Love, another victim of war

“As long as they gaze on Waterloo Sunset they are in paradise”.

One of the most unforgiving romantic tragedies in all of cinema. You can’t help but find yourself cringing for the entirety of the devastating second half because of how the purity of it all has completely diminished. Love - just another vulnerable victim claimed by the injustices of war. Hell, not even just war, but the very injustices of everyday vice and cruelty perpetuated by humans. So many instances there are over the course of the film where the culmination of the tragedy could have been avoided entirely, and if not for the circumstances of war, vice and cruelty, a whole life loved Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor could have spent together. It’s no easy feat for a film to make you tear up barely five minutes in, and Robert Taylor’s nostalgic longing as he laments over the days of his love long past sells the emotion of this so authentically. The waltz shared by Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor at the Candlelight Hall is pure romantic poetry in motion. Just for that scene alone is Waterloo Bridge worth seeing.