The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Criterion Collection (1945)

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's first Technicolor masterpiece, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), transcends its narrow wartime propaganda to portray in warm-hearted detail the life and loves of one extraordinary man. The film's clever narrative structure first presents us with the imposingly rotund General Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey in his greatest screen performance), a blustering old duffer who seems the epitome of stuffy, outmoded values. But traveling backwards 40 years we see a different man altogether: the young and dashing officer "Sugar" Candy. Through a series of affecting relationships with three women (all played to perfection by Deborah Kerr) and his touching lifelong friendship with a German officer (Anton Wallbrook), we see Candy's life unfold and come to understand how difficult it is for him to adapt his sense of military honor to modern notions of "total war." Notoriously, this is the film that Winston Churchill tried to have banned, and indeed its sympathetic portrayal of a German officer was contentious in 1943, though one suspects that Churchill's own blimpishness was a factor too. --Mark Walker Amazon.com

A film unlike any other

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a true rarity in moviedom, a film that is intellectually engaging, filled with life and innovation, a film that stands as a celebration of cinema, that explores the medium to the fullest. It was released not too long after Citizen Kane, and deserves to be held on the same level of esteem because of its glorious innovation and storytelling techniques. Blimp is a uniquely British film, yet universal, a film of its period(early '40's), yet light years ahead of its time. In my opinion, it demands to be seen and appreciated by a wider audience because it is unquestionably a landmark motion picture.

Comparisons between Blimp and Citizen Kane are not uncalled for. Both films are daring in their assertion that the cinematic style of a film is as important an element of the storytelling as the screenplay and the actors and the set pieces. The difference is that Blimp isn't drunk on its own power, dazzling the viewer with chiaroscuro lighting and warped, unusual camera angles, thereby self-consciously drawing attention to itself. Kane was either a film editor's dream job, or nightmare, with its brazen cutting and narrative reorganization. In essence, Kane has a kid-in-a-candy-store feel to it, the sense of a brilliant young director being given a camera for the first time and told to go nuts. And the result is undeniably engaging. Blimp isn't as wild or baroque as Citizen Kane, with this film we have more the sense of a couple of seasoned filmmakers who have always been visually adventurous expanding their reach even further, coming into their own, making a firm decision to explore the potential of cinema to the fullest. And the result is a more subtle form of legerdemain, wherein the visual trickery is firmly integrated into the overall narrative and never overwhelms the story or its characterizations.

The most striking example of this is having the great actress Deborah Kerr play three different characters, the important women in Colonel Blimp's lonely, male-dominated world. Her first appearance leads to a case of unrequited love. The second involves a storybook romance with the woman who eventually becomes his only wife. The third is a commander-subordinate relationship that leads to friendship based on mutual respect and admiration(and maybe some deeper feelings that are never acted upon, or even spoken). But this isn't just a neat cinematic hat trick, there is a good reason for the strategy. Deborah Kerr's three characters(and perhaps Deobrah Kerr herself) embody all the traits that constitute Blimp's(and presumably Powell and Pressburger's) ideal woman: inner and outer strength, intelligence, beauty, articulation, independence, worldliness, a willingness to speak her mind, a one-of-the-boys quality, among other things. This makes The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, despite its military, male-oriented setting, a feminist motion picture. It also invites comparisons between this film and Powell and Pressburger's later(and in my opinion their greatest) film, The Tales of Hoffmann, based on the opera by Jacques Offenbach, in which all four of the women in the poet Hoffmann's life are seen as parts of a single romantic ideal.

Another example of the film's cinematic inventiveness involves the den at the home of Colonel Blimp's aunt. At two points during the film, both of them moments of Blimp losing one of his great loves, the blank walls of the den suddenly fill up as the heads of animals Blimp has killed on safari appear one by one. This is a sly, clever way of visualizing romantic and sexual frustration(witty and heartbreaking), perhaps the greatest ever put on film.

Finally, the framing device of the war games, wherein Blimp is confronted and "arrested" by a brash young officer who isn't content to play by the older gentleman's outmoded rulebook(might this young man represent Powell and Pressburger and their effort to knock the art of cinema on its ear?), has a manic, almost comic tone, and this adds a touch of levity to the proceedings while also accentuating what is probably the film's primary theme.

Because Blimp is about much more than romantic entanglements and feminine ideals. It is also about a man steadfast in his traditional values who gradually becomes superannuated as the world becomes more complex, and heartless, at the same time less civilized. In this sense it reminds me of an inverse version of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, wherein a man who is in many ways part savage faces the prospect of fading away unheralded as his environment becomes more civil and restrained. The difference is that Powell and Pressburger's film is no tragedy, despite its bittersweet air, and the character Colonel Blimp doesn't fade away, he simply accepts a different, smaller role in a world he is no longer able to comprehend. He doesn't come across as ineffectual, on the contrary his willingness to stand by his ideals while recognizing that their place in a changing society has degraded somewhat gives the character a singular kind of strength, and blustery charm.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a long film, and not exactly fast-paced, it demands a lot from the viewer because of the complexity of the ideas it contains and because of its one-of-a-kind storytelling technique. Yet at the same time it has a breezy quality, due to the vitality of the characters and dialogue, the freshness of its approach, it never bogs down, and shouldn't bore any viewer who is willing to invest some intellectual capital into the experience. It's lovely, moving, thought-provoking, inspired and inspiring - exactly what movies, and art, are supposed to be. August 27, 2008

Gad! The Critics are Right!

"The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" is a magnificent film!

Fully restored in its Technicolor glory, this movie by Powell and Pressburger (who also brought us "Black Narcissus' and "The Red Shoes") portrays forty years in the life of a British officer, Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey), who in the enthusiasm of youth rushes off to Berlin (against orders) to save the reputation of Britain, which is being maligned by a dastardly double agent. During the adventure, which lands Wynne-Candy in the midst of what promises to be an international incident, he meets a lovely governess (Deborah Kerr in one of three roles in the film). He also meets Theodore Kretschmar-Schuldorff (The magnetic Anton Walbrook--who played the sinister ballet impresario, Lermontoff, in "The Red Shoes") over sabers at dawn. After drawing blood, the two adversaries become friends for life, despite two wars.

Criterion Collection has knocked itself out to produce this beautifully restored DVD. The colors are crisp and clean. The production team has also provided English subtitles for those for whom the accents might prove difficult to understand (although the diction of the actors is splendid). The film comes with a commentary by director Michael Powell and Martin Scorsese, as well as a really informative documentary with Stephen Fry that is more than the self-promoting puffery that accompanies so many DVDs nowadays. The extras present fascinating facts about how Winston Churchill tried to ban the film from being shown in Britain and from being exported. There is also a feature depicting David Low's "Colonel Blimp Cartoons" that usually begin with the walrus-mustached Colonel pontificating: "Gad! Squiffy Harbottle [or some such notable] is right! We have to bring peace to the inhabitants of Lower Waq-Waq Land, even if we have to wipe out every last one of the blighters to get it!"

On one level, the movie is about the inability of some of the twentieth-century British military establishment to abandon the gentlemanly Public School rules of fair play in an era in which the Nazis had not only made up their own rules which they kept changing, but had also thrown away the rule book.

The performances are simply top-drawer, but for my money, Anton Walbrook runs away with the film. Walbrook is such a master of his craft that he can sit motionless in his chair and evoke powerful feelings in the viewer by only a subtle modulation of his voice. Walbrook's performance is both powerful and effortless.

And if "Colonel Blimp" seems a bit old fashioned, well it is! They simply don't make fine movies like this any more. June 17, 2008

A delightful Brit historical romance

BEWARE SPOILERS

"Jolly good show, old chap," is what directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger might have said to one another as they watched the final cut of their movie in a private showing in 1943. Because Winston Churchill did not like the movie, feeling that it was too generous to the Germans in its positive depiction of the German army officer Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook), it was banned from public showing in Britain until 1945.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a jolly good show and then some, a remarkable movie in several ways. However it is not about "Colonel Blimp" who I understand was a popular cartoon character in the British press at the time. Instead it is about a fictional character named Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) who actually rose to the rank of general. It begins with his experience in the Boer War and ends with him working as a retired general on the home front during World War II. It is a movie about friendship across international boundaries and cultures, about Brit spunk and fair play, and includes a long-running love story that might have had the title "The Portrait of Deborah Kerr" since she first appears near the beginning of the film and then during World War I and then again during World War II, but never ages!

She is the true love of both Candy and Kretschmar-Schuldorff, and here is how it plays out: Candy loses her to Kretschmar-Schuldorff in her first incarnation, but with stiff Brit upper lip never lets on or breathes a sigh of regret. He wins her in her next incarnation and they are happily married. In the third incarnation, both Candy and Kretschmar-Schuldorff, now widowers, realize that they are too old for the new her and admire her from afar, her previous incarnations long deceased. I liked this conceit very much since it allowed us to see a lot of Deborah Kerr.

Most of the movie depicts Candy's life as a historical romance, full of adventure and high purpose. The last part of the movie, dovetailed back into after the long flashback of Candy's life, plays a bit like a patriotic wartime film, showing the pluck and readiness of the British people to fight the Nazis. This part Churchill would have approved of. However I doubt that he had the time to watch that far into the film, which runs for two hours and forty-three minutes.

All in all the film is a delightful entertainment, carefully scripted and directed, the sort of uplifting show, full of wit and sparkle and honor among men that makes the viewer feel good about humanity, in short the sort of film that is seldom done these days.
May 4, 2008

Yes - it's worth all the hype -- and then some!

"Colonel Blimp" is probably the best movie made in wartime Britain and ranks with some of the finest ever, period. After reading the other reviews, I have little to add except it's a gem in any video collection. February 13, 2008

A Wonderful Story

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a wonderful generational story spanning a period from the Boer War through World War I to World War II that is, at once, both poignant and life affirming. Although a little too long and self-conscious at times it, nevertheless, talks to important values for all of us such as friendship and honor.

The production values are simply superb and the acting outstanding. It's photographed in a rich color that we don't see any more in this day and age of computer generated color. Powell and Pressburger have created a little gem. Listen for the bits of classical music these two men loved injected into the film score. The late Deborah Kerr is beautiful and like the rest of the British cast, can actually act! Roger Livesey steals the movie as Colonel Blimp followed closely by Anton Walbrook. Only the British could make a film like this. January 21, 2008

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