NR | 2 h 43 min | Drama, Romance | 1943
Bereft of scenes of actual battle, this Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger screenwriting-directing duo’s classic is a lighthearted but profound parable on the pointlessness of war. A tale of age and aging that straddles three wars, it’s a recognition, with the coming of Nazism’s craven cruelty, of evolving terms of battle. The era where rival nations bore mutual respect for codes of honor, gives way to one where victory, at any cost, counts above everything else.
‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’
A beautiful British woman in 1902 Berlin, Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr), asks British Lt. Candy, on leave from duty in the Boer War, to confront a German, Kaunitz (David Ward), for spreading false, anti-British propaganda. Smitten, Candy needs no excuse to support Hunter, even against his government’s orders.
The ensuing tussle in a café sees Kaunitz losing face to Candy on German territory. Now, the Germans insist that only a saber-duel with another German, their handpicked officer, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook), will undo Candy’s “insult” to German pride.
But with no conclusive victor, the duel proves a turning point. Injured, both men convalesce in the same nursing home, become friends, and, unaware of Candy’s unexpressed feelings for Hunter, Kretschmar-Schuldorff ends up marrying her. Later, Candy meets and marries another beautiful British woman, nurse Barbara (Kerr, again).
World War I reunites the men, barely denting their friendship, even if Kretschmar-Schuldorff finds Candy’s bonhomie naïve. World War II unites them again, but marriage to a British woman mellows Kretschmar-Schuldorff’s contempt for Candy.
An Ageless Classic
Like an old man reminiscing, the entire film is a flashback. Quickfire shots of big-game animal trophies on a wall, war-helmets on a mantlepiece, and the turning pages of a photo-album show passing years of war and peacetime. Shots of newspaper classifieds announce the marriages and deaths of characters.Following an elaborate scene build up ahead of the duel, a second before they seize their swords, Candy flashes the faintest of smiles to Kretschmar-Schuldorff. Privately, Kretschmar-Schuldorff is stunned by Candy’s gall and his grace. Still, maintaining that façade of dueling, Livesey manages to signal sportsmanship and Walbrook manages to show admiration for that very spirit; a masterpiece of screenwriting, acting, editing, and directing.
Masterfully, 40-year-old Livesey transforms from dashing lieutenant to rasping brigadier general. The 50-year-old Walbrook’s mock squats and lunges before dueling resemble that of a schoolboy at a drill. And 21-year-old Kerr wields the prowess and poise of a thespian.
Instead of the tragic, and ultimately monotonous spectacle of war, the film reflects on the people of warring nations. Metaphors of youth and age mimic how even contrasting cultures, speaking different languages, can aspire to amity through love for the same traditions (music, sport, art) and values (love, friendship, truth, family, faithfulness).
At least in theory, the film suggests that the old can empathize better with the young (than vice versa) because they’ve been young, even if the old find it harder than the young to adapt to newer rules of the game. Worlds apart, they can find common ground.
Here, shared joys in a game of cards, a stage play, a glass of wine, and a piece of orchestral music act as superficial proxies for common ground that rival nations might seek and treasure. At a deeper level, a lovely, lovable, and loving woman, appearing and reappearing throughout the intertwined fates of two friends, personifies this common ground. Kerr as all three women is saying that neither age nor death can wither love for the finest in life because love will find a way to be reborn in fresher form, to rejuvenate the old or dying.
Two years before the allies declared a military victory, Powell and Pressburger were pronouncing a moral victory, the one upholding truth, freedom, fraternity, and equality. Those who’ve seen this film will want those who haven’t, to see it, expressed as “very much,” which is used in a scene. You’ll get the joke when you see it.
