Movie review – “Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943) ***

Academics interested in British cinema love this movie because it can be approached so many different ways: auteurist (it was a leading work from Powell and Pressberger), censorship (it had censorship troubles at the time), British identity (differing depictions of Britain over the years), direction (all the unusual camera angles and ways of presenting scenes), stardom (Deborah Kerr), war (“clean” vs “dirty” fighting), femininity (the changing nature of the Deborah Kerr characters), its uniqueness in the context of Australian film. It is certainly an intelligent film with a charming performance by sweetheart Roger Livesy as Blimp (though I watched it with an audience and turned against him a bit during the wildlife-heads-on-the-wall montage). It’s well directed, looks terrific, the acting is fine and has several moving moments such as the death of Blimp’s wife, Anton Walbrook talking about his family lost to the Nazis, and the ending. But it goes on far too long – over two hours, by which time its points have been made time and time again.