Values changes as seasons change?

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

This movie has initially not released for consumption of general public as it depicted Germans (at least one) as level headed and British as gung ho fool hardy lads! There also uncanny resemblance between Churchill and the main character of the film, Clive Candy who had both served in WW1 and Boer War in South Africa.
It starts off sounding like a satire of sorts with the bumbling British soldiers ambushing a Turkish sauna holding a General Candy as captive. Apparently, the war did not start till midnight and that the young punks had broken a gentlemanly rule of conduct!

The young swashbuckling Lt. Candy

Major General tells his life story in a long flashback.
His story takes through the time after the Boer War in 1902 all through the WW2.
As a lieutenant, he had gone to Germany on the invitation of an English governess in Germany (Edith, Deborah Kerr) to investigate the bad press spread in Germany regarding the English. Candy creates a political row by insulting the Imperial German Army. As a way to deal the tension, he is summoned to engage in a fencing duel. His opponent is Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff. Both are injured but later becomes good friends despite the differences in their ideologies. Edith who visited both of them ended up marrying Theo even though Candy realised that he had fallen for her.

Deborah Kerr

Fast forward, now Brigadier General Candy marries Edith's sister, Barbara (Kerr again) after the WW1 and believes that Britain won the war because of his philosophy of "right is might". Doing the right gentlemanly thing won the war. Theo is tracked down as a prisoner of war but he is cold towards Candy. Theo thinks that the British would treat them bad but Candy was cordial. Theo returned home.
Fast forward again, and now it is WW2...1939

But the war starts

at midnight!

Theo is now at the immigration counter in England trying to gain entry. In his lengthy heart warming speech, he tells the officer of how his two children had embraced the ideology of the Nazis. Since his wife had died, he does not fit into Germany. Candy vouch for him and takes him home.
The final part of film shows Kerr in another role as a private, Angela and Candy's driver. Candy retires but is cajoled to join the Home Guards to protect their homeland in the Battle of Britain. Candy's house is destroyed in the blitz and is filled with water. That is when he retires to the club where he was ambushed in the beginning of the movie.

Friends after all these years

The young officer who led the attack was Angela's boyfriend. Realizing that times have changed and nobody fights war the 'gentlemanly' way following rules and regulations, he decides to forgive Angela's boyfriend and invites him over to dinner. He realises that he had kept the promise that he had made with his deceased wife - that he would never change even if the house is flooded; here his house was drenched and filled with water and he is stuck on his old ideology.
The movie ends with Candy saluting the new guards.
I could not help it but compare this movie to James Cagney's patriotic movie done around the same time on the other side of the Atlantic, 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'. At the end of both movies, the actors salute a marching band as the new generation takes over with their new ideas.This is another entertaining movie with excellent dialogue with plenty of wit and eloquence which is dearth in most movies these days. Creative articulation is replaced with creative provocative postures of actors indulged in various sinful activities!