For a film by Carol Reed and with a large collection of seasoned actors, you would think that this movie would amount to something more than just a bunch of selfish whiners being drafted into the army. Instead, you wonder whether they know a war is going on. Maybe, the purpose of approach was to accentuate the positive effects of training. It seemed overlong and exaggerated though. At long last, 48 minutes in, Niven's character gives his pride of the unit speech with a history lesson. Reality and civility finally appear from this point forward. Nice to see Trevor Howard in his first movie role. Ironic that they chose to include comments from old soldiers for a film entitled, "Way Ahead". The second half of the movie was much better with good war scenes and appearances by a French-speaking Ustinov and Carol Reed's daughter and future wife in brief supporting roles. I would have thought much more of this film with the first 50 minutes reduced to 20.
Review of The Way Ahead
