How others will see it. The audience is expected to cheer for Niven and Hunter, who are too young to die and receive divine grace. Heaven, in this film, is less a spiritual paradise than a black and white bureaucracy that keeps track of people as much as takes care of them. It's not such a bad place, really, but while passing idle time, expect to be herded about now and then. While heaven may be godless, liberals take notice, it is run by a woman.
Look for a young Richard Attenborough as an affable dead bomber crew member.
It is better to be live than dead, particularly since the world is in color while you are alive. Why Niven and Hunter should love each other isn't the point. They just do, and one must also accept that neurosurgeon Roger Livesey doesn't mind getting killed in a grisly accident if it means he can defend Niven and Hunter in the other world. He is, after all, strictly an intellectual, albeit an exuberant one, and is always eager to advance a theory and prove that he is right.
Heavenly Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) is unabashedly French, and an obvious homosexual. Would a French film represent England with a mincing dandy? Hopefully not, but one must forgive Michael Powell's French stereotyping, and English patriotism, if one is to enjoy this curious and inventive movie.
How I felt about it. Watch out for the stairways to heaven, they only lead up. You would think that people would be eager to go to heaven, although there may not be an alternative since hell does not exist even as a rumor in A Matter of Life and Death. One problem with heaven is that it is a lousy melting pot. People take their prejudices with them from their Earthly lives, and like birds of a fetaher, peoples of a culture stick together.
One message from the film is the power of love. The love between Niven and Hunter, who have met only through a telephone call, apparently shields Niven on his fall from the plane, and provides his entire defense at his heavenly trial. Niven is also presented as a rising poet, but this is an unneccesary complication, particularly since Hunter is no more than a loyal and courageous young woman of good character.