was not successful among critics or at the box office. Roger Greenspun's review in The New York Times centered on the awkwardness of the plot: "The sense of a film in which nothing quite works with anything else pervades 'Murphy's War,' and it extends from such crucial technical details as the sloppy and finally tedious cross-cutting between things (the seaplane, the motor barge, etc.) and the people who are supposed to be operating them, to the playing together of the principal actors." A review in Variety stated: "By no means a film classic, 'Murphy's War' stands out as the kind of good, solid entertainment needed these days to fill houses." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded the film two stars out of four and called it "an adventure story high in production values but low in suspense." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "The story proceeds from the detestable to the improbable by way of the uninteresting. Rarely will you see a major motion picture so flat and devoid of tone or atmosphere. O'Toole's performance is all flash mannerisms and unintelligibly gargled accents." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called the film "a dim, self-defeating adventure movie" with a screenplay "at peculiar cross-purposes with itself ... when the German surrender is announced, the script turns on feisty, vengeful sailor Murphy. All of a sudden it's about the madness of the plan to sink the sub, which, unfortunately, happens to be the raison d'etre of the movie." A review in the New York Daily News praised O'Toole's performance but called the film a "sluggish action spectacle." References Notes Bibliography Deeley, Michael. Blade Runners, Deer Hunters and Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: My Life in Cult Movies. New York: Pegasus Books, 2011. . Freedland, Michael. Peter O'Toole: A Biography. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. . Wapshott, Nicholas. Peter O'Toole: A Biography. New York: Beaufort Books, 1984. . External links 1971 films 1970s war adventure films British war adventure films British aviation films 1970s English-language films British films about revenge World War II submarine films Films based on British novels Films directed by Peter Yates Films set in Venezuela Films shot in Venezuela Films scored by John Barry (composer) U-boat fiction Films with screenplays by Stirling Silliphant Films scored by Ken Thorne 1970s British films