The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

(dir Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger) I have mixed feelings about this film. On the one hand, I appreciated its beautiful cinematography and glorious early Technicolor, and admired Roger Livesey’s performance as Clive Wynne-Candy all the way from the Boer War to the Second World War. I was less impressed, however, at the argument it seems to be making about the failure of “gentlemanly warfare” in the face of the Nazi threat (it seems self-deception to pretend there were any “gentlemen” in these twentieth century wars), and was disappointed the film did not take the opportunity to develop the post-war resentment of Anton Walbrook’s Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorf into support for Nazism.

Perhaps a more self-critical film could not have been made in Britain in 1943–it was still criticised for the mild critique it did offer–but it does not go far enough for me in 2025. ★★★★☆