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?
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?