War isn’t like cricket. It’s most
certainly uncricket. This is the lesson Powell and Pressburger wanted to press upon the British public in the midst of WW2. Whatever you think about it, it’s not pretty, and it’s not a game. This idea apparently pissed Churchill off. It’s not the most confidence-inspiring of propaganda. But it does make a juicy novel of a film.
General Candy personifies Britain’s disillusionment with its identity. It starts with the man shitting it over to Germany to confront a man “lying” about British atrocities in South Africa, because of course no Englishman would ever be so brutal as to torture and starve - we conduct wars like gentlemen, like good sportsmen. “I’m trying to kill you! Why are you taking it so personally?”It ends with this naive old fool, the best of gentlemen, being put out to pasture. Because in the face of Nazism, this childish attitude is lame.
It’s a relentlessly British film, for better or worse. Full of good old chaps, and witty banter, but it puts the entire British attitude on trial. Very, very clever.
War isn’t like cricket. It’s most
certainly uncricket. This is the lesson Powell and Pressburger wanted to press upon the British public in the midst of WW2. Whatever you think about it, it’s not pretty, and it’s not a game. This idea apparently pissed Churchill off. It’s not the most confidence-inspiring of propaganda. But it does make a juicy novel of a film.
General Candy personifies Britain’s disillusionment with its identity. It starts with the man shitting it over to Germany to confront a man “lying” about British atrocities in South Africa, because of course no Englishman would ever be so brutal as to torture and starve - we conduct wars like gentlemen, like good sportsmen. “I’m trying to kill you! Why are you taking it so personally?”It ends with this naive old fool, the best of gentlemen, being put out to pasture. Because in the face of Nazism, this childish attitude is lame.
It’s a relentlessly British film, for better or worse. Full of good old chaps, and witty banter, but it puts the entire British attitude on trial. Very, very clever.
