The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

source: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

To be perfectly honest, this was one of the most tiresome movies I have seen in a long while. It's a long and slow movie, that doesn't feature enough humor, drama or action. Instead it mixes all of these genre together but it's just not using enough of any of it. I'm sure I would had adored this movie if it only had some more comedy in it. It had all of the right type of characters for it but yet somehow the movie doesn't decide to push it through. Instead now the comedy works out often more as annoying than anything else really. The movie is completely character driven but the movie reaches a point that I just don't care about the character anymore. I don't care much about his love life, his military career. In that regard this movie in my eyes already is a failure. It just couldn't hold my interest. The movie too often drivels around too much and the movie feels quite bloated. It's made to look bigger than it in fact truly all is. Some sequences go on for far too long, without making an impression, or leave a significant enough purpose. And the movie doesn't get any better as it heads toward its ending. On the contrary, I would say. The movie tells basically the entire lifespan of a military man, from a young ambitious officer to a more realistic gray, fat, retired army colonel. We see him not only grow as a military man but also as a person, as he meets new people throughout his life and re-encounters a German officer and later friend, at various points throughout his career. This could had all provided a movie with an intriguing story and characters but because its so tiresome all, it just doesn't ever really work out as it was supposed to. Having said all of that; it's a quite good looking movie. It's a movie that got made back in 1943 but yet it got shot in full color. This certainly gives the movie something extra. It has a great look, which not in the least is also due to some fine cinematography, from Oscar-winner Georges Périnal. He was a person who was already doing color movies in the late '30's. I just didn't liked this movie as much as everyone else seems to do. 6/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

This movie might have been relevant in 1943 London but now it's only a colourful postcard from ancient times. Here is the landscape: flamboyant Technicolor, a good old Victorian British soldier (impressive and very credible makeup for the lead who brilliantly sails from 1902 to 1942), down-to-earth British humour (I mean never getting an edge ever on the farcical side or in pure satire), conjunctural sentimentalism and a mishmash of some heavy handed wartime propaganda with a few strong points near the end. As for me I was bored stiff and about to leave the theater right after the first part (1942 prologue + 1902 establishing vignette). I sat through it and it seems that only the old ladies next to me where enjoying every bit of it. Well sorry but this Candy is a bore, a passive character with picturesque traits who does nothing interesting except aging in an absurd and stoical stance. And the rest is pretty stiff too, even the charming Deborah Kerr is stiffened as the perfect lovable English girl on duty for three different shifts. So neither the characters nor the story are interesting, the whole movie just spans 40 years. Above all things there's no sense of narrative rhythm. Narrative rhyme? Maybe Bobby, to me it's more tapestry than poetry.

I watched this film again yesterday, accompanied by my Hungarian born wife. We are both 76. We both lived through the war on opposite sides. Remember that in 1942, when making it started, Britain was still in the beginning stages of achieving the upper hand in the war. Propaganda was still a necessary weapon. Hence the speeches delivered by Anton Walbrook. Yes, there was a point made about old-fashioned attitudes which did exist. Those who criticise the film as being boring, out of date, etc are possibly overwhelmed by more modern techniques of script writing, special effects, CGI, large forces of extras and the like. These were simply not available in war torn Britain. Even the possibility to use Technicolor was quite extraordinary to cinema goers of that time. Look carefully at the backdrops - many exteriors seen through windows are painted. This was a minor masterpiece made under difficult circumstances. My wife, seeing it for the first time, found it excellent.

Someone programing late-night television in Sydney loves this film because it comes up so often and well done, I say. The sense of purpose in life, of missed intimacy and achieved intimacy is portrayed breathtakingly. It seems to have everything. History, comedy, character, acting so good that you don't leave the movie after it's over [I never have]. While you're watching it, its qualities sneak up on you. It goes from interesting to artistic to personal to beautiful. If you're reading this, I promise you that seeing this film is an absolute must.

I'd forgotten what a good film this was until I watched it on DVD recently. 'The Archers' had such an impressive body of work even a gem can be temporarily out of mind - such was the case with Colonel Blimp while I was catching up with all their other work. There seem to be three performances approaching greatness in this - first of course, that of Livesey as Clive Wynne-Candy throughout his long service as a soldier to old age and 'Blimpishness', a superb portrayal and very memorable; then Anton Walbrook - brilliant in all his scenes as the sympathetic German who finally becomes reconciled to 'his wife's country'; and finally, in three roles, Deborah Kerr, standing for Candy's ideal woman. There'd be one more film for the Archers before Kerr became established in Hollywood, and she is excellent in her trio of roles in this. Special mention should go not only to P&P for their tremendous vision and energy, but also the great Jack Cardiff who put such wit and clarity in sequences such as the animal head shots. The film itself is one of Britain's best. I'm amazed to hear it was suppressed in its entirety for so many years, and glad it survived to become the masterpiece it surely is.

I love this film because it asks more questions than it answers. It takes a character that I would not be naturally sympathetic to and explores his life in the context of the war and politics of his time. The films bright colour constantly reinforces the message that the world can not be represented in the black and white of right and wrong. It is more modernist but less self-concious than a host of films that appeared in the 50's and 60's. James Joyce would have loved this film had he seen it. I know that no two people ever come away with the same memories of the film. Remember that this film was made in Britain during a war that the Nazis might have won. It still engages the viewer in a two-way experience that I believe has never been matched. It is true "open cinema" despite the criticisms that others may have. I still do not know what a lot of the film is trying to say, and I hope I never get all the answers. Ciaran Cregan 23.05.01

This has to be my all time favourite movie. It is the story of Clive Candy (Roger Livesey), a British Army officer, from 1902 to 1942. It is told as a flashback in three sections - 1902, 1918 and 1942. Deborah Kerr plays three women in his life, Edith Hunter, who he falls in love with in 1902, Barbara Wynne, who he marries in 1918 and Angela/Johnny his driver in 1942. Anton Walbrook plays Theo who fights a duel with Candy in 1902 and then becomes friends with Candy and Edith and marries Edith. They meet briefly in 1918 when Theo is being sent back to Germany from a British POW camp. In 1942 they meet again although both Edith and Barbara have died by then. When Theo sees Johnny he realises why Clive chose her to be his driver. Other excellent perfomers include John Laurie as Candy's WWI driver and later his butler. Some of the lines must have meant a lot to Emerich Pressburger, particularly when Theo explains why he left Germany so late after the Nazis came to power and the bit when Theo says it must be hard losing your wife abroad and Candy replies "It wasn't abroad, it was Jamaica" which summed up the David Low cartoon character Col Blimp's attitude to the world and particularly the British Empire. The film is not a war story, though it features a soldier. It is not a sloppy romance, though it features a man looking for his ideal woman. It more than either or both put together. It is without doubt due to the consummate skills of Powell and Pressburger every bit as much as the excellent performances they coaxed out of the superb cast. Winston Churchill hated the film and tried to have it banned as it featured a sympathetic German character when Britain was at war with Germany. I am so glad he failed.

A movie of England is not a good movie because it is a movie of England. A movie about an old soldier is not a good movie because it is a movie about an old soldier. A movie about the Home Guard is not a good movie because it is a movie about the Home Guard. A movie by Powell/Pressburger is not a good movie because it is by Powell/Pressburger. "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" is not a good movie. It is shallow and lacking in emotional content. Even the death of Clive Candy's wife is presented in a manner so abstract and so detached that it appears little more than a death notice in the newspaper. So, too, with the air raid of Candy's butler. Granted there is a strong element of the cartoon series in this film, but most of the characters are stock. So much so that the movie works only if considered as satire. But some ideas violate even satiric logic. Marking the passage of time with the heads of trophy animals killed in different parts of the world is simply too silly. Both the Great War and World War Two are treated in so abstract a manner that one seems unrelated memory and the other irrelevant present. The Home Guard is treated as little more than buffoons in tin hats. What a sad monument to London's greatest moment in the world's greatest war. Winston Churchill seems to have it right: This movie should have been banned!

Neither war films nor romances rate amongst my favourite film genres. Colonel Blimp is both of these and has to rate as my runaway favourite film. Made in 1943 by the irreplaceable icons of British film making Powell and Pressburger it displays a pacy breathless brilliance since unparalleled on the big screen. The film follows the life and times of General Wynne-Candy from when he is an idealistic young officer returned on leave from the Boer War through to his retirement as an anachronistic and obdurate Major General. The film is structured in three acts set in the aftermath of the Boer War, the first world war and the present (at the time of making the film) the height of the 2nd World War. But it is not just an examination of these conflicts. Its real power lies in Candy's pursuit of his ideal woman throughout each of these stages. All three women are played beautifully by Deborah Kerr who never surpassed the power of her performance in this film. The other constant in the film is Anton Wallbrooks character of the sympathetic German with whom Candy builds a lifelong friendship and ultimately is probably Candy's only ever really satisfying relationship throughout his life. For me the film operates on many complex levels. The romantic element is as affecting as anything you are likely to witness in the cinema. It achieves everything in the unrequited love department a la "the remains of the day" in a fraction of the time and as only part of the overall plot. It deals with the moral complexities of war in a way that will have you debating the issues in your mind long after you have seen the film. This particular theme reaches its climax towards the end of the film when Candy is "retired" by the war ministry probably as a result of his outdated approach to strategy for the 2nd World War. Anton Wallbrook then delivers a setpiece speech which starkly outlines the evils of Nazism and the necessity to use any means to defeat it for the sake of freedom and humanity for coming generations. Colonel Blimp with its pristine performances, absorbing plot, dazzling colour photography and economic flawless script easily gives Citizen Kane a good run for its money as the best film of all time.