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Satirical, tragic, nostalgic, and sentimental in the very best way, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is an epic unlike any other. Made by the great British writing-directing-producing team Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, it chronicles 40 years in the life of an aristocratic British soldier, Major-General Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey), as he evolves from a dashing and rebellious young officer into an aging career military man who can’t grasp the nature of modern warfare. Taking Wynne-Candy through the Boer War, World War I, and World War II, Colonel Blimp shows how the chivalry and duels of pre-World War I Europe finally gave way to fascism and bombing raids. Yet it’s less a war picture than a character study and a meditation on the nature of love, friendship, and aging. The character of Wynne-Candy is based on Sir David Low’s famous cartoon character, Colonel Blimp -- a ridiculous and archaic remnant of the vanishing British Empire that became an emblem of what modern England was trying to leave behind. Rather than ridicule him, however, Powell and Pressburger, with their signature humanism, find the man behind the caricature and show him in a sympathetic light. They similarly smash stereotypes by making Wynne-Candy’s greatest friend (Anton Walbrook) a German soldier who abandons his country after the rise of Hitler and gives the film’s most vehement condemnation of nazism. Livesey (a last-minute replacement for Laurence Olivier) gives one of the screen’s most moving and virtuoso performances, while Walbrook and Deborah Kerr, who plays Wynne-Candy’s romantic ideal, are also superb. This Criterion Collection edition restores the frequently butchered Colonel Blimp to its full length and vivid Technicolor beauty. Powell and longtime fan Martin Scorsese provide insightful commentary. Archival materials, such as letters from Winston Churchill and Low’s original cartoons, add much to the experience of watching this masterpiece. Kryssa Schemmerling

All Movie Guide

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's much-lauded epic Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which satirizes British traditionalism, stirred up impassioned hostilities and indignations among the Brits when released in 1943. It so infuriated Winston Churchill, in fact, that he refused to allow its exportation to other countries, particularly the U.S. When Blimp finally did premiere in the States in 1945, it screened in a drastically cut version. The sweeping story covers several decades. It begins at the tail end of the Boer War, when handsome young British officer Clive Candy, recently back from the battlefront, is infuriated by his discovery that Deutschland papers have played up the British atrocities in South Africa, propagandistically. He grows so irate, in fact, that he travels to Germany to address the problem. Once there, he meets an attractive British educator, Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr) who spends her days teaching English as a second language to German students. They grow close, but Candy so aggravates the local indigenes that he winds up in a duel with a German officer, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). The men wound each other and are sent to the same hospital, where they become friends. Candy - who doesn't yet realize he's fallen in love with Edith -- senses that Theo and Edith are attracted to one another, and encourages the couple's marital union. Candy subsequently returns to England, then falls for and marries Barbara (again played by Kerr), a nurse who bears a strong resemblance to Edith. She later dies, but Candy meets a third woman during WWII, Johnny (Kerr a third time), assigned to drive him from one locale to another during his campaigns. Meanwhile, Theo - disgusted by Nazi atrocities -- absconds to England, where he reencounters his old friend, now a prattering old shuffler rapidly approaching the end of his career and raving continuously about Nazi conduct (or lack thereof) in battle. Powell and Pressberger adapted Colonel Blimp from a comic strip; it became one of the hallmarks of their careers. ~ Sidney Jenkins, All Movie Guide

Product Details

• UPC: 715515043410
• Source: CRITERION
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Sound: Dolby Digital Mono
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 2:43:00
• Sales Rank: 13,259

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Essential Art House, Vol. 2

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