A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946)

A.K.A.: Stairway to Heaven

Country: U.K.Genre(s): Fantasy / Propaganda / Romance

Director: Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger

Cast: David Niven / Kim Hunter / Roger Livesey

Plot

Having cheated death in an impossible jump from his burning plane, a British airman falls in love with an American woman, just before he learns that officials in Heaven plan to correct their oversight and claim his soul.

What I Liked

Apparently conceived as a propaganda film to engender good will between America and England, “A Matter of Life and Death” has surpassed its intended purpose by virtue of its outrageous ambitiousness.  One of the strangest and most difficult to categorize films I have ever seen, the movie takes on the weighty themes of its title through the almost psychedelic perspective of its own quirky cosmology.  A hodge-podge of philosophy, astronomy, religion, psychology, and nationalism all factor into the unique laws of existence the filmmakers have set up as the backdrop for a story that seeks to do nothing less than explain the value of life.

Interestingly, the filmmakers twisted around “The Wizard of Oz” dynamic by rendering passionate and vibrant Earth in Technicolor, as contrasted by sterile and regulated Heaven, shot only in black and white.  Like Milton’s rendering Satan the more interesting character than God in his “Paradise Lost,” directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger imply that life itself has more charm and beauty than Heaven.  At least in the context of this movie, the trick works and makes us root for the one man who actually does not want to go to Heaven.

Powell and Pressburger go to great lengths never to explain if the Heaven of the film is real or exists solely in the mind of main character Peter Carter (rendered immediately likable by David Niven).  It is perhaps another choice stolen from “The Wizard of Oz,” but is more compelling here because of the use of psychology and medicine to explain Peter’s experiences as hallucinations.  It is almost as though someone set of one of my favorite movies, “Jacob’s Ladder,” in the 1940s, including many of the same themes, and took all the scary parts out.

What I Didn’t Like

Despite taking on some weighty topics that have been the subject of fascination and debate since civilization began, the movie never really takes on those topics with anything resembling an intellectual approach, always varying between light-hearted and melodramatic moods.

The character development was likewise lazy.  For a movie that spends so much time going over the evils of prejudice, “A Matter of Life and Death” sure does make copious use of stereotypes.  No one is treated worse by their portrayals in this film than the French, who are all effeminate, overly-dramatic dandies.  Of course this was probably done was a means of finding common ground for the British and American audience members, neither country having a fabulous history with France.  But, outside of its three main characters, nearly ever nationality is reduced to the level of one-dimensional cartoon characters.  Imaginative in concept, it was disappointingly unimaginative in characterization.

Most Memorable Scene

I most enjoyed the moment when the heavenly Frenchman called Conductor 71 first arrives on Earth to take Peter with him into the afterlife.  He comes upon Peter and his new girl June on a picnic in the middle of a lush forest scene something like what one imagines Eden to have been like.  1940s Technicolor rarely looked so vibrant, but it is the dialogue here that really sets the scene apart.  Niven is excellent here as he and the Frenchman get into a silly little tiff that is twice as interesting and amusing than the actual Englishman versus American debate that serves as the film’s climax.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5