Colonel Blimp - "This is not a Gentleman's War"

A clip from the Powell and Pressburger classic of 1943, in which Anton Walbrook makes his brilliant speech about Blimp's reluctance to engage in "dirty fighting". Quite thought provoking in this age of the so-called War on Terror. And I just love Anton Walbrook's accent.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• colonel
• blimp
• anton
• walbrook
• deborah
• kerr
• roger
• livesey
• powell
• pressburger
• 1943

[suedenham]

slick war propoganda alright. The Nazis were scum, but to pretend the British Empire played by Queensbury rules is incredibly dishonest (just like most of the British media).

The British pioneered concentration camps in Africa, and have never had a problem shooting unarmed civilians. This scene is for what? to explain away Allied behavious like the firebombing of Dresden?

[mutikonka]

Well you have a point, this film was mad ein 42-43 before the major bombing campaigns really took effect. It is propaganda and P&P were sentimental conservatives who looked upon Britain as an idyllic lost Albion. But their message is not without merit. In the 'phoney' war the PM Chamberlain refused the RAF permission to bomb Germany as they "might damage private property". Britain WAS too complacent - it took the blitzkrieg to wake them up.

[mutikonka]

Yeah, I uploaded that one too.

[philipgrundy]

Doesn't Anton Walbrook Hit the nail on the head here, with regards to the "English Disease". Our reluctance to offend and recognise the truth of a situation has persued us down the ages, even to today,s political situation. We seem to handicap ourselves, although no-one would dispute the courageous response to danger, when we do eventually come round to seeing it.

[tombar]

This is one of the most moving scenes from possibly the most wonderful film ever. Nearly as good as Walbrook's scene when he is explaining why he has returned to Britain as a refugee in WW2. What a genius he was.

[baltimoretrainworks]

Amazing how this rings true today in the fight against terrorist. We are trying to fight by the rules while they use every oppurtunity to strike at us even if it means using innocent women and children in hijacked planes as missles. Time to take off the gloves and show them we are capable of raining down true wrath of God vengence on them and those who either by admission or omission support them.

[hnming]

@suedenham : This is a far slicker movie than it gets credit for. In an earlier scene Deborah Kerr's character confronts Livesey's about the concentration camps in South Africa. And likewise Livesey doesn't realize the cynical machinations of politicians that led to the rise of Nazi Germany and the failure of the Weimar Republic. The point of the film is that Livesey doesn't realize that being a "gentleman" has made him a "useful idiot" for the powers that be for most of his life.

[farmerned6]

@suedenham Dresden?(again) allied bombing yes US & RAF but "explain away"? maybe you had better "explain way" the axis bombings first? try Warsaw, Rotterdam,Coventry, the random V1 & 2's and others

[cj69m]

Of course, now we know that "the most devilish idea ever created by a human being" is in fact the "Pot Noodle"

[martynhanson]

more than 'slick propoganda'. Churchill wanted to ban it and stopped it being shown in some countries till after the war. What's it about asked a critic. are they blind? It's about us and the empire - how we got it and how we lost it - extraordinary film by extraordinary filmakers