Week Twenty-Seven: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Directors: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Producers: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Writers: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Cinematography: Georges Perinal
Music: Allan Grey
Starring: Roger Livesey (Clive Candy), Anton Walbrook (Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff), Deborah Kerr (Edith Hunter/Barbara Wynne/Angela “Johnny” Cannon), John Laurie (Murdoch), Ursula Jeans (Frau von Kalteneck), James McKechnie (Spud Wilson), David Hutcheson (Hoppy), Muriel Aked (Aunt Margaret), Frith Banbury (Baby-Face Fitzroy)
World War II was the single most impactful event in modern history, it effected on a daily basis the lives of many hundreds of millions of people for six years. Such an all-encompassing event was obviously reflected significantly in all aspects of daily life, including film. Not only was the war an endless source of screenplay content, but it was also very good for business. Wartime economy killed the lingering Great Depression, for the first time in quite a while the majority of people could afford to go to the movies as often as they wanted and they wanted to quite a bit, especially when the movies were rousingly patriotic films that stirred the spirit.
Last week we saw one of the best American responses to the war but we must not forget – as Americans often do – that the war was going on for quite sometime before America got involved. For Britain, it began in September of 1939, eight days after Nazi Germany started the war by invading Poland and over two years before Pearl Harbor. By 1943 Britain was four years into daily casualty reports, rationing, nightly bombings, and an ever-present fear of invasion. At this point, it would be completely understandable for the entirety of Britain to be so fed up with the stupidity of war that any rationality or nuance in their feelings towards Germans and the war would be completely gone and the only desire would be the death of their enemies and the end of the conflict. Indeed, that was often the message of Allied propaganda at this time.
However, despite their desire to end the war, the British’s old guard was averse to using the same unethical tactics – such as strategic bombing or using forced labor – that was crucial to the strategy of Nazi Germany. For Britain’s old guard, this type of tactic of “total war” or victory by any means necessary flew in the face of their belief in “gentleman’s war,” that had been the status quo in previous centuries. On the other hand, the younger generations believed that Britain must adapt to this new style of warfare or be destroyed. Into this world of one-sided, German-hating propaganda and warfare generation gap came Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, two filmmakers who had previously made a number of patriotic war films yet would attract a number of detractors – including Prime Minister Winston Churchill – with the release of the great wartime film, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
Though the credits for their films say that they are “produced, written, and directed” by Powell and Pressburger, that was done so as to retain as much control over their films as possible. In practices, both acted as producer, Pressburger created the stories, both wrote the dialogue, and Powell almost exclusively was the director. Overall, Powell and Pressburger’s films can be identified by their high-concept stories and themes, artistic visual style, high production values, and advanced incorporation of music and art into the film. Starting with The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Powell and Pressburger’s films moved into another stratosphere of beauty, technical prowess, and creativity. Quite simply, they were far ahead of their time, making essentially experimental art films on a large scale. However, this was a double-edged sword: British critics were not always appreciative of their work and indeed, not until the late-seventies/early-eighties were Powell and Pressburger given the credit they deserve.
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| The opening motorcycle sequence in Blimp is action camera shooting far beyond anything coming out of Hollywood in 1943 |
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| Blimp's flashback structure is emblematic of Powell and Pressburger's bold, risk-taking style |
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| The deep mise-en-scene of Blimp is reminiscent of... |
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| Murnau's Sunrise. |
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| The passage of time told through trophies on the wall is an example of Powell and Pressburger's visionary creativity. |
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| Blimp uses more close-close-ups than a normal 1943 film... |
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| ...but also uses exquisite matte paintings to create a sense of scale. |
What is most apparent in many Powell and Pressburger films is the incredible quality of the Technicolor. More so than any other director, Powell demonstrated a mastery of the color medium, aided by top-notch cinematographers like Georges Perinal (who did this film) and Jack Cardiff (who did their next three color films) as well as legendary Art Directors Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is mostly set indoors, with very few opportunities for the wide-open exterior shots that The Adventures of Robin Hood so successfully exploited. Likewise, the extravagant and often irrationally colorful costumes of the latter film are replaced by the more practical early-twentieth century dress of the former. Therefore, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’s Technicolor brilliance is of a more subtle nature, gorgeous not from how much the various colors pop off the screen but the interplay between them and the use of interior lighting.
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| Blimp has some eye-popping color... |
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| ...but mostly operates in a more reserved color palette. |
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| It also features some beautiful outdoor photography... |
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| ...but spends most of its time indoors with a subtle, painterly balance of color and light. |
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| Technicolor often struggles in lower light but Blimp is at it's most beautiful in these scenes. |
If any film could claim to be the British Citizen Kane, it is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Though obviously different in story content and visual style, both movies touch on something inherent in their respective countries, feature a flashback structure, cover multiple decades of a singular characters life, and therefore rely heavily on aging makeup. Blimp didn’t have nearly the immediate impact of Kane, but long term it may have been more influential on later generations of filmmakers when discovered by directors like Martin Scorsese and David Mamet.
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| Blimp's aging make-up (done by George Blackler and Dorrie Hamilton) is more impressive than Citizen Kane, as color is much more revealing than black-and-white. |
After You Watch the Movie (Spoilers Below)
Despite the surface similarities to Citizen Kane, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is more a sort of sequel to La Grande Illusion, though it is not an anti-war film it is a film that, like Renoir’s film, doesn’t glorify war and doesn’t actually feature any depictions of combat or on-screen violence (aside from Candy’s scuffle in the Turkish bath). La Grande Illusion is the sort of movie you make before the war, Blimp while it is going on.
Over the course of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Powell and Pressburger tackle two major themes that made it controversial in Britain at the time of its release. The first is the debate between the older and younger generations about how the war should be waged. By choosing to put the character of Colonel Blimp in the title of the film (but not actually in the movie, despite many similarities, Candy isn’t Blimp), Powell and Pressburger show their hand as to what side they fall. Blimp was a political cartoon character created by David Low as a way to satirize the blustering, buffoonish old guard of the British military and governments. Making their main character a Blimp-like character makes it clear how they view the old guard, no matter how affectionately they treat Candy, the whole film points out how he is wrong and Britain must adapt to at least some of the less than gentlemanly aspects of modern warfare.
The conflict between young and old, fair play and dirty pool, is repeated many times throughout the film, initially it is between “War begins at midnight” Candy and “preemptive strike” Spud Wilson but after the flashback we see Candy on the younger side of the conflict after annoying an older officer at the bath, though they eventually see eye-to-eye.
In Germany, Candy is driven to disobey orders because of the anti-British propaganda that is being spread, the kind of underhanded tactics that a gentleman would never engage in. The utter absurdity of endless gentlemanly rules and regulations to combat is made apparent by Powell and Pressburger in the lead-up to the duel, in which every bit of minutia is discussed and then the actual fight isn’t shown.
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| After interminable breaking down of rules for the duel, Blimp strategically shows only the briefest glimpse of the actual fight |
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| Pomposity and pride, relics of Candy's old guard |
To Candy’s generation, the rules and tradition of combat were what was important, not the actual fighting. They see it as a game and see it all with rose-colored glasses, dismissing the impact on the average person or the losing side, a point driven home during Theo’s dinner with all of Candy’s military and political big-wigs. They can’t see the cost of the war for Germany and how much has been lost.
During World War I, Candy is unwilling to resort to torture and gets no results while the South African officer has no such compunctions and he gets the information. After World War II begins, Candy’s old-fashioned ways lead to him getting pushed out both from his radio broadcast (in which he espouses gentlemanly combat tactics) and his job in the regular army. The world is changing and only the members of the old guard that embrace it can continue to aide in the war effort in a meaningful way. Candy is all about war, it is his life and career (even the three women in his life were all pro-active in their reaction to war) but when he loses his position he is lost, until turning his energy to the Home Guard, even if he still doesn’t really learn his lesson until the very end.
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| All three of the woman in Candy's life take an active role in the war effort |
This is what the title refers to, Candy isn’t Blimp the character, he is Blimp the ideal and Candy’s “death” at the end of the film is when he sheds the Blimpiness and embraces the new guard.
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| The Death of Colonel Blimp: Candy embraces the new guard |
The most interesting form of the old/young dynamic is that of Theo and his children, who he has no contact with because they are now Nazis. Despite being clearly on the side of the younger generation, this section serves as a warning that the old and young must retain a common ground and the divide between them must not become too great, lest they become Germany, with a distinct and destructive divide between the two groups.
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| Anton Walbrook's monologue is captured in one long take, allowing for emotional buildup. |
The devastating performance by Walbrook in these scenes is the highlight of the other theme of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp: Anglo-German relations. Theo is one of the films wisest and most sympathetic characters. Even when he is upset, he is still unequivocally a good guy as well as German, what when the film was released he would be called an “enemy alien.” This sort of compassion towards non-Nazi Germans (many of whom, like Theo had lost everything) was incredibly rare in Allied cinema at this time. Germans were the enemies and even those of German descent who had lived outside of Germany for several generations were under suspicion. Just look at how completely loyal Japanese-Americans were treated by the United States, thrown into internment camps for no other reason than their descent.
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| The steadfast, decade-spanning friendship between Theo and Candy is the heart of Blimp. |
Both of the stances that The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp were not popular among the establishment, Churchill wanted it banned and refused to allow them to use Army property as props and prevented Laurence Olivier from appearing as Candy – which turned out to be serendipitous since Livesey couldn’t really be any better in his role.
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| Deborah Kerr, playing a triple role, would soon become one of Britain's most renowned actors |
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp has wonderful acting, looks beautiful, has great music, and takes unpopular (and correct) stances on two big issues but what is maybe most important about the film is how un-reactionary it is. Instead of interpreting history as if only the last four years existed – like almost all propaganda at the time did – Blimp takes the long view and analyzes the forty years that led up to this point, realizing that these changes didn’t just happen because of the Axis powers, but had been slowly happening since the turn of the century or earlier. It didn’t win them many fans in the government or among critics (though audiences loved it) but history has proved Powell and Pressburger right and their film completely transcends any labeling as propaganda.
See Also
49th Parallel (1941) dir. Michael Powell
Powell made this propaganda film – about a group of Nazi sailors trying to escape Canada – as an attempt to gain American public support. Features an ensemble cast of renown actors such as Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook, Leslie Howard, and Raymond Massey.
One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942) dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Another propaganda film that is a reverse of 49th Parallel, with British airmen trying to escape occupied Netherlands. An interaction between an older and young soldier inspired The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Future Academy Award-winning director David Lean served as editor on the film.
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
One of the Powell and Pressburger’s masterpieces, once again in glorious Technicolor (at least part of the time). A romantic fantasy about love, death, and Anglo-American relations.
Five Graves to Cairo (1943) dir. Billy Wilder
One of the best American war films made while the war was still going on. A suspense-filled espionage film set in North Africa and starring Erich von Stroheim as Erwin Rommel.
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