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Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s romantic wartime fantasy A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH centers on a romance between a British fighter pilot (David Niven) and a young American WAC (Kim Hunter) stationed in England. The pair have bonded over the radio one night, when the pilot’s badly damaged plane gets lost in a fog and he has to bail out, and she is the last voice he hears over his radio headset. His survival after bailing out minus parachute is, it turns out accidental. The heavenly spirit sent to collect him also got lost in the fog, causing all kinds of problems with the Celestial Bureaucracy, when the pilot declines to correct the error by dying, especially now that he has found love.

I don’t want to give away too much, as a good deal of the fun of the movie is watching the story unfold. Make no mistake, there’s a lot to like and admire about the movie, especially the really fine performances and the really delicious use of Technicolor. God this film is gorgeous to look at. Your TV isn’t used to showing you pictures like this. The greens are greener, and those reds are really red: you’ve never seen fire like you see it in this film. The pictures just jump off the screen.

There’s also certain playfulness to the film that is really engaging. The story may not feel entirely fresh to 21st Century audiences, but there are lots of neat little details to keep the attention engaged. At one point in the film time stops short, and a table tennis game is halted with the ball hanging in space.

I’ll admit though that I can’t quite make up my mind about the film. I have to say that I find the love relationship to be rather unconvincing, there doesn’t really seem to be a lot of chemistry there between David Niven and Kim Hunter. And the overt propaganda elements of the film get frankly tiresome. A big scene toward the end about British/American relations (you’ll know what I mean when you see it) just brings the film to a screeching halt, and the love conquers all ending (not a spoiler, trust me, there’s never any doubt where the story is heading) feels kind of tacked on, somehow. I’m not sure I believe it. Bureaucracies, celestial or otherwise, aren’t known for being accommodating.

This is either a serious flaw or a niggling complaint, as you please. I’m feeling kind of churlish bringing it up. I guess I’m saying that the film bites off more than it can really chew: the filmmakers expect a charming romantic wartime fantasy about the Power Of Love to carry more metaphoric and thematic propaganda weight than it can really bear. It doesn’t really detract from the movie, I guess, but it doesn’t exactly help either.

Fantastically creative story, filled with heart and emotion, superb acting and perfection of cinematic craft. The inventiveness of this simple love story is a pure joy to watch. This is a truly unique film, there’s nothing else quite like it. The bombastic elements of the story are softened by its purity of soul and grace. Some might find Powell & Pressburger’s style a bit dated and sentimental, but that innocence is what makes the film shine so brightly, for never has the simple tale of “love conquers all” been told so beautifully. It is a brave film, tackling the simple mysteries of life, love and death in the face of war, science and logic. The questions of time, free will, love, war, death, life and everything in between can be found in this delightfully innovative triumph of a film.

This is without a doubt, one of Powell and Pressburger’s most bold visions. The story itself; a mixture of wordly rationalism, and celestial fantasy, makes no compromises in its unbelievable plot. Yet somehow, despite all the hyperbole, this is one of their most engaging stories.

It’s also a rather experimental film, even for these two. There are sequences in A Matter of Life and Death that almost equal some of the visual ingenuity of The Tales of Hoffman. This blend of fantastic aestheticism and compelling plot somehow works, which is the most fascinating aspect of this film. Never, at any point in the film does the visual whimsy overwhelm the story, and vise-versa.

War films just suit the abilities of these two artists so well. Powell had so many forthright, albeit romantic ideals about World War II, and his seemingly infinite supply of these imaginative ideas about it manifest in films such as A Matter of Life and Death. Surely, the aid of such accomplished actors as David Niven and Roger Livesy give a sharpness and life to the script that the Archer’s were always famous for.

Of course, it’s no wonder that something so adventurous in a visonary sense has not received as much credit as it had coming to it. It’s a remarkable acheivement, but to anyone unfamiliar with much of the Archer’s oeuvre, it’s visual and plot-oriented ambitions might seem a bit much. The ending is a bit abrupt as well. While everything seems wrapped up, the story is so fantastic that it appears as if Pressburger wasn’t precisely certain of where to stop.