Pungent, if occasionally overbaked, account of a middle-aged veteran whose pompous reminiscenses of his wartime heroics cannot obscure his ineptitude in battle. A deliciously cynical parody of the lunacy of war. Interesting to see Lennon in one of his very few acting roles, as the Cockney Gripweed.

This film features former Beatle John Lennon and Roy Kinnear as ill-fated enlisted men in under the inept command of Lieutenant Earnest Goodbody. The story unwinds mostly in flashbacks of Lieutenant Goodbody who has lower-class beginnings and education which make him a poor officer who commands one of the worst units of the army.