Rent Heavens Above! (1963)

Heaven Definitely Isn't Here. - Heavens Above! review by NC

As is so often the case, here is a good film trying to punch its way out of a thin, poorly constructed, baggy production.

Orbiston Parva is a well-heeled parish, the residents stuck in typical mores: I'm comfortable, I want more, I don't give a fig for anything else. So when a new vicar arrives, one who believes that people who profess to be Christians should lead a Christian life, the outcome can only mean trouble.

Of course comedy is a perfectly legitimate tool to tackle such a subject. Satire can be a magnifying glass or a scalpel. It can deflate the pompous. But it doesn't work if it can't show it's fighting on the right side. When an overflowing family of gypsies are evicted from a field, and the Rev. Smallwood rehomes them in the vicarage, any idea that he is right and the men in suits wrong is vitiated by portraying the family as spongers and thieves. When a food bank is instigated, the implication that this is absolutely the right thing (the Christian thing) to do is scuppered by the ridiculous concept that anybody and everybody can turn up and just do their big shop there - for nothing; turning the main street into a ghost town.

It would seem the Boulting Brothers had no time for do-gooders, but they needed to do better than this to show why. It is also ridiculously long. The ending is a stupid bore.

Interesting Satire That Has Questionable Ideas! - Heavens Above! review by GI

An interesting British satire made during the peak period of comedy although this film is light on humour and focuses more on a look at society's relationship with religion. It's a narrative that sort of cuts both ways in saying that people should come first and christian ideals are the way to establish true charity and harmony but yet identifying that society based on capitalism and sound economics will fail if the former takes a hold. Peter Sellers plays the well meaning but naïve vicar John Smallwood, who is mistakenly appointed to a small English town parish dominated by a factory making a vitamin drink which is owned by the aristocratic family who dominate the town. As a result it's a thriving place albeit an intolerant one to outsiders and scroungers. Smallwood begins preaching charity and opens what's basically a food bank, open and free for all. This has the result of collapsing the town's economy even though at first everyone reaps the benefits of free food. There's some nostalgic visions of England in the early sixties reacting to modernisation and the control by establishment figures fighting against the tide of change. The message however is mixed and the emphasis on christianity as the ultimate solution to all man's ills is a bit out dated. The inclusion of racial slurs and a portrayal of the traveller community as just a bunch of scrounging thieves is certainly a controversial one when viewed today. It's not Sellers best film although he plays the role straight and there's a host of great British acting talent in the support cast. Personally I found the film's coda to be somewhat silly too.