La guerra de los botones

I watched "La Guerre des Boutons" around 1970. It was a very enjoyable movie. Well I married a war buff, but not of the kind of war of this movie is about, but the Pacific Theater of World War II. I have been looking for the tape of "La Guerre des Boutons" for years. I wanted my husband to see the black and white movie where a bunch of kids speaking French engages in their own type of warfare. Interestingly and strangely enough both movies were practically unknown in the States. I never found the tape of "La Guerre des Boutons" but when I realized that "The War of the Bottoms" was out, I immediately had to buy it. My husband loved the movie, and so did I.

It is so much fun watching those kids engaging in warfare. They get ideas from their school teacher and come up with all kind of strategies and plans. They have a leader, meet after school, and have to work to get ammunition, war it is quite serious business for those Irish Kids. They are prepared! One bunch of kinds are all "preppie," the typical "suits"! The other group is a bunch of poor kids wearing their jeans. When the poor guys realized that buttons were expensive and they can get their butt spanked for losing their buttons, they show up for their fight already naked, which really scared their adversaries. They meet in their little fort, where they kept their ammunition. They even dance and have a party when they win a little battle, just like the big boys. Jerome is my favorite of the bunch of characters. He is one of the opposition but he is such a little gentlemen and is so cute! I can also identify with Maria, because most of my friends for most of my life have been male. I found it interesting that the one of the producers was David Puttnam (The Killing Fields, Midnight Express, Memphis Belle, The Mission) who produced "Chariots of Fire" with the late Dodi Fayed, Princess Diana's boyfriend. Another fascinating fact is that this is supposed to be the first movie all of the kids had done. They were not "trained actors," but what a performance! This movie I presume is well known around the world but not in the U.S. I watched the movie first outside the U.S. I just wonder why such a classic is not known here? I recommend this movie to anyone. It is just adorable. What is it with the distributors here? My favorite scene: When the little guy gets royally drunk. He is hilarious. The kids stopping the war to care for the little rabbit.

My favorite quotes: "Fergus": "What are we going to cut off first?" The little kid goes: "His willie, cut off his willie."

In two small Irish villages the two communities have children who are ongoing hostilities. The Bally's are a little poorer than their rivals the Carricks. However the war of attrition between the two sets of boys is escalated when Fergus cuts all the buttons and buckles off one of the Carrick's clothes. This sparks the war of the Buttons which the Bally's take seriously, saving money, building a head quarters etc. The childish war begins to escalate however and the reality of the adult world begins to make it's presence felt in a very real way.

I set my video to tape one of the Hope/Crosby `Road to' movies late one night. However the destination for that movie was a place that had been the target of a terrorist bomb so it was dropped from the schedules and this movie was put in it's place due to the similar running time I assume. I was a little let down cause I'm a big Hope fan but I thought I'd give this a shot for lack of anything else to watch. I had high expectations when I saw that the team behind this had also produced and written Chariots of Fire, but soon realised this was a much more low key affair.

The plot is a remark of an old French film and sees a village feud between two groups of kids. It could have been sentimental and mushy with tonnes of cute kids just taking things too far 9imagine if Disney had made this!) but happily it is kept on a level field and not allowed to be spoilt in such a crude manner. The plot never gets out of hand and the ending is a sobering blow of reality without falling into sentimentality which it could so easily have done.

The cast are all excellent. The children are not the `cute but cheeky' type favoured in Hollywood but are totally convincing in their roles. The film never judges any of them but lets us just watch without having baddies or goodies – just children. The only fault is that it is a little too light and could be basically a film for slightly older kids who can understand the themes and not just take in the idea of fighting. Adults may find it to be a little too childish for long parts, but it's still a good mix of fun and serious material.

Overall I was set for a Bob Hope classic but got this. I got over my disappointment and got into this. It is light and funny but also dark without tipping into the mushy sentimentality that accompanies many films with all-kid casts. Could have been more substantial but is still pretty enjoyable all the same.

WAR OF THE BUTTONS is a warm film that exudes a wonder and zest seldom seen in even so-called family films. The parable-like movie concerns a feud between two factions of boys in an Irish village, the trophies of war being the buttons the boys cut from captured enemies' clothing. As the battles grow, we see how the rivalry goes back even further than the boys, to their parents' childhoods. Nothing heavy-handed or profound, but a perceptive view of childhood with a great lesson gently imparted. See it!

I was entranced by this perky, quirky tale. My teenage daughter even more so. A wonderful family film, but a treat for all lovers of anything Irish, regardless of age.

Three scenes in particular were memorable: The "rain" of buttons Marie bestows on the Bally boys in their HQ, the look that passes between Fergus and Marie after the Bally boys successfully routed their "enemies" by charging them sans clothing, and the exchange between Fergus and Geronimo when Geronimo asks why the "war" ever started in the first place.

The youngsters are believable in their portrayals, and the beauty of Ireland was a treat for the eyes.

This is a very fun and light-hearted film that is impossible not to like. Based on a French novel that has also been adapted a couple of times in France, the story is transported to Ireland and concerns the rivalry between the kids from two villages. Carrickdowse and Ballydowse are separated by a bridge, and in the evenings after school, mobs of boys meet in the fields and fight each other with sticks and rocks and set new and ever-changing border lines. The 'war' reaches new levels when a new form of trophy-taking comes into play, whereby the groups capture a member from the opposing village and cut off the buttons from his shirts and rip his clothes. In order to fight this war, the Carrickdowse leader Fergus orders his soldiers to assemble all buttons and threads they can find, so that they aren't punished by their parents if they are captured and then return home without any clothes. "War of the Buttons" is something of a family-classic in Ireland these days. Watching it all these years later I can appreciate the fine cast of actors that the film was able to gather. This was by no means a low-budget movie, it's more along the lines of "The Commitments" in terms of the international investment it received than anything else made in Ireland. It was produced by David Puttnam, who had produced a Best Picture Oscar-winner with "Chariots of Fire" in the 80s, and the screenplay was written by Colin Welland, who also won an Oscar for that one. That was quite a considerable pedigree behind it. Amongst the cast there is Liam Cunningham, who was only really starting out on the screen in 1994, and the always solid Colm Meaney. The young cast all did a great job, too, and the cinematography was spot-on in visually reconstructing an Ireland from the 1960s/70s.