Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

TinsHeadline Touches You

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

garylampkin **Minor Spoiler- very minor**What unfolds before our eyes is nothing short of a miracle. Literally, and figuratively. This is one of the most complete movies on all levels I may have seen. Do I dare say near perfection, risking to much puff- Nah! This is a 70 year old movie that proves some movies are timeless. A Matter of Life and Death, a.k.a. Stairway to Heaven, provides us viewers with a superb film produced that deals specifically with the subject of what happens to us when we die(similar themes in Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Topper, Ghost, Heaven Can Wait, Meet Joe Black, Defending Your Life, Dragonfly, Hereafter etc.) although I think ideas for the script may have been helped along by parts of King Vidor's 1929, "Hallelujah". Many other popular films to follow would give us similar takes on this Powell & Pressburger (written, directed, produced) opus by their British film production company, The Archers, which has given us a number of memorable offerings- The Black Narcissus, Hour of Glory, A Canterbury Tales, I Know Where I Am Going, The Tales of Hoffman etc. from the mid 40's- mid 50's. This may be the best partnership/team/actors/technical people ever put together, and certainly for quality few can compare, maybe The Mirisch Company, American film production company owned by Walter Mirisch and his brothers, Marvin and Harold Mirisch. and the Cohen Brothers another more modern(and sometimes offbeat) American film production group. Stairway to Heaven provides award winning cinematography and production design(Alfred Junge), excellent acting, superb script and soundtrack, A+ directing and editing even groundbreaking sfx. Niven and Hunter set the tone right from the opening scene- so much so you hope the rest of the story won't be a let down- it isn't. Another stand-out performance is given by Raymond Massey as the prosecutor- although you can tell it was produced by the English, they paint the American over the top superior, egotistical and angry. I think they mixed us up with the French. Anyway, bottom line, if you haven't seen it yet you are missing a top 100 movie fantasy that will stay with you.

GusF My 14th favourite film of all time, this is an absolutely wonderful fantasy film. It was made in order to help foster good relations between the US and UK in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War but the fact that it is so well remembered and so well loved 70 years later is indicative of its quality. The film never specifically states whether Peter Carter's visions of the Other World are real and it offers certain evidence to suggest that they are merely figments of his imagination. However, the very fact of his survival after jumping out of a plane without a parachute would tend to suggest that they were. In any event, I have no doubt that they were entirely real. Notably, the Other World is never specifically referred to as being Heaven and its residents belong to many different faiths. The film was released in the US under the title "Stairway to Heaven" over the objections of the filmmakers. The script is beautifully written by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and is full of marvelous dialogue. Their direction is of the same high calibre. It was superbly shot in glorious Technicolor, depicting our world in colour with Three-Strip Technicolor and the Other World in black-and-white with Dye-Monochrome. The transitions between the two worlds are very well done and the Other World's distinctly modernist sets are lovely. The special effects, particularly the celestial stairways, are fantastic for their time.The film stars David Niven in one of his best performances as Squadron Leader Peter Carter, who due to an error in the Other World is not killed in World War II on May 2, 1945 as it should have been. The opening scene in which he speaks to June over the radio is one of the best scenes in the film. In many respects, it tells us all that we need to know about Peter: he is an extremely intelligent, brave, romantic soul who does not fear death but at the same time would rather live. He faces what he assumes to be his death with an impressive level of calm, even making jokes. When he survives his fall from his Lancaster bomber, he is astonished as he, understandably enough, did not even entertain the notion that he might survive. June, played very well by Kim Hunter in one of her first films, is even more astonished than he is as she never expected to have the pleasure of meeting him in person. They fell in love over the course of their few minutes speaking over the radio and this change in his circumstances provides Peter with a grounds for appealing his death sentence, as it were. Romantic films in which the leads do not have good chemistry are pretty worthless and, thankfully, Niven and Hunter's chemistry is first rate. You never doubt for a moment that they are in love. This becomes particularly important, if not downright crucial, towards the end of the film. Peter is the quintessential old-fashioned English gentleman - meaning that Niven was perfectly cast - while June is a (by 1940s standards) very modern young American woman. Often in films such characters do not mesh particularly well and this is used to comment on the differences between the UK and the US. In this film, however, their love is representative of the fact that British and Americans have more in common than they might think at first glance. The excellent trial scene illustrates this as well. It does not hesitate to comment on some of the British Empire's darker moments, albeit somewhat implicitly, and the American Abraham Farlan's jingoistic rhetoric is suggested as being little more than errant nonsense. The message is that both countries can work together for mutual benefit and the benefit of the rest of the world, a post-World War II ideal that was perhaps not as well implemented as it could have been.Roger Livesey gives an excellent performance as Dr. Frank Reeves, one of the leading neurologists in the UK and the world. A close friend of June, he does not believe Peter's claims about the Other World but, more importantly, he believes that Peter does believe them. As such, he fears for Peter's sanity if he loses his trial in the Other World. When he is killed in a traffic accident, he becomes Peter's defence attorney and presents many convincing arguments on his behalf even though he knows little of the law. Frank is perhaps the most realistic character in the film and this serves to ground it. Raymond Massey receives prominent billing but does not actually appear until 1 hour and 19 minutes into the film. He is extremely effective in the role of the prosecutor Abraham Farlan, the first American killed in the Revolutionary War who despises the British. He argues that the British and Americans are temperamentally unsuited to forming lasting relationships, except in 1 in every 10,000 cases, and cites numerous examples from British and world history to support his anti-British sentiments. However, law may be the strongest force in the universe but love is the strongest force on Earth. In a rather bizarre matter of life and death, Niven and Massey died on the very same day: July 29, 1983.Of the other cast members, the strongest is Marius Goring, who is hilarious as Conductor 71, a French aristocrat who was guillotined in 1790 and missed Peter in the fog over the English Channel. The film also has nice performances from Robert Coote as Bob Trubshaw, Abraham Sofaer as the Judge, Bonar Colleano as an American pilot and Kathleen Byron as an angel. Although he only has one line, the 23-year-old Richard Attenborough makes one of his first film appearances as a recently deceased English pilot.Overall, this is a sublime film on love, life, death and the universe. They don't make 'em like this anymore!

edwagreen One always wonders what the worst picture was that they ever saw. I must say that this shall rank at practically the very top.The concept is absolutely asinine when a pilot survives a jump from a burning plane and due to the English fog, he is able to land safely and coincidentally meet the girl who had taken his distress signal and immediate love between the two resulting.He begins to have hallucinations and a neurologist recommends immediate surgery. The forces above realizing that he was "supposed" to die send a French messenger to persuade him to give in. The messenger is a dandy or complete fop no matter what you can say. He almost brings a comic relief to this misery.Then, there is the trial above where Raymond Massey is the prosecution attorney, a hater of the British for having died at Lexington in 1775. Famous people from the past don't get to be Niven's defense and he chooses his faithful doctor, who conveniently dies in a motorcycle accident.This is absolute pure hog wash.

simon-mcdonald Its a little bit strange for me, thus far I have been reviewing classic 70's/80's films, so to review one from the 40's quite different. But his film is just outstanding. The cinematography is mind blowing, the movie in my opinion offers something classy maybe lost a little in modern films. There is something amazing to be said about the characters, plot development and storyline. The attention to detail just wow. I don't know how many times I have watched this film over the years but I can honestly say its never enough, I haven't ever gotten bored of this movie and I doubt I ever will. This is one of them all time movies if you haven't seen it yet you really should.