Two Men Went To War (2004)

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The UK TV premiere of "Two Men Went to War" was shown directly after a vintage episode of "Dad's Army". This was clearly a BBC progamme scheduler's attempt at mind control. The story of a has-been sergeant's personal invasion of wartime France shares a lot of territory with "Dad's Army" but "Two Men Went to War" is a pale shadow of the classic TV series.Despite being based on true events, the movie portrays its protagonists as a sort of Laurel and Hardy double act. The real Sergeant Peter King and Private Leslie Cuthbertson were a tough and resourceful duo who managed to survive on their own in enemy territory and commit several acts of sabotage before returning to home soil. Kenneth Cranham portrays his character well, despite the fact that he is in his 60s and the real Peter King was 26 in 1942. Not only this, but saddling the character King with a medal for changing a car wheel under fire in WWI cheapens the efforts of the real King, who won a Military Cross in 1944 and the DSO in Korea.Leo Bill matches Cranham in the acting stakes but plays his character as a Londoner when the real Cuthbertson was from Tyneside. I don't blame Bill for not attempting a geordie accent but it's another jangling note of inaccuracy in a story that's supposed to be "Mostly True". Cuthbertson is portrayed mainly as boyish and inept, but in reality he served as a soldier in the Durham Light Infantry after his adventures in France.I doubt that either King or Cuthbertson would have been very happy with this movie if either were still alive. While its premise is comic, too many liberties have been taken. In the movie, the 2 men are saved from being branded as deserters by an intelligence officer who credits them with the destruction of a Freya radar array. By coincidence they manage to wreck it in parallel with a British commando raid on nearby Wurzburg radar dishes. Trying to tie King and Cuthbertson's ad-hoc sabotage operation in with a bowdlerised version of the Operation Biting raid on Bruneval is simply too much. "Two Men Went to War" may be based on fact but pitching it as a "Dad's Army" - style comedy was a mistake. Surely the true story of 2 army dentists who invaded German-occupied France in 1942 was worthy of a more embellishment-free screenplay?

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.

Only the English can make a war movie starring desperately patriotic but, in terms of weapons, toothless soldiers: stalwart officers and other ranks of the Army's Dental Corps. And only in England could such a story be true (in the main).1942: the war isn't going terribly well for Old Blighty. Churchill, played here by David Ryall, is sometimes depressed, always stressed. He needs a victory and he's hanging his spurs on the promise of a new general in the Mideast, a fellow named Monty.But at Aldershot most train to fight and a small number prepare to provide emergency fillings on the battlefield for teeth with cavities. The Dental Corps major has the right elan-"An Army That Can't Bite, Can't Fight." Two of his other ranks, however, desperately want to fight, not make dentures.Sergeant Peter King (Kenneth Cranham) is a survivor of the great World War I battle of Passchendale and he has one recruit, Private Leslie Cuthbertson (Leo Bill), naive but intensely patriotic, who wants action. So they go to war without orders or authorization and that's what "Two Men Went to War" is about. This noncom decides to invade France accompanied only by Cuthbertson (both names are real, I told you this is a true story). Mailing a letter with their pay books to Churchill (to establish they weren't deserting), the two steal a boat and head for Occupied France.They make an unopposed landing and establish a beachhead (several critics have commented that it was unlikely two men could just hit the beach like that undetected but this is when Germany was doing very well and the construction of "Festung Europa" hadn't started on the Atlantic Coast. And, anyway, that's exactly what these fellows did.Bill and Cranham make an engaging military odd couple, the sergeant brittle, barking peremptory commands and the private taking just so much gruff but not too much from his leader.Armed only with pistols and hand grenades they strike a tertiary target of opportunity, their first two targets being beyond their capability. Exactly how much of this is accurate is hard to say but their adventures were reported at the time.On their unauthorized, bumbling, ill-planned foray they have humorous encounters and harmless adventures. Even the German soldiers don't appear too sinister. Sergeant King may have been truly devoted to his country's cause but his sergeant-major had it right when, asked by a superior officer about the noncom's character, he responds "Barking mad, sir"Derek Jacobi is entertaining as Churchill's tired and ever-on-duty intelligence officer, Major Merton. The scenes in Churchill's London bunker appear to have been filmed there-I've visited the site and it looks awfully authentic here.I don't know how well this film was received in England. Tough, snapping sergeants of the British Army have been a movie staple since the talkies began. The exploits of these two soldiers are more weird than impressive. Their adventure seems to be a mixture of "Dad's Army" and "Monty Python."Still, the film engrosses because the story is so bizarre and when one enters the theater knowing it's true, "Two Men Went to War" becomes attention holding. Both men are now dead, King having died in a New Zealand road accident not that long ago (his military career continued after he was broken to corporal for his invasion of France. He won the Military Cross, one of Great Britain's highest decorations, in subsequent combat). Cuthbertson earned 28 days in jail for being absent without leave. He seems to have had a very nice postwar career, dying of natural causes about eight years ago. An end title states neither ever saw the other again after their court-martial.An oddball film about two definite genuine originals who contributed nothing to victory but who gave the British public something to smile about when the days were dark with the inevitability of victory more a matter of faith than fact.8/10.

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!