Remarkably, his backward-looking tribute to the golden age of musicals and noirish romantic melodramas turned out to be one of his most freewheeling and personal films.
For retributionists, punishment is backward-looking, justified by the crime that has been committed and carried out to atone for the damage already done.
It was unfortunate that certain of the officers who rose to high rank and positions of influence within the army during the 1930s were comparatively backward-looking.
