|
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Criterion CollectionRating:
Release Date: 22 October, 2002 Retail Price: $39.95 OUR Price: $35.99 You SAVE: $3.96! Cast: Complete Cast (9 total) |
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Criterion Collection Reviews
One of the greatest, most humane films ever made.
I first saw this film on Bravo (before they turned into a dumbed down reality network). The film, at the time, wasn't out on any home video format in its uncut version. Luckily, Bravo showed the original, 163 minute version. It was one of the most profound, humane, and intelligent films I have ever seen. Everything in this film works. Roger Livesy gives one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema. He plays Clive Candy from young man to elderly gentleman so convincingly. Anton Walbrook plays Candy's German friend is such depth and subtlety he makes you feel for all humanity. Winston Churchill attempted to ban the film in England (it was 1943), but luckily it was unsucessful. The film was a big hit in England. When it reached the states, it was cut by 70 minutes, and sometimes shown in black and white. Luckily, now the film is available only in the uncut verison. The commentary track by Michael Powell was recorded for an early laserdisc edition of this film. It's a commentary track worth listening to. Everyone nowadays does commentary (still waiting for a key grip to do one), but doesn't really have anything interesting to say. This is an exception. This is a magnficient epic film, one worth watching over and over again. It's typical of Powell and Pressburger films: visually spectaular, literate, humane, and brilliant.
Mystery Man
Everybody loves Michael Powell, and I suppose they'd better start with COLONEL BLIMP as a touchstone of his cinema. For all its virtues however, and even though I generally enjoy propaganda, I just didn't get it all, and some questions remain to haunt me.
Is Barbara Wynne, Candy's nurse wife of the post WWI period, supposed to be correct when she wrinkles up her nose while visiting the prisoner of war camp, when she remarks how creepy it is that Germans can murder innocent children and then sit down and listen to Mendelsohn wearing the same satanic uniform? If so, it doesn't seem as though she would care for Theo, and the screenplay makes sure that the two of them never meet. I think the fact of their un-meeting, as you might call it, is the central problem of the movie. What would have happened had they met up, a collision like nuclear fission that would have destroyed the house of cards Clive Candy has carefully constructed.
The flashback structure of the film makes perfect sense if you think of it as the spotty recollections of an old colonel (or old nation) looking back at some highlights, mistaking lowlights for same, and generally putting a shine on a bleak present. Don't you love the Technicolor that makes a jungle of parrots out of Barbara Wynne's country blouse and skirt outfit, she stands out like a macaw on a field of cut lawn. In his memoirs Powell describes himself as completely besotted with Deborah Kerr and her red hair, well, he gives it a good workout in this film, she looks fantastic in each of her parts, if a bit too stagily hardbitten as the modern, liberated driver Angela "Folks call me Johnny" Cannon.
More Customer Reviews (8 total)
You like The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Criterion Collection?
|
© 2004, 2005, 2006 DVD Booty | Don't Plunder Our Cache of Booty, Matey!
Hosting made possible by donations from McDebt, Mayday Payday Loan, and pay day advance
