A Matter of Life and Death

A Matter of Life and Death

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are a brilliant pair of filmmakers from Britain who made some of the greatest and most underrated films of the 20th century (The Red Shoes being my personal favorite). A Matter of Life and Death (also known as Stairway to Heaven) is probably their most well-known movie, being the all-time favorite of both J.K. Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe (according to an interview with them I once heard).

Playing a bit like a fairy tale, the movie revolves around a British fighter pilot (played the charming and gentlemanly David Niven) who sends out a radio call as his plane is going down. He falls in love with the American radio operator (played by the infectious Kim Hunter aka Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire) that happens to pick up his call as he plummets into the ocean. Now the members of the afterlife must decide whether he's ready to join them or not, so he's sent to a sort of realm between life and death where he spends time with his American girl, as well as a few other new friends.

The first 20 minutes or so are absolutely perfect. I was ready to love this movie almost immediately, based on the writing, acting, and gorgeous visuals that look like an animated Disney film come to life. But then there's all of the standing around and talking. It felt a bit heartbreaking every time I would start to get bored by how much talking instead of doing there is in this film. Whenever they actually do things it's wonderful, whether it's stopping time or entering a new, beautiful set, but they spend so little time doing things that it nearly lulled me to sleep at a few points.

Perhaps it would be different if I could see the movie in the theater, where the distractions of home are nowhere to be found and I'm forced to hang onto the many, many words of dialogue there are in the film, but regardless of that there's still the bizarre final half hour. There is a large trial in the afterlife to see whether or not David Niven should be allowed to live or die, and the lawyer who's against him is an American Revolutionary general who hates the British. This leads to a half-hour debate between America and England that's justified in the context of both the story and the political climate of the time, but is still clearly a huge digression from what the movie is supposed to be about. It's also worth noting that Niven isn't the one defending himself in court, it's a completely different character who's doing it for him, so not only is it 30 minutes away from the story, it's 30 minutes without either of the two romantic leading characters. It's well-intended and well-written, but it could've 100% been cut, along with about half the dialogue that's in the movie.

Again, maybe I just need to see it in the theater, but it started to feel like a task having to watch actors stand in a room and talk each other for long periods of time in the visual medium of film. The production design, costumes, and cinematography are all immaculate and I'm glad I own the movie for those elements, and the acting and writing is very good as well, it just leans too heavily onto one aspect of storytelling when it could've been brilliantly using all of them. It's still a very good movie, and maybe I'll watch again soon and like it better, but for now I just can't get over its static nature.