This Powell-Pressburger’s pièce de résistence, which eulogizes the quintessential “Englishness”, is a lavish moonshot on show, not least for its renowned Technicolor sumptuousness that transmogrifies studio-bound fakery into manufactured imagery of an eyeful. The titular Colonel Blimp, a beloved cartoon character created by David Low in 1934, is actually Major-General Clive Wynne-Candy (Livesey), whose life spans over three wars, the Boer War, WWI and WWII.

Starting in medias res, an elderly Clive (splendid makeup work, Livesey is unrecognizable under the masquerade), a senior commander in the Home Guard in WWII, scuffles in a Turkish bath with a whippersnapper Lieutenant Spud Wilson (McKenchnie), who is bent on pre-emptively starts the war which is declared to start at midnight, then with a magical touch (one must love Powell & Pressburger’s simplistically fantastic masterstrokes like this), an extended flashback commences, retails the life of Clive from 1902.

One of the leitmotifs is his year-long rapport with a German army officer Theo Krestchmar-Schuldorff (Walbrook), whose beginning is rather peculiar, Theo is selected to duel with Clive after the latter insults the Imperial German Army, both are injured and recuperated in the same nursing home, their friendship burgeons, and Theo falls in love with Edith Hunter (Kerr), a British girl living in Berlin for whom Clive realizes his feeling afterwards, and Kerr also embodies another two “ideal woman” in the subsequent two chapters, as Barbara, Clive’s wife and Angela, Clive’s MTC driver. To narrow down three important female characters into one ideal personification is a thorny maneuver, thankfully Kerr has the bent to differentiate one from another with enough moxie and modulation, and her telegenic comeliness is such a stunning boon to appreciate on the screen.

Meantime, Theo becomes a POW of WWI, and after Edith’s death, comes to Britain when Nazism gets rampant in his homeland, finally reunites with Clive, it is Theo change of views that is pregnant with Powell & Pressburger’s uncompromising anti-Nazi ire, and Walbrook, an almost expressionless performer, holds forth in an uninterrupted long take during which he lays bare his metamorphosis into a “good German”, his pent-up emotion brilliantly simmers under his salt-and-pepper, still dapper appearance, his empathetic restraint is such a revelation, by the same token, when Theo phlegmatically points up Clive’s noble notion of war (and by extension, Britain’s detrimental appeasement policy), Walbrook is a smashing sophisticate of rapier-like perception and gravitas.

As Clive, Livesey is comparatively less charismatic, especially he fails to bring off a youthful vitality as a stripling, but fares much better as the older man, seasoned by the age, Livesey’s uniquely hoarse utterance also becomes less jarring, and being an immaculate gentleman of highest British criteria, Clive teeters on the brink of being a straight bore, but Livesey imbues him with as much animation as one can imagine, in the event, Clive earns our admiration not just for his integrity and grits (though hunting wild animals is such a demerit to today’s eyes, a rhino, an elephant!), but the underlying spirit that the binds a great nation together, it is propaganda film of its most cogent and stirring order.

referential entries: Powell & Pressburger’s A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946, 7.5/10); BLACK NARCISSUS (1947, 8.3/10).

《百战将军》讲故事的方式有些沉闷，我分好几段看完。

看第一段是将军和年轻士兵扭打落水，镜头下，再爬起来的他变成青年，落睡前，他说过一句话：「战争是从午夜开始，现在是下午，你们这是犯规。」年前士兵却说：「现在打仗，谁还讲规矩？」

往前看，才明白在将军的眼里，哪怕战争也有礼节，不能失去理解。

看第二次，将军们的世界更有些无法理解了。他和一位德国军官起冲突，最后约定通过击剑的决斗，看谁能赢，没想到比赛前，双方定下很多规矩，这哪儿是决斗，不是比赛吗？

打斗结束，各自受伤，双方在住院时成为好友，更令人不解的是，将军竟然愿意成全喜欢她的女人，让她嫁给自己的好友。

一幕幕看下来，真觉得不可思议，甚至觉得所谓的百胜，不过是一种很讽刺的头衔。

直到故事结束，我再回想故事，慢慢明白，人类在变得更加文明时，战争却变得越来越野蛮，原来将军所谓的战争规矩，是一种文明的方式，一种承诺，在他那年代，哪怕是打仗，也会遵守相应的礼节，他觉得可耻的行为，是对现代战争的讽刺，这才是电影所要表达的核心。

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作者：小山

来源： 小山随思录