The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

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Lars N It has a grand story to tell about the passage of time and youth. And old epic but told on a small scale. I liked it but it didn't blow me away Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/16/25 Full Review Jim P This is an outstanding movie about… the energy of youth and the wisdom of age. Brilliant! Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/12/24 Full Review W. W. W What a strange NAME which has nothing to do with the movie. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 06/28/25 Full Review Gertrude F A wondrous triumph of a film that surpassed my expectations completely. The film manages to touch on so much of the endless list of thoughts, emotions, and experiences that plague a life, in a remarkably natural way. One of my new favourites. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/13/24 Full Review Alec B A deeply complex epic that avoids the often cheep romanticizing you get from similar films made during WWII. Certain sequences (i.e. the duel) are way ahead of anything else being made at this time. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/09/24 Full Review Matthew B There are two types of character who often appear as a villain in the conventional World War 2 movie. These are the German officer, and the out-of-touch senior official on our side who has no understanding of what war is really like. The former features in the more gung-ho flag-wavers, and the latter in the cynical anti-war film. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp has both these characters in it, only here they are the movie's heroes. If this was a revisionist war movie made many years later, we could understand this challenging of stereotypes, but Colonel Blimp was made in the middle of the war. It is hardly surprising that these two decisions led to some criticism of the film. While Michael Powell was an unashamed patriot, and Colonel Blimp is a celebration of Britishness, Powell was broad-minded enough to not feel a sense of jingoistic nationalism. He took pride in the fact that the film crew for Colonel Blimp included a mixture of nationalities. There are prejudiced remarks by characters in his films, but there are also many sympathetic portrayals of other nations – Americans, Canadians, Dutch people, Scottish people, Greeks, and, yes, even Germans. What made Colonel Blimp different is that it is about a British officer who seems to be out of step with his country, making the addition of a ‘good' German seem all the more outrageous. There are many qualities about Candy that we may not like. His patriotism is blind, and his sense of honour causes him to view the world through blinkers. He is gentlemanly to the ladies, but seems to think that their place is in the home. He hunts wild game, and his walls are festooned with the heads of all the wild animals that he has killed. Nonetheless there is much to admire and love in Candy. He is brave, honourable, courteous and respectful. When he gets angry, he is quick to apologise and forgive. His patriotism is tempered with an open mind. His best friend is a German officer who caused him a serious injury in a duel. He is also romantic, and a part of him stays youthful, even into old age. Michael Powell manages the difficult task of making a movie that is both pro-British and critical of the British army. He also accomplishes the even harder undertaking of creating a hero who is both admirable and wrong. The film ends with Candy staring sadly at a leaf in water, and remembering his wife. However as the army marches past, he forgets his self-pity. He turns to face the soldiers, stands to attention and salutes. The film's final impression is that while Clive may be wrong-headed, we have lost something loyal, noble and brave in the passing of such officers. I wrote a longer appreciation of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2018/04/06/the-life-and-death-of-colonel-blimp-1943/ Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/28/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

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