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).

《百戰(zhàn)將軍》講故事的方式有些沉悶，我分好幾段看完。

看第一段是將軍和年輕士兵扭打落水，鏡頭下，再爬起來(lái)的他變成青年，落睡前，他說(shuō)過(guò)一句話：「戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)是從午夜開(kāi)始，現(xiàn)在是下午，你們這是犯規(guī)?！鼓昵笆勘鴧s說(shuō)：「現(xiàn)在打仗，誰(shuí)還講規(guī)矩？」

往前看，才明白在將軍的眼里，哪怕戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)也有禮節(jié)，不能失去理解。

看第二次，將軍們的世界更有些無(wú)法理解了。他和一位德國(guó)軍官起沖突，最后約定通過(guò)擊劍的決斗，看誰(shuí)能贏，沒(méi)想到比賽前，雙方定下很多規(guī)矩，這哪兒是決斗，不是比賽嗎？

打斗結(jié)束，各自受傷，雙方在住院時(shí)成為好友，更令人不解的是，將軍竟然愿意成全喜歡她的女人，讓她嫁給自己的好友。

一幕幕看下來(lái)，真覺(jué)得不可思議，甚至覺(jué)得所謂的百勝，不過(guò)是一種很諷刺的頭銜。

直到故事結(jié)束，我再回想故事，慢慢明白，人類在變得更加文明時(shí)，戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)卻變得越來(lái)越野蠻，原來(lái)將軍所謂的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)規(guī)矩，是一種文明的方式，一種承諾，在他那年代，哪怕是打仗，也會(huì)遵守相應(yīng)的禮節(jié)，他覺(jué)得可恥的行為，是對(duì)現(xiàn)代戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的諷刺，這才是電影所要表達(dá)的核心。

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作者：小山

來(lái)源： 小山隨思錄