The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

A significant moment of generational shift in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1944)

[@jackal59]

The sophistication of Powell and Pressburger's films astonishes me. At their best, they were every bit as good as Jean Renoir.

[@farmerned6]

BUT Clive!...... Dear Old Clive..... this is not a Gentleman's war.

[@lonestar6709]

_"If you lose, there won't be a return match next year. Maybe not even for a hundred years."_ One of the absolute greatest movies ever made.

[@Dabhach1]

If you're very lucky, you might meet some Blimp as you go through life. He'll be recognizable by his leonine courage, a heart as huge as the whole world and the utter inability to carry a grudge one microsecond beyond the cessation of hostilities. There really are such people

[@starchington]

Very beautiful. Thank you for reminding me.

[@johnmh1000]

I believe that there are. They exist on another plain and can see with a clarity that the rest of us cannot. We need these people, because their hearts are large and they cannot see but good.

[@arnabdas7019]

Beautiful comment sir! I'm afraid I don't believe such great people exist in this corrupt world of ours. But if they do I wish to befriend them.

[@PeterEvansPeteTakesPictures]

This was a prophetic speech by Powell & Pressburger, probably one of the reasons it was considered dangerous at the time. To win, we had to subscribe to Theo's arguement and what followed was Hamburg, Cologne, Dresden and half a million dead Germans through bombing. It created a shattering effect on Germany and wiped out any attachment to war amongst the German people. But such methods should never be saluted, should be despised - and yet inevitably resorted to as the last available method of hitting back, only subscribed to when all other options failed and defeat is imminent. Had we not had Clive Candy and the well meaning Neville Chamberlain (people forget how genuinely horrific the mere idea of war was back then, it seemed apocalyptic) and a cabinet nervous of bloodshed we would have been as cruel and brutal as the Nazis, and morally reprehensible. The extreme of the arguement is voiced by Orwell in 1984 with O'Brien's questioning if Winston would be willing to throw acid in a baby's face to defeat Big Brother. The difference lays in Nazi Germany's glorification of killing, right up to the war, and Britain's reluctance. But as the fire bombing campaign proved ("They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirldwind"), it is difficult to stop killing when started, even when the results become questionable. One must never, ever speak lightly of killing. A fascinating scene from a brilliant film. Humanity needs more Clive Candys, but alas we live in a war-world.

[@64MDW]

You start with Hamburg, Cogne and Dresden...you should have started with Rotterdam, France, Belgium, Poland and the nazi death camps. Germany started the war and reaped the outcome.

[@MrPeterpiper1969]

@@64MDW No one doubts that Michael but the sad fact is that war is always ugly. People talk of bravery, nobility and glory and there is some of that but at bottom, when all else is stripped away war is still the ugliest activity of mankind. Unfortunately it seems we've still failed to learn that lesson and there are plenty of people who believe they have the right to impose their system or way of life on others by force. What's even sadder is that despite all the horrors and tragedies of all the wars throughout the ages so little has changed.

[@simonpotter7534]

Incredibly, at the start of the WWII bombing campaign there was more concern about damage to private property (or collateral damage, as we would call it now) than actually trying to progress a war objective. The attitude in the UK was still that wars were fought by soldiers and 1940 soon cured the UK of this illusion and put the allied cause on a Total War footing. It does not get the recognition that it deserves but WWII was the first major conflict that civilians were majority casualties in the conflict and not the soldiers.

[@loge10]

One of my favorite scenes in a film of countless scenes that can be called masterpieces. And Deborah Kerr... 💖

[@peterd788]

Kerr was only 20 and Livesey and Walbrook were playing old. Wonderful film making with a perfect cast.

[@realhorrorshow8547]

Oh, Deborah Kerr.

[@bonnacon1610]

Brilliant scene. Theo knows that Clive needs to find his own shadow and befriend it.

[@blackbird5634]

Gone are the days when you could sit in a room lost to the grasp of time except for the sound of grandfather clock's sonorous movements. 🙃

[@dogkungfu8510]

So so important, especially nowadays.

[@Yahuda101]

Thanks.

[@Luke18_13]

Yahuda101 Shalom my brother

[@ronchow2010]

Saw this film recently. 2hrs and 45mins. One of the better films by Powell. But there is only Colonel Candy and no Colonel Blimp there.

[@Luke18_13]

❤

[@eugenemurray2940]

JB Priestley... Some friends called to his house... Wanting to invite him down the pub.. His wife came to the door saying... 'He is not in' They walked away but beyond the fence they heard the clacking of a typewriter They went back.. She answered the door.. 'Er Mrs Priestley We can hear him typing' 'JB The Writer is in... Your friend is not!'

[@jerricroft937]

I was just watching this movie and I was thinking when this scene came on we're repeating it all over again with the refugees from the Middle East we need to deal with them this is for good this is for Keeps