Synopsis

In 1930s London, disillusioned advertising copywriter Gordon Comstock abandons a secure career to pursue poetry and reject the materialism of middle-class life. His experiment in poverty quickly brings financial hardship, strained relationships, and wounded pride. As his ideals collide with everyday responsibilities, Gordon must decide whether artistic independence is worth sacrificing love, comfort, and stability.

Factoids & Trivia

• A Merry War was released in the United Kingdom as Keep the Aspidistra Flying, the title of George Orwell's 1936 novel on which it is based.

• The novel's title is a pun on the socialist slogan "Keep the Red Flag Flying." The aspidistra, a hardy houseplant associated with respectable middle-class homes, represents the social values Gordon rejects.

• The screenplay was written by Alan Plater, while the film's score was composed by Mike Batt and performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

• The story draws on Orwell's own experiences of poverty and precarious work in London and Paris, although the film presents the material with a more overtly romantic and comic tone.

• The adaptation was criticized by some Orwell admirers for softening the novel's bleak conclusion. The film treats Gordon's return to advertising more as a practical reconciliation than as the unambiguous artistic defeat suggested by the book.

• Produced with BBC Films and the Arts Council of England, the 101-minute British production was filmed in London, including locations around Bloomsbury.

• In the United States, the film received the title A Merry War and opened on August 28, 1998.