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GOOD SOLDIER

Today's NYTimes Best Film was

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

This wonderful film looks past the cartoon of the blustery old ex-military type; the blowhard.

Our man here seems blimpish but, in fact, is a wonderful, good hearted man.

We see the whole span of his adult life.

The work is beautifully done by The Archers production company which actually was two men: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

We have seen their Black Narcissus and I Know Where I'm Going.

The film is their first work in Technicolor; three strip. It is beautifully restored by Criterion.

Ebert's review at the link pretty much tells the story.

It is a great film. It is long; almost 3 hours. You know how I feel about that!

And I was not ready for it to stop when it did.

In a clever device that works, our man falls in love three times and, in each case, Deborah Kerr is the woman in question.

I think that there is a lot more cutting edge but innovation in 1943 has been subsumed, by this time, into general practice so it is harder to see.

There is a best friend throughout the film as well. The bond between the two men is really quite wonderful to watch.

It has an 8.3 IMDb rating which is very high.

I will be giving it a 5 out of Netflix5.