The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp on DVD (1943)

Dated but still very good

McClennan from St Helens , 14/03/2005

he third Powell/Pressburger film that I've seen and although not as impressive as The Red Shoes, it is very interesting. If you know about the Colonel Blimp character then you'll appreciate this film more than most as the film covers the Boer War, WWI and WWII providing a background story to the supposed Blimp person. Although the film is witty and pokes fun at the upper classes involved in the military around these times, it's not a comedy and it has dated. What the film does well, aside from the technical aspect, is trace the formation of the main character as he grows older and becomes less and less relevant to the society is he is living in. This film is rated highly yet I'm not sure I share the same sort of love as others have because although it does highlight some class issues, I still found it to be somewhat weak, still I think that's merely because of the passage of time. Released during WWII, Churchill was not pleased with this film and put in that context I can understand how it is appreciated because I would consider it to be relatively subervise. A very, very good film that covers a number of issues and is very thought provoking without trying to make too many statements about them.

Read all reviews

The greatest British film of all time

Savage from London, England [Highly rated reviewer] , 09/11/2006

Powell and Pressburger's masterpiece is actually slightly misleadingly titled. There is no character called Colonel Blimp in the film; there's not even a Colonel in it; and the central character (whose name is Clive Candy) doesn't die. Blimpishness, named after a cartoon strip character created by David Low, was a sort backward-looking pomposity, apparently espoused by Candy in the opening section of the film, but the Archers' idea was to expose not just the reality behind it (Candy is a VC-decorated hero and a thoroughly decent sort), but that the idea itself not only had died, but must die. The Nazis were not soldiers, in the old sense, but gangsters, and had to be dealt with as such.

Given this, the propagandist elements of the film are present and correct, making it all the more incredible that Churchill should have disliked the screenplay so much that he refused to sanction Laurence Olivier's appearance in the central role. We may say thank goodness he did, since Roger Livesey, balancing artifice and art to a niceness, gives the single greatest performance you will ever see by a British actor. Perhaps Winston suspected he himself was being slyly satirised.

Some of the components that go to making this the best ever British film are obvious: Georges Perinal's sublimely rich Technicolor cinematography, the acting, the rousing score, the thrilling motorcycle opening, but it goes deeper than that. P&P are also trying to examine the best of Britishness (hence, perhaps, the best of Blimpishness), the profoundly romantic yearning for something better for everybody set off against the flinty, stiff-upper-lip exterior. I defy anyone to watch the final section of this film without weeping.

It really is that good.

Read all reviews

Absolutely astounding

A customer from London , 21/06/2004

Up there with a matter of life and death. You have to see this film.

Read all reviews

A milestone in British cinema

mattski from London , 02/04/2004

First saw this about fifteen years ago, and visiting it again it's amazing how fresh it still remains.

A heart-warming story, about so many things - the British sense of decency and fair play (did it really ever exist?), the sweeping away of the old order of things during the horrors of the Second World War, and how one decent man takes all the world can throw at him, and still soldiers on.

Considering it was made in 1943, the propaganda is never laid on particularly thick, and the three central performances are beautifully played.

One of Powell and Pressburger's crowning achievements, and a milestone in British cinema.

Read all reviews

Absolutely astounding

A customer from London , 21/06/2004

Up there with a matter of life and death. You have to see this film.

Read all highest rated reviews

The greatest British film of all time

Savage from London, England [Highly rated reviewer] , 09/11/2006

Powell and Pressburger's masterpiece is actually slightly misleadingly titled. There is no character called Colonel Blimp in the film; there's not even a Colonel in it; and the central character (whose name is Clive Candy) doesn't die. Blimpishness, named after a cartoon strip character created by David Low, was a sort backward-looking pomposity, apparently espoused by Candy in the opening section of the film, but the Archers' idea was to expose not just the reality behind it (Candy is a VC-decorated hero and a thoroughly decent sort), but that the idea itself not only had died, but must die. The Nazis were not soldiers, in the old sense, but gangsters, and had to be dealt with as such.

Given this, the propagandist elements of the film are present and correct, making it all the more incredible that Churchill should have disliked the screenplay so much that he refused to sanction Laurence Olivier's appearance in the central role. We may say thank goodness he did, since Roger Livesey, balancing artifice and art to a niceness, gives the single greatest performance you will ever see by a British actor. Perhaps Winston suspected he himself was being slyly satirised.

Some of the components that go to making this the best ever British film are obvious: Georges Perinal's sublimely rich Technicolor cinematography, the acting, the rousing score, the thrilling motorcycle opening, but it goes deeper than that. P&P are also trying to examine the best of Britishness (hence, perhaps, the best of Blimpishness), the profoundly romantic yearning for something better for everybody set off against the flinty, stiff-upper-lip exterior. I defy anyone to watch the final section of this film without weeping.

It really is that good.

Read all highest rated reviews