Rating: 5/5
Criterion Challenge 2022 | 4/52 | 1940s
This is a story of two Worlds: the one we know and another which exists only in the mind of a young airman, whose life & imagination have been violently shaped by war. Any resemblance to any other world known or unknown is purely coincidental.
May 2nd, 1945 Squadron Leader Peter Carter converses over the radio with June, a radio operator at a USAAF based on the coast of England. His words are poetic quotations, and June cannot understand what he says. His Lancaster bomber is on fire. Five of his shipmates have parachuted to safety on Peter’s orders. His sixth, Bob, lay dead in his arms.
Peter tells June to tell his mother and sister that he loves them. Peter is going to bail out. But he has no parachute. He’d rather jump than fry.
What do you think the next world’s like?
In the afterlife, Bob sits in the waiting room, awaiting Peter’s arrival. He watches soldiers who have died in battle come up the stairway.
— He’s either AWOL or there’s been a mistake. — There hasn’t been a mistake here for a thousand years.
The bells go off — something is wrong.
Peter wakes up on a beach. He believes he’s in the afterlife. He sees a cute dog and a boy playing flute with his goats. But when a bomber flies overhead, he realizes he’s still alive. Then, miraculously, June cycles past him. They fall in love.
The film uses this setup as a way of looking at PTSD. Peter expected a heroic death but survived. That survival doesn’t feel fair to the others who died. Why should he survive and not them? So, when an operator from the afterlife comes to take Peter back, he appeals.
In peace, love tunes the shepherd's reed. In war, he mounts the warrior's steed. In halls, in gay attire is seen. In hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, and men below and saints above, for love is heaven and heaven is love
The escalator to heaven is truly remarkable. According to the filmmakers, it isn’t a visual trick — it’s an incredible piece of engineering.
The trial scene loses me a bit. It’s a little long and boring. But the set looks amazing.
Still, every time I watch a Powell and Pressburger movie, it becomes one of my favorites.