Elgar

Ken Russell's usual strong visual imagery. Everyone who has seen this seems to remark on the horseback riding sequence, which I find rather ordinary. Much more remarkable, to my mind, is the bitter irony of the juxtaposition of WWI battle footage with Pomp and Circumstance, and the montage of different vocal arrangements of it set to words with images of mindless vulgarity. Huw Wheldon's narration is too often maudlin. Russell had the good sense to end it with Nimrod from the Enigma Variations.