Brian Cox growls his way through this
biopic of the wartime Prime Minister known for his inspiring speeches
and role in carrying Britain through the Second World War. The film
takes place shortly before the D-Day landings, as Eisenhower,
Montgomery and others are planning to assault the beaches of Normandy
in an all-out push to dislodge the Nazi troops and hopefully turn the
tide of the war. Churchill is opposed to the plan, knowing the tragic
cost of warfare from his experiences is the Great War almost thirty
years before and threatens to derail their plans. We see behind the
well-recognized and rehearsed facade to Churchill's relationships
with his wife, staff and others.
For me the film suffered from a number
of fundamental flaws. As all historical films the audience already
knows the outcome of the D-Day landings and Churchill undermining the
tension on which any regular film would rely. Churchill's attempts to
make the American's reconsider their plan are therefore devoid of any
serious threat. Unlike another WWII story that came out this year,
“Their Finest”, which took an unknown cast of characters and made
you care about them, this takes a well-known personage and almost
succeeds in doing the opposite. Churchill is shown as moody, almost
incompetent in his contradicting the American generals, arrogant, and
petty. He berates his staff, is unloving to his wife, almost
pathologically obsessed with the war. He is a man who has had his
day, whose former triumphs have instilled in him a sense of
self-importance that goes unrecognised in many of his peers. He makes
constant reference to being like a lion who has had his teeth
removed, or sitting with paws crossed, while others take charge.
There is also a poignant scene where the king explains to him that he
understands his frustration in not being allowed to “do”
anything. Churchill is more of a figurehead, someone known for
speechifying, rather than heroic deeds. I struggled to connect with
this and it often came off as Churchill whining, when the general
perception of him is as a strong persona. It is an interesting idea
to scratch beneath the surface and illusion of an historical figure
to reveal the true man, but when he is revealed to be a fairly
unlikeable character with few redeeming features it is a tough watch.
There is a lack of substance to the ideas too, favouring a strong
character performance by Cox, never lacking a cigar or tumbler of
scotch rather than really delving into the ideas behind the man. One
of the central themes is Churchill's regrets over Gallipoli that lead
him to hesitate over Operation Overlord, but since he is cut out of
the planning of this it is fairly inconsequential. He is given a
Lear-esque speech where he prays for storms on the day of launch so
that it might be called off, but again this serves only to highlight
his impotence.
A trial to get through with lengthy
conversations that go nowhere and do nothing to explain the
characters. You get the feeling at times that you are waiting for
D-Day to finally happen so that there will be something interesting
going on. This is made worse in the scene with the king, where his
stilted manner of speech means that this discussion drags on twice as
long as others. The idea of Churchill being wary of sending so many
men to their deaths could have formed an interesting part of a larger
film, but when that is the central idea of an entire film, it is hard
to get through. For a film that is titled “Churchill”, it would
have been interesting to see more of his life, rather than this slim
portion. Perhaps it would have been better entitled “D-Day” and
spent more time on the planning and everything that went into the
operation. As it is it seems a little stuck between wartime drama and
character study, not really succeeding as either.
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