Its only a few months since Brian Cox played Winston Churchill in Churchill, and John Lithgow is getting plenty of plaudits for playing the part in The Crown on Netflix currently, so some people may argue that the last thing we need is another depiction of the iconic wartime leader. That isn’t the case with me as I’m endlessly fascinated by the Second World War.
This particular film focuses on one distinct period in the spring of 1940 as Churchill assumes power and struggles to hold onto it. Featuring as it does the behind-the-scenes machinations during the Dunkirk evacuation, it would make an interesting double-bill with Christopher Nolan’s brilliant epic Dunkirk from last year. However, in every other respect it couldn’t be more different, as it does not feature any action sequences. In fact, I would categorise it more as a political drama than a war drama as the manoeuvring and backstabbing could almost as easily be set in peace time.
It seems that Gary Oldman is favourite to bag an Oscar in a lead role. I’m usually wary of anyone in ageing prosthetics but it has to be said that he does a marvellous job, showing Churchill not only to be troubled, but also mischievous. The supporting players are universally solid with Samuel West as Anthony Eden and Ronald Pickup and Stephen Dillane as the conspiring Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax standing out. Director Joe Wright brings a sweeping visual style for a film that was at times reminiscent of his beach scenes in Atonement. That ensures that a movie involving a lot of scenes of men taking in rooms does not feel like it should be on TV.
For such a well presented film, it is a shock to see a seriously misjudged sequence when Churchill takes an underground train in order to meet the public. I’ve no doubt that the mood of people as shown was accurate though they may not have been as universally behind him as shown and the inclusion of the Marcus Peters character in those moments feels like tokenism.
That aside, this is nicely paced, coherently told story with a towering central performance. If the film whets your appetite for this particular time and subject, I thoroughly recommend the book All Behind you Winston by Roger Hermiston, which delves much deeper into the events of the time.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10