A Matter of Life and Death (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Let me be the first to actually review the product pictured on this page and not a DVD, a VHS, or heaven knows what else is being reviewed here. What is pictured on this page is a Blu-ray from Criterion. If you love this film, you'll want to know a few things about this transfer, which is why I'm here, having just finished viewing it. You may now ignore every other review on this page as they are not about the Blu-ray.For those of us who have seen both 35mm and 16mm dye transfer prints and then have had to suffer (and I do mean suffer) through every previous home video iteration - breathe easy - we finally have the transfer we've been waiting for. This new 4K transfer from Criterion (well, from Sony) is, in a word, spectacular. We finally have the correct color, we finally have the sharpness and contrast, we finally have the BEAUTY of this most beautiful film. I had my breath taken away many times during my viewing of this Blu-ray. I'm sure the usual anti-Criterion brigade will find something to howl about with bits or bytes or blacks or teal - they never stop and they are idiots and you must never ever listen to them. If you love this film you will be in heaven. If you don't know this film give it a chance, although if you only like louder, faster this is not for you.The performances are brilliant, the script and direction and photography are beyond brilliant, and the score is fantastic. If this isn't a five-star disc then nothing is. Buy it, rejoice in it, and praise it to the skies. A Matter of Life and Death is a Stairway to Heaven and praise be to Sony/Grover Crisp and Criterion for the bang-up job.And THAT is all you need to know.

I've been a fan of Powell and Pressburger (the Archers) films for quite a long time, and will happily take credit for introducing my wife and her friends to classics such as The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, I Know Where I'm Going, and others. Up to this point surely the highpoint of their collaboration has been The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus, but I didn't know A Matter of Life and Death was the first in that magnificent trio, and didn't have access to see it by any means until only recently. Seriously. The library didn't have it. YouTube didn't have. Amazon? Netflix? Didn't. Have. It. Finally in desperation I signed up for DVD.com (the mail service formerly known as Netflix) just so I could see this movie to see if I liked it (on a cruddy DVD copy with washed out VHS-like picture). I was so amazed by this film I swiftly pre-ordered the blu ray. And now at last, the trio is united under my roof!A Matter of Life and Death is a rare picture in many ways. It's story is simple. REALLY simple. A soldier survives a crash that should kill him, washes up on a beach and meets the last person he spoke to the on the radio. It's love at first sight. Unfortunately there has been an error in the next life and he's not supposed to be alive, so an agent of the next world comes to fetch him. Only he wont' go. Is he having delusions? Is it real? Who knows! But to him it's real and if he doesn't have brain surgery swiftly his doctor is worried he's lose his mind. Which coincides with the fact that he's on trial in the next world to determine his fate. Is the plot pretty wild? Yup. Is it simple? Very. It's also AWESOME.I'll honestly say that it's unlikely a film like this could be made today, because there's just too much jaded cynicism in the world. Someone's right to live JUST because they fell in love? Give me a break, right? People get divorced all the time. Love is no big deal!...But if you are a hopeless romantic like me, and cling to the idea of meeting and marrying, and spending the rest of your life with your one true love, this film is wonderful in it's message (even if it is a bit of post-war propaganda on the power of love...between the British and the Americans[!]).The cinematography is Jack Cardiff work at it's most spectacular, the special effects are some of the finest in any film EVER (keep an eye out how all ambient sound stops when time stops, books fly from the floor back to the shelf when time rewinds, and when time stops in the hospital multiple people walk through walls [!]). The effects are old-school optical, and they are used to serve the story. There's no computer-assisted/CGI here. When time freezes the actors are holding as still as they can. But when a woman is watching what may be the last moments of the love of her life and a tear is captured from her cheek on a flower as evidence to prove her devotion is real... I couldn't help but be moved by the sincerity and power of emotion.The acting is uniformly great in this film, and like "I know where I'm going" there isn't a single character I dislike. I like the American Girl, the British Pilot, the emissary sent to bring him back, and especially the doctor. Seeing delusions treated with kindness and compassion in order to help someone through a crisis real or imagined again, is a just incredibly moving.The stairway to heaven is a literal set prop and it is magnificent. All of the sets in the next world are fantastic in every sense of the word. And the jump between black and white and color in this film is some of the greatest I've ever seen. Even if you aren't crazy about the story etc, this film is worth watching for the special effects and set pieces alone.I most love this film because it makes the ordinary into the epic (that and making the epic into the ordinary are the two hardest things to do in story-telling in my opinion). It tells a small story in a grand fantastic way, and lifts the spirit of all those who watch it. The glorious blu ray with it's gorgeous high definition transfer is a credit to Criterion and will doubtless get this film the attention is deserves after all these years.If you enjoy fantasy films with a bit of ambiguity (the film never says if what you see is real or not, or if the next world is heaven or not (and even hints strongly that it's all a dream... and I like it that way). If you like the Powell and Pressburger collaborations and haven't seen this film, buy it immediately. There's nothing more that I can say.

This is a review of the Criterion bluray--no other version is worth mentioning in comparison to it! Another amazingly original and unique masterpiece from the filmmaking team of Power & Pressberger (the same team behind "The Red Shoes"). David Niven is a pilot of a bomber in WWII. He jumps from his burning plane without a parachute and wakes up the next morning alive and unhurt except for a blow to the head. He falls in love with a young Kim Hunter and only then an agent of death appears to him and tells him he was supposed die that night when he jumped, but an error was made. He was never supposed to survive and it is time to correct that error. But this flyer refuses to go easily and demands a hearing in the celestial court to argue his case as to why he should now be allowed to live out a full lifetime. Is this all really happening, or is it all just a hallucination brought on by a blood clot spotted by doctors on his brain, resulting from the blow to the head he received jumping from his aircraft? The film was originally released in America as "Stairway to Heaven", a title borrowed for the well known classic rock song. The special effects are far ahead of their time and the visuals and production design are spectacular--and Jack Cardiff's Technicolor cinematography is nothing short of magnificent. This is, by the way, a brand new digitally remastered version transferred to video from the original camera negatives and lovingly remastered at Sony Pictures, restored frame by frame--they've even re-aligned the red, blue and green technicolor separations to perfection. It looks even better than the recently remastered British Film Society version--and that was an awfully impressive looking version! It couldn't possibly have looked this good when originally shown in theaters. It looks, in a word, spectacular! If you have loved other films by these two filmmakers, like "The Red Shoes", "Tales of Hoffman", "Black Narcissus" or "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp", then you should know that this is the best looking remastering job ever done on any of Powell & Pressberger's films. If you are a fan of Powell & Pressberger's, this one is a no-brainer. Buy it now and enjoy it for years to come!

This is NOT the German version, it is a Spanish version and it i uses low quality video plus on a recordable Blu-ray disc - pirated.

Quite a few scene and dialogue are missing from the film

A classic film, really worth owning

This VHS Tape was in good condition and as described by the seller as a collectors copy standard. The film itself is amusing and different especially for the late 40s. Especially its anti-british element in the trial scene whih was unusual just after the war.

Excellent film