63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, intelligent fantasy, April 27, 2000
I know this movie under its original UK title, A Matter of Life and Death, and it's one of the finest, wittiest meditations ever on the relationship between earth and heaven, law and justice, England and America.
Bomber pilot Niven finds himself in a rapidly disintegrating aircraft, shortly to come down over the sea. His last radio message is to an American WAC, Kim Hunter, who falls in love with him during their brief conversation. Then they lose contact, the plane comes down and Niven is washed up on a beach - but much to his surprise, he's not dead. He meets Hunter and they connect.
However, up in heaven, things are not well. Niven should have died, and a heavenly messenger (Marius Goring as a deeply camp French aristocrat) is sent to earth to persuade Niven that he's in the wrong place. Meanwhile, Niven is suffering appalling headaches. His doctor (lovably blurry-voiced Roger Livesey) diagnoses a brain injury. On earth, Niven must have a difficult operation. In heaven, he must go on trial for his right to stay alive.
Powell and Pressburger made the movie as part of a wartime propaganda effort to defuse tension between American servicemen stationed in Britain and the British people, who occasionally resented the Americans' higher pay, better uniforms and general chutzpah. But the film-makers exceeded their brief by several degrees. This is a lovely bit of movie-making; one of the wittier conceits is that life on earth is depicted on sumptuous technicolour, while heaven is in silvery black-and-white (the normal practice would have been to have it the other way round). Niven is a live wire, Livesey is as gruff and cuddly as ever, Goring is bright and cheeky (when he first arrives on earth and the rose in his buttonhole turns from grey to crimson, he sniffs it and sighs "Ah! Technicolor!"), Raymond Massey is cragginess incarnate, plus there's the gorgeous ice-queen Kathleen Byron as an angelic receptionist...ahhh. They don't make films as mad and as intelligent as this any more. (Well, maybe Trainspotting.) Great stuff.
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Little Known Masterpiece Should be Released on DVD, March 26, 2000
I was a film student when I came upon this movie, on television, completely by chance. I'd never even heard of it; director Powell's "Peeping Tom" and "The Red Shoes," yes, but not his "Stairway to Heaven." The opening sequence had me in tears; it's a lovely mini-movie on its own. The rest of the picture held me spellbound with its delicate blending of earthy humanity and star-dust spirituality. Later, I discovered I'd not really seen the real "Stairway to Heaven." TV prints were all black & white, while the theatrical version was color with black & white fantasy sequences. Now I long to own it and share it...AND I WANT IT ON DVD! Hear my plea, Columbia Pictures! I've recommended this movie to many people and some have even tracked down one of the few remaining copies on VHS and bought it. Put it out on DVD and I will sing it's praises 'til "Stairway to Heaven reaches the top 1000 on Amazon's Sales list.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Found it!, January 12, 2000
I know that Amazon.com won't be happy to hear this, but for those of us that have been searching high and low to get a copy of this delightful movie, I found a catalogue that carries it (and as of this date 1/12/00, it's on sale)! Critic's Choice Video mail order is the place to go....
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