A.Matter.Of.Life.And.Death.1946.NTSC-DVDR
THEATRE DATE....: 12/25/1946
RELEASE DATE....: 1/7/2009
STORE DATE......: 1/6/2009
GENRE...........: Drama/Fantasy/Romance/War
RATiNG..........: 7.9/10 (4,993 Votes)
RUNTiME.........: 104 Minutes
ViDEO BiTRATE...: Untouched Video
AUDiO1 BiTRATE..: DD 2.0 @ 192, EN
AUDiO2 BiTRATE..: DD 2.0 @ 192, Commentary
ASPECT RATiO....: 4:3
ARCHiVES .......: dvdr-a.matter.rar *77x50MB*
DVD SiZE........: *3.53 GB* *3,612 MB* *3,698,778 KB*
SUBTiTLES.......: EN, FR
Also known as Stairway to Heaven, A Matter of Life and Death is the remarkable British fantasy
film that became the surprise hit of 1946. David Niven stars as Peter Carter, a World War II
RAF pilot who is forced to bail out of his crippled plane without a parachute. He wakes up to
find he has landed on Earth utterly unharmed...which wasn't supposed to happen according to
the rules of Heaven. A celestial court argues over whether or not to claim Carter's life or to
let him survive to wed his American sweetheart (Kim Hunter). During an operation, in which
Carter hovers between life and death, he dreams that his spirit is on trial, with God (Abraham
Sofaer) as judge and Carter's recently deceased best friend (Roger Livesey) as defense counsel.
The film tries to have it both ways by suggesting that the heavenly scenes are all a product of
Carter's imagination, but the audience knows better. Among the curious but effective artistic
choices in A Matter of Life and Death was the decision to film the earthbound scenes in
Technicolor and the Heaven sequences in black-and-white. The film was a product of the
adventuresome team known as "The Archers": Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Director ............. Michael Powell
Director ............. Emeric Pressburger
David Niven .......... Peter Carter
Kim Hunter ........... June
Marius Goring ........ Conductor 71
Robert Coote ......... Bob Trubshawe
Kathleen Byron ....... An Angel
Richard Attenborough . An English Pilot
Bonar Colleano ....... An American Pilot
The whole thing is untouched from a DVD5, except with the extraneous garbage removed. The 2
extras are:
* AUDIO COMMENTARY by Historian Ian Christie
* Martin Scorsese on A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (7:54)
IMDB: http://former.imdb.com/title/tt0038733/
RETAIL DVD: http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.asp?item_id=1434677
DVD REVIEW: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/35841/films-of-michael-powell-the/
DVD COMPARISON: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview2/matteroflifeanddeath.htm