Major Barbara
Director: Gabriel Pascal
Year Released: 1941
Rating: 3.5
Uniform-clad Major in the Salvation Army (Wendy Hiller) is in a soul-saving frame-of-mind, but has to learn the hard, kind of sad notion that it's materialism that rules the world (with her father, played by wide-eyed Robert Morley, as the chief industrialist helping to 'run' Britain). Shaw himself had a hand in the adaptation of his own exceptional play - it's loaded with nuance and worldly wisdom, striking down the title Messiah's idealism for a kind of grey area: Big Daddy's gunpowder factory funds the workers, it funds the peace-loving Salvation Army and it helps the nation; ironically, the same materials made in the factory for war are also made for useful objects (bridges, buildings) and for fertilizer for growth and life. Salvation and redemption are possible, but not necessarily the way someone would expect - it's a hard lesson for Barbara to absorb, but she grows up fast. It's also about moderation: don't guzzle the burgundy.
