Customer Reviews

Stairway To Heaven (A Matter Of Life And Death)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

5 stars for the movie which is phenomenal. 1 star for the DVD quality. The picture is quite blurry as if the transfer was done from a VHS recording of a TV showing. In spite of this, the viewing is still quite enjoyable due to the stunning visual qualities of the movie. I guess this DVD version is better than nothing. I found it available at moviesunlimited.com.

One of the most charming war/romance fables that human imagination devised, executed wonderfully by Michael Powell. Heavenly cast with David Niven and Kim Hunter as the star-crossed lovers,supported by a host of wonderful character actors. Marvelous use of b&w and color for realm changes. Raymond Massey and the wonderful Roger Livesey round out the drama with credibilty in every scene. Contains a heart-stopping argument on the meaning of life, justce and the ultimate arbiter of such. Worth every flight

Really a bit much to pay for a poorly reproduced pirated version don't you think?

great old time movie (1947) where the story is everything and your imagination takes a nice visit to a different place. The special effects are very old time and corny but charming nonetheless. David Niven & Kim Hunter give very good performances. I originally saw this movie on Bravo @ Christmas time about 6-7 years ago and have been looking for it ever since. It was worth the wait.

I should state here that while I have seen this film many times, I have not seen this DVD, so cannot comment on its quality. Thus, this review concerns the film only. I've seen the poor reviews of the DVD below and it is a great shame, because I very much wanted a copy - no library of Pressburger/Powell fans is complete without this marvellous movie, which was released in Britain under the title "A Matter of Life and Death". In 2004, the movie was voted by a poll of 25 British critics as #2 on a list of the best British films ever made (of course, #1 on that list was "Get Carter", so make of the honor what you will).

"Stairway to Heaven", as it was called in its U.S. release in 1947, features a suberb cast, including David Niven, Kim Hunter (of "Streetcar Named Desire" fame), Roger Livesey (another Pressburger/Powell stalwart, most notably in "I Know Where I'm Going" and "The Life and Times of Colonel Blimp"), and Marius Goring (unrecognizable from the romantic young composer of "The Red Shoes").

The setting is the coast of England during WWII. The film opens as Peter (David Niven), an RAF pilot whose aircraft is shot down during a dogfight with German attackers, is radioing in to report and to try to get a last message to his mother. His crew is dead, his parachute shot up, his engines on fire, and he knows he is going down. June, an American girl from Boston (Kim Hunter) who is working with the English war effort, picks him up on radio and takes the message - they have an emotionally fraught exchange, and when the radio connection goes off, June assumes the pilot's plane has crashed and he is dead.

But Peter wakes up on the beach near the downs, a bit bruised but otherwise not too much the worse for wear. He cannot explain how he got there, or how he escaped what he assumed was an unavoidable descent to a watery death. He wanders along the beach and, of course, the first person he meets is June - they fall instantly in love.

As it turns out, Peter WAS "scheduled" to die in that crash - but the Heavenly Messenger (Marius Goring) missed him in the English coastal fog. The Messenger suddenly appears and insists that Peter return with him to take his appointed place in the rolls Upstairs. Peter points out that his situation has changed drastically - that, due to the Messenger's "mistake" he has fallen in love, and therefore his "case" must be reconsidered.

From this point on, the film moves between fantasy and reality, as the viewer as well as the characters try to determine whether Peter's sudden headaches and increasingly agitated emotional state are the result of the approach of the Heavenly Trial of his case - or a brain injury suffered as his aircraft crashed into the water below. The story's conceits on both levels are followed through with scrupulous care. Roger Livesey plays Frank Reed, the doctor who befriends the young couple and tries to help them, calling in expert neurological help while reassuring June that Peter is not losing his mind, and reassuring Peter that they won't let the Messenger take him without a fight.

"Stairway to Heaven" represents the best form of this genre, with touches of irony and humor, and stylish as well as sincere performances, that avoid what might have been an overdose of whimsy. The delicate way of the Pressburger/Powell team on that strange border between fact and fantasy here results in an enchanting classic that never loses is ability to charm. Oh - just see how long it takes you to get that "Stairway" theme out of your head, too!

This is a pirated version done really poorly, I can see ¨Imation DVD-R¨ clearly underneath the DVD sticker. The underside is telltale purple as well. Don't buy this thing.

While I was watching "Stairway to Heaven",I couldn't help but think of that great movie from a few years earlier, "Here Comes Mr. Jordan". The latter movie was more a romantic comedy while the former comes across as a moral fantasy about fate and the opportunity to change it.

We see, right from the beginning, the essentials of "Stairway to Heaven". Two people share a special bonding moment just before one of them is about to die. The opening is well done and enables us to buy into the "love at first brush with death" basis for the romantic focus of the movie. There is a subsequent scene that is brilliantly done in which we sense, for a moment or two, that we are "someplace else". We do get there eventually in order to witness a trial for the ages. You see, one of the parties by-passed fate and now must "pay up". "Not so fast" he says and begins to argue for his continued earthly existence. The special envoy that is sent to "bring him home" ends up having to negotiate and the matter is put before a holy tribunal.

If it seems like I'm giving the plot away, don't fear. What I've described can be pretty well forseen as the movie develops. There are a few surprises I've left out although some of them are fairly predictable as well. The excellence in this movie isn't so much the plot as the script and the acting. I'd give a nod to the directing as well. The "trial" gets into some pretty deep stuff and I'm not sure that I absorbed it all the first time around. Not to worry: this is a movie I'll gladly watch again.

So, I haven't seen this DVD reproduction, so I can't comment on picture quality. I did, however, just come from a screening of this at the MoMA, and can vouch for the quality of the film itself. The cinematography is breathtaking, and the writing and acting and direction and everything else is superb as well. I'm just surprised a video rerelease hasn't been put out by Criterion or some other major distributor. Hell, I'd take a simple Kino release.

Wonderful movie, so-so DVD.

There are better editions available from the UK (there's even one that was orginally a giveaway from a British newspaper that you can find for $2 with another movie on the same disk, that is quite good quality. Powel used color better than anyone else did, or would for many years, so you really ought to see a good copy that does justice to the film. OK they will only play on a Euro or no-region DVD player but many US DVD players can play the UK version, with a simple hack (easy to find on the net) to make them all region

I think the first few moments of this film are as intense as any thing I have ever seen in a film! Michael Powell had a wonderful eye, he could even make a dead man in the ruined cockpit of a burning bomber beautiful to look at.