survived. His name is Murphy, brilliantly played by Peter O'Toole. Having lived through the terrifying ordeal, many would believe, one should be glad to be alive and to seek a safe distance between himself and the deadly submarine. That is not the conclusion of seaman Murphy who believes the only way he will be able to rid himself of the nightmarish screams of his dying comrades is to seek out and destroy the German U-Boat. This might be a death-wish to some, but not to Murphy who believes that regardless of the inevitable outcome of the war, his sole purpose in life is revenge. Trying to convince him of this mad adventure is Dr. Hayden (Sian Phillips) a female doctor working among the tribal people of the Amazon. In addition, Murphy not only discovers a repairable English sea-plane, but an amiable, aging and exhausted Oil company employee, named Louis Brezon. (Philippe Noiret) Louie has worked in the forgotten, backwaters of the Amazon for years, patiently waiting the end of the war. Now with Murphy seeking his help and relentless revenge, Louie offer's a bit of sound advice. "You're a small and lonely man Murphy, like me, the world will never build us a monument. The only difference is; I know that." Thus the confrontation between the obsessed man and the powerful Submarine easilly become classic drama. ****

With out a doubt. A classic and original style war movie with intense acting from Peter O'Toole. The almighty aircraft mechanic seeks revenge for the death of his shipmates by the evil nazi navy. Jona hunts his whale to get his pound of flesh. I saw it when I was a little boy thought wow this guy can fix anything. Over the years when I have caught it on TV man the old classic still holds up. A gritty telling story of one man's blind revenge to seek justice. I am all for Murphy to kill those ba$^@&d%. Proud to be in Murphy's box. A sailor who at the end of the war witnesses his ship and crew torpedoed by a German u-boat. He survives with a pilot and plane. He with the help of a local island man Louie gets the down aircraft out of the jungle. But the Germans have come back to finish the job. With a missionary doctor as subplot the story is compelling. A great line "don't worry it's just alittle ole alligator" classic. A must see for all time. I still think on of the best ever put in film art.