Murphy's War (1971)

How sad is this?

Excellent, a Must See

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This movie should be compulsory viewing for all those who sigh and say that it is an unfortunate necessity to kill a few civilians during war. This is the simple story of Murphy, merchant seaman sole survivor of a U boat attack on his ship. His mission: to wreak revenge on the sub and all its crew. The utter folly of a single man attacking a fully armed military vessel is as nothing to Murphy's determination. This is not calculated retribution as a dish served cold, this is hot-blooded, crazy mad-as-hell-not-going-to-take-it-anymore bloody vengeance.There are tremendous scenes. Murphy fixing up a seaplane. Murphy teaching himself to fly said seaplane by climbing in and giving it some gas. Murphy driving a tugboat as his own personal dreadnought. The final scene is a masterpiece, which does not dwell on its simple message. War is personal, unpredictable, murderous and ultimately pointless.Sure, there are flaws, Peter O'Toole's Irish accent is way too stage-Irish for my liking, despite the fact that he is Irish. The German sub is actually a British one repainted, and the Germans are painted just a little too murderous. It would have been better to portray them as normal soldiers, who killed a few non-combatants unintentionally. So next time you hear someone say a few civilians accidentally killed in Iraq, Afghanistan is "collateral damage", tell them to watch this movie.

Murphy's War is one of my top 50 most loved films, and I've watched A LOT of films, in all genres. When a film with a straightforward narrative, and a relatively simple plot with very few characters can rivet you to your seat right until the end, you have a hell of a story on your hands! The wide 2.35:1 format and outstanding cinematography by Oscar winner Douglas Slocombe are ideally matched to the location and type of action. And the reviewer who thinks the role of Murphy isn't suited for Peter O'Toole should have his head examined! O'Toole IS Murphy as much as he IS Lawrence of Arabia. Murphy's progression deeper and deeper into a vengeance-clouded mania is masterfully accomplished; he's in good company here, along with Gregory Peck's Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, Spencer Tracy's Old Man in The Old Man and the Sea, and Robert Shaw's Captain Quint in Jaws, O'Toole's tenacious Irishman Murphy is an inspiration easily absorbed and applied to all situations in which one may be considered the underdog by a wide margin. In other words, Murphy isn't an ironic post modern anti-hero. He's the old fashioned everyman, overcoming incredible odds to achieve his ends kind of hero. One could critique the film from sociological or psychological perspectives, and question whether the screenwriter intended for Murphy to symbolize the evil war can bring out in man, or the greatness, or both. But without reading anything into it, Murphy's War is on a primary level simply a terrific action yarn, well worth owning on DVD.

I enjoyed the movie very much, but then Peter O'Toole is a grate Actor and his films are usually worth watching. The one irritating thing was not with the movie but with the plot description on this site. The plot states that "he was the sole survivor of his crew, that has been decimated" this is impossible the word decimated means to reduce by one tenth so you could never have just one survivor. The writer could have used Destroyed, wiped out, all killed or slaughtered; any of these would have made more sense. If one is going to put things up on an international site you should make sure that you know what words mean before you use them. There were also some spellings mistakes in the plot even web browsers have spelling checkers these days so there is no excuse

Murphys war is a great movie. the acting. location, peter o Toole of course was doing his thing .one hell of a actor.all of the actors did a great job and the story itself was terrific. while working for Grumman aerospace on LI. NY I worked on the same aircraft that was in the movie the aircraft was in one of our hangers so i sat in the cockpit and for a split second i was peter o Toole. the plane is now in a museum in Ohio.great movie they should make more like it.I believe the movie was made in south America. I sure would like to know the name of the river where they made the movie.also the ending was a real surprise. on a one to ten vote i would give this picture a big ten,great movie great entertainment. respectfully WM