The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Criterion Collection
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Movie Reviews of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Nostalgia for the old ways must be put aside if we're to win, say Powell and Pressburger. Wonder if Churchill ever got it
Summary: 5 Stars
Churchill was outraged. He was expecting a patriotic war movie full of valor, heroic death, brave British soldiers overcoming all odds to beat the Hun, with Nazis portrayed as the beasts they were. What he saw was a film about a fat, bald, pompous old man with a walrus mustache who can't seem to do anything right. Worse, the only German around is a good German who turns out to be a firm friend. Even worse, the lead character seems to be based on a newspaper cartoon of a blustering old colonel who quickly came to symbolize for the British people the complacency and pigheadedness that had made Britain so unprepared when war with Hitler came. Churchill immediately determined to have the film banned. He might have succeeded but for two things. Some in his government argued that banning the film would only create a backlash. Then there was the matter of World War II, which at last distracted him from his passion for censorship.
And so we have The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, the movie I consider the richest of the six amazingly creative films Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger made between 1942 and 1948.
It's 1942 and we're in an ornate London steam bath with a group of fat old duffers we come to understand are the aged officers of the Home Guard. War games will begin at midnight and they are preparing themselves. They are led by Major General Clive Wynne-Candy. He won the Victoria Cross in the Boer War and served with distinction in France during WWI. That was long ago. He's filled with pride, certitude, confidence in the rules of war and good food.
A squad of soldiers bursts in led by a young lieutenant who immediately asks which of the towel-wrapped, sweating old men is General Candy. It seems the opposing side in the war game has decided to strike early and arrest all the senior officers of the Home Guard. "You can't do that," bellows the old man. "War starts at midnight!"
What are we to make of this old man? Was Churchill right? An instant later the old man has furiously rushed the young lieutenant and they both go into the pool. After some mighty splashing and thrashing, we see a figure swimming toward the far end, then emerge to have himself wrapped in a towel. Wait a minute. The man is still Clive Candy, but it's forty years earlier and Candy is a young officer. And now Powell and Pressburger are going to show us the young officer, not the newspaper caricature. We're going to learn a lot about Clive Candy in 163 minutes and 40 years. We're going to appreciate his optimism, his gallantry, his sense of honor, and even sympathize a little in his outdated belief that there are such things for gentlemen as the rules of war.
What Churchill missed is how powerfully Powell and Pressburger make their case: That outmoded ideas must be discarded when fighting men as mad and evil as Hitler. That the British are learning that lesson. That belief in British values such as fair play and honor may seem old fashioned, even quaint, but they are core values. That Britain, thanks in part to the character and spirit of men like Clive Wynne-Candy, will prevail no matter how fiercely the winds may now blow...but nostalgia and memories must be put aside.
Roger Livesey had the role of his life as Candy. He brings Candy to life for us with decency, respect and affection. He's excellent both as the young officer and as the old man who lives increasingly with nostalgia. I challenge anyone not to tear up when we last see Candy, an old man, watch a parade of young men marching off to war, knowing that his time has past, but being comforted by his German friend that his values are true. Anton Walbrook plays Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff with great subtlety. Ultimately it is Theo, now a refugee from Hitler, who brings Candy to an understanding that things must change. Deborah Kerr plays three roles, the three women in Candy's life...the woman he loved and lost to Theo, the nurse during WWI whom he met and then married, who has died, and the young enlisted woman who served as his driver when we first met him. Kerr gives each of these women a slightly different personality. She is memorable.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is such a rich and unusual film that whatever anyone writes about it will, I think, be largely inadequate. It needs to be seen. Is it better than Powell and Pressburger's other master films from the Forties? We're talking about The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale - Criterion Collection (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! - Criterion Collection (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus - Criterion Collection (1947) and The Red Shoes - Criterion Collection (1948). I like them all immensely but my favorite is Blimp.
The Criterion release is excellent, sharp and with the full-bodied color Powell loved. There are some excellent special features, a fine commentary by Martin Scorsese and Michael Powell (obviously an old man when they taped it) and an informative printed insert.
Movie Review: A powerful and moving masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
"What makes a film a masterpiece? It has to be an original story brought to life with first class acting, direction and production values. Most of all, it must have that magical quality which causes it to linger in the memory long after viewing. "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" is such a film.
This Criterion DVD contains a lovingly restored complete version of the almost 3 hour epic, produced in 1942 at the height of the war, exquisitely photographed in technicolour and containing 2 of the greatest performances in British film. The film is divided into 3 acts tracing the life of professional soldier Clive Candy through incidents starting at the aftermath of the Boer War to World War 2. Roger Livesey plays Candy and ages 40 years with complete conviction. The makeup is outstanding. Anton Walbrook plays the German who Candy befriends. Walbrook was a superb Austrian actor and his monologue when he enters Britain as a refugee in 1939 is overwhelming. A very young Deborah Kerr plays 3 woman who punctuate Candy's life and Kerr proves that really talented actresses have inate abilities which simply mature as they progress. There are also many loving close ups of Kerr and it is not surprising to learn that the director, Michael Powell, fell in love with her.
This is a Criterion package so the extras are outstanding. The film has a memorable commentary by the Powell, punctuated by Martin Scorcese. Powell was elderly when he made the tape and his voice is hushed and sometimes hard to hear but his memory is sharp and he has recorded details which would be lost otherwise.
Aslo, there is a documentary which highlights many of the film's great features. Finally, there is some excellent information about the cartoon character Colonel Blimp and its orginator, the celebrated cartoonist David Low. Blimp was a blustery, pompous ass whose political and social comments caused great amusement to the general public for many years. It was an inspired idea to take this character as the basis for a film about the life of a soldier from youth and urgency to irrelevancy in old age. The film's author, Emeric Pressburger, has toned down the less likeable characteristics of Blimp to help sustain audience interest. The film was controversial at the time of its production because it depicted, among other things, a sympathetic German. Winston Churchill tried to block its release. It was not the propaganda he wanted.
If at times, the film seems to drag and lose direction, hang in there because it is rare that characters are so carefully developed. These are completely 3 dimensional people. In 1942, the film was recording a lost era with its gentle satire of the slightly absurd Blimp. In the 21st Century, the film is a fascinating record of a different time and different codes of behaviour.
Movie Review: Wonderful picture of a lost era
Summary: 5 Stars
I knew nothing of Powell and Pressburger, had never heard of Roger Livesey or Anton Walbrook, and Colonel Blimp was complete mystery to me. I just found this DVD on the shelf of my local library and it looked promising. So...what a great surprise to find this thoroughly enjoyable, superbly acted film. Other reviewers here can fill you in on details. I just want to add my words of admiration.
Roger Livesy gives a wonderful performance that spans 40 years. He wins your heart as a young officer who dares to break the rules by going to Berlin on a whim, answering the plea of a young English governess who is troubled that the Germans have been given a false picture of the English. He intends to help her to straighten them out, but finds himself in a duel with a German officer, and then, in a nursing home, where he falls in love with the woman and becomes close friends with the officer who has wounded him. This is one big hearted Englishman! When he finds that the German is in love with the woman too and intends to marry her, he wishes them both his heartiest congratulations. We follow him through the years, as he grows in wisdom and in girth, but never loses his code of what being a gentleman means, and his essential goodness. His German enemy/rival/friend is brilliantly played by Anton Walbrook. Wow..this is a performance that I won't forget for a long time. Deborah Kerr, at 18, plays a triple role and it's easy to see why all of the men fall in love with her.
There is so much humanity and goodness in this film that I highly recommend it to everyone. I can't imagine any sentient being who won't be moved by it.
Movie Review: Classic of its Kind
Summary: 5 Stars
Roger Livesey gives an astonishing tour-de-force of the life of Colonel Blimp. This film really shows what a jolly old boy network the empire was for this sort of fellow. The film starts out on a run, and is a little hard to follow at first, but as soon as Livesey emerges out of the pool as a young man again the story starts to unfold. This is a long film, and not one big in action. Its a character study of a certain type of British officer which is long gone nowadays. The film is loving in the treatment of its subject, and shows wonderfully how the passage of time can change all of us into a Blimp one way or another. As a young man Blimp is full of energy and controversial in his actions, but as time marches on events start to pass him by.
This is a very British film that was made during WW2. There is a certain degree of war propaganda in it, but to me this comes more under the category of classy propaganda. The supporting characters are all excellent. If you are looking for an intelligent film which shows a passage of time with warm feeling and good characters, then Blimp should be your #1 choice. I have enjoyed this film for many years and its good to see a DVD copy out now with a few extra features. Criterion always does a classy job. The Blimp cartoons were great. I had always known the character was based on that, but had never seen the original cartoons. The one extra thing missing would have been subtitles as some of the Britisisms are a little hard to catch sometimes. This is a classic period piece drama which ends in capital British style as the band marches by playing "British Grenadiers". You can't get any better than that.
Movie Review: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Summary: 5 Stars
The lengthy but immensely rewarding "Blimp" is a warm, fond salute to a colonial British Empire which would never exist again. Livesey is superb as the beloved central character who ages forty years over the course of the film, and Walbrook is equally astonishing as Wynne-Candy's German friend whom he's forced to oppose in wartime. And young Deborah was never more luminous than in this early role. Criterion deserves credit for a gorgeous high-definition transfer of this masterpiece, which makes the old new again.