WW2 movies tend to reflect the country in which they're made. Even more, they tend to reflect that country's best notion of itself: so American war movies emphasize the brash, take-charge American spirit, while British war movies celebrate the ideal of decency and fair play that that country has long cherished. "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" is no exception to that, which is why Churchill's unhappiness with it seems so odd. Perhaps he didn't like the notion that long-standing traditions were being called into question--but the filmmakers take great pains to show that every generation has laughed at the stuffiness of the one before; that this was not impudence but inevitability.
The film starts--rather confusingly, I confess; I had to watch the beginning again after the end to help make sense of it!--with a war-time exercise: a Regular Army invasion of a London defended by the recently-formed Home Guard. The war is to begin at midnight, but a brash young soldier, recognizing that this war's enemy doesn't play by the rules, decides to jump the gun and capture the major-general of the Guard at his Turkish baths. This is successful, leaving the captured officer apoplectic over this abandonment of the way things are done. "War begins at midnight! War begins at midnight!" he cries, as the young soldier makes fun of the older man's paunch and mustache. The enraged major-general attacks the soldier and throws him into the pool, sparking a flashback to reveal him as the young, clean-shaven Roger Livesey, in that very Turkish bath, back after a long bout as a prisoner during the Boer War.
What follows is, first, the story of Livesey's own brash initiative to counter anti-English propaganda in Germany, a duel, and the meeting of Livesey and Walbrook, the German officer who will become Livesey's friend, and who rejoices in the name of Theodor Kretschmar-Shuldorff. Livesey and Walbrook also both meet Deborah Kerr, luminescently beautiful at a scant 21 years of age. She chooses Walbrook, and lives with him in Germany; Livesey returns home, passing his time hunting (this is shown quite cleverly) until the Great War erupts and his soldiering talents are needed once again.
The movie takes us through WW1 and its aftermath, through English action and German reaction, through marriages and deaths of family and friends, up to the beginning of the Second World War. Now Walbrook, living in England, is facing internment and is rescued by Livesey--balding, plump, and walrus-mustached, the very image of a Colonel Blimp. Both are widowers (both having married Deborah Kerr, through a neat device), and Livesey is facing obsolescence in the Army. Here Walbrook delivers the most stunning speech of the film, as he lays out for Livesey why the old style of soldiering needs to be adapted to this new and insidious enemy (do check the "Memorable Quotes" section for portions of it!). It may be this speech that made Churchill uncomfortable, but there was no call for unease. Walbrook salutes the tradition of gentlemanly sportsmanship that Livesey has embodied through 40 years of soldiering, but emphasizes that England can take no chances in losing a fight through blind attachment to "the rules of the game." The stakes are now too high, and victory must not be sacrificed to the standards of an earlier and nobler time.
Perhaps Churchill disliked the notion that such standards might need to be sacrificed. Certainly he, of all Englishmen, was aware of the dangerous nature of the Nazi threat. Powell and Pressburger avoid seeming disloyal by putting this speech in the mouth of a German who has rejected Naziism--who has seen his own children caught up in its sway, and left them behind. Walbrook is freer to recognize the nature of the threat and acknowledge the need to adapt to a new fight than Livesey is, as the embodiment of tradition.
But this is not a rejection of that tradition. In the early scenes, a raucous Livesey and a friend outrage the sensibilities of an old soldier at the baths. Following that, Livesey incurs the wrath of a superior officer for taking diplomatic matters into his own hands. Livesey's character is made to see that the impudent young soldier who took him prisoner is no different than he was in his own headstrong youth. And Livesey, because he does still embody the English virtues that the film celebrates, resolves to forgive, protect, and dine the young soldier, saluting him as the film ends. He sees that he can still embrace the old ways, while making room for the new.
It's just an extraordinary film. It's long, but no scene could hit the cutting room floor without damaging the whole. The three stars do some of their best work ever, and Powell & Pressburger film them all in the rich, vibrant Technicolor they brought to films such as "A Matter of Life and Death" and "The Red Shoes."
The film starts--rather confusingly, I confess; I had to watch the beginning again after the end to help make sense of it!--with a war-time exercise: a Regular Army invasion of a London defended by the recently-formed Home Guard. The war is to begin at midnight, but a brash young soldier, recognizing that this war's enemy doesn't play by the rules, decides to jump the gun and capture the major-general of the Guard at his Turkish baths. This is successful, leaving the captured officer apoplectic over this abandonment of the way things are done. "War begins at midnight! War begins at midnight!" he cries, as the young soldier makes fun of the older man's paunch and mustache. The enraged major-general attacks the soldier and throws him into the pool, sparking a flashback to reveal him as the young, clean-shaven Roger Livesey, in that very Turkish bath, back after a long bout as a prisoner during the Boer War.
What follows is, first, the story of Livesey's own brash initiative to counter anti-English propaganda in Germany, a duel, and the meeting of Livesey and Walbrook, the German officer who will become Livesey's friend, and who rejoices in the name of Theodor Kretschmar-Shuldorff. Livesey and Walbrook also both meet Deborah Kerr, luminescently beautiful at a scant 21 years of age. She chooses Walbrook, and lives with him in Germany; Livesey returns home, passing his time hunting (this is shown quite cleverly) until the Great War erupts and his soldiering talents are needed once again.
The movie takes us through WW1 and its aftermath, through English action and German reaction, through marriages and deaths of family and friends, up to the beginning of the Second World War. Now Walbrook, living in England, is facing internment and is rescued by Livesey--balding, plump, and walrus-mustached, the very image of a Colonel Blimp. Both are widowers (both having married Deborah Kerr, through a neat device), and Livesey is facing obsolescence in the Army. Here Walbrook delivers the most stunning speech of the film, as he lays out for Livesey why the old style of soldiering needs to be adapted to this new and insidious enemy (do check the "Memorable Quotes" section for portions of it!). It may be this speech that made Churchill uncomfortable, but there was no call for unease. Walbrook salutes the tradition of gentlemanly sportsmanship that Livesey has embodied through 40 years of soldiering, but emphasizes that England can take no chances in losing a fight through blind attachment to "the rules of the game." The stakes are now too high, and victory must not be sacrificed to the standards of an earlier and nobler time.
Perhaps Churchill disliked the notion that such standards might need to be sacrificed. Certainly he, of all Englishmen, was aware of the dangerous nature of the Nazi threat. Powell and Pressburger avoid seeming disloyal by putting this speech in the mouth of a German who has rejected Naziism--who has seen his own children caught up in its sway, and left them behind. Walbrook is freer to recognize the nature of the threat and acknowledge the need to adapt to a new fight than Livesey is, as the embodiment of tradition.
But this is not a rejection of that tradition. In the early scenes, a raucous Livesey and a friend outrage the sensibilities of an old soldier at the baths. Following that, Livesey incurs the wrath of a superior officer for taking diplomatic matters into his own hands. Livesey's character is made to see that the impudent young soldier who took him prisoner is no different than he was in his own headstrong youth. And Livesey, because he does still embody the English virtues that the film celebrates, resolves to forgive, protect, and dine the young soldier, saluting him as the film ends. He sees that he can still embrace the old ways, while making room for the new.
It's just an extraordinary film. It's long, but no scene could hit the cutting room floor without damaging the whole. The three stars do some of their best work ever, and Powell & Pressburger film them all in the rich, vibrant Technicolor they brought to films such as "A Matter of Life and Death" and "The Red Shoes."