The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Still in the midst of WWII, Powell and Pressburger took a cut line from One of Our Aircraft is Missing at the suggestion of their editor, David Lean (yes, that one), and built a movie around it, choosing to physically model their main character and name the film after a popular contemporary comic strip character, Colonel Blimp. The end result is a touching, human, and wonderful look at the life of a man getting older, The Archers’ own Ikiru in glorious Technicolor.

The film begins with a ...