Runtime: 84 minutes
Directed by: Susan Winslow
Starring: This is a
documentary, and a really wacky one at that
From: 20th
Century Fox
Even stranger than Yesterday, Across the Universe and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
This is another one of those movies which I've known of for years yet hadn't viewed until last night-a big reason why is that until recently it was incredibly hard to track down, as this is one of those infamous flops, at least at the time. Once I describe what this bizarre documentary is, its lack of success should be readily apparent.
Why exactly someone thought of having a smorgasbord of different popular musical acts doing covers of songs by The Beatles and having this music be the backdrop to... a cursory glance of World War II... I have no damn idea, but this is actually the entirety of All This and World War II. I was baffled before viewing this and it'd be nice to say afterwards that I understood and it all made sense-unfortunately, I am just as perplexed now as I was beforehand. To be clear, the war is covered in chronological order and there's actually plenty of film footage to tie everything together. In a way I was reminded of Myra Breckenridge, and THERE is a movie you really want to be compared to!
At best the music was only tangentially connected to what was on screen so the entire experience was just odd. I can't say it was awful or difficult to get through as the footage was nice and the music was fine... it was just odd. At least the musicians were of high caliber overall and all the covers were OK at worst. The acts include Elton John, Keith Moon, Tina Turner, Leo Sayer, Rod Stewart, Jeff Lynne and The Bee Gees. Peter Gabriel sounding like a Muppet as he sang Strawberry Fields Forever was unexpected (as he usually doesn't sound like a Muppet!) but in a surprise, soft rockers Ambrosia did a surprisingly cool rendition of Magical Mystery Tour.
Astoundingly, 20th Century Fox (!) released this movie; apparently, it was pulled after only two weeks due to both a public and critical lambasting. Due to all the songs I imagine this won't ever be put on disc by a niche label; that is a shame if only because many of those labels would have interviews with at least some of the surviving participants, and I'd love to know just WHY this was created and WHY they thought such a peculiar idea would be something the general public would like. There are plenty of World War II documentaries out there and I imagine most of the songs are on YouTube (heck, the entire movie is on the platform, at least at this time) and many of the film clips used are probably from movies that aren't too difficult to track down; honestly, most people probably won't bother but if you do, it likely only will be viewed once for curiosity's sake and to prove for yourself if this is as puzzling as it sounds.
This is another one of those movies which I've known of for years yet hadn't viewed until last night-a big reason why is that until recently it was incredibly hard to track down, as this is one of those infamous flops, at least at the time. Once I describe what this bizarre documentary is, its lack of success should be readily apparent.
Why exactly someone thought of having a smorgasbord of different popular musical acts doing covers of songs by The Beatles and having this music be the backdrop to... a cursory glance of World War II... I have no damn idea, but this is actually the entirety of All This and World War II. I was baffled before viewing this and it'd be nice to say afterwards that I understood and it all made sense-unfortunately, I am just as perplexed now as I was beforehand. To be clear, the war is covered in chronological order and there's actually plenty of film footage to tie everything together. In a way I was reminded of Myra Breckenridge, and THERE is a movie you really want to be compared to!
At best the music was only tangentially connected to what was on screen so the entire experience was just odd. I can't say it was awful or difficult to get through as the footage was nice and the music was fine... it was just odd. At least the musicians were of high caliber overall and all the covers were OK at worst. The acts include Elton John, Keith Moon, Tina Turner, Leo Sayer, Rod Stewart, Jeff Lynne and The Bee Gees. Peter Gabriel sounding like a Muppet as he sang Strawberry Fields Forever was unexpected (as he usually doesn't sound like a Muppet!) but in a surprise, soft rockers Ambrosia did a surprisingly cool rendition of Magical Mystery Tour.
Astoundingly, 20th Century Fox (!) released this movie; apparently, it was pulled after only two weeks due to both a public and critical lambasting. Due to all the songs I imagine this won't ever be put on disc by a niche label; that is a shame if only because many of those labels would have interviews with at least some of the surviving participants, and I'd love to know just WHY this was created and WHY they thought such a peculiar idea would be something the general public would like. There are plenty of World War II documentaries out there and I imagine most of the songs are on YouTube (heck, the entire movie is on the platform, at least at this time) and many of the film clips used are probably from movies that aren't too difficult to track down; honestly, most people probably won't bother but if you do, it likely only will be viewed once for curiosity's sake and to prove for yourself if this is as puzzling as it sounds.
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