Churchill -- Movie review

Churchill

Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky

This is my kind of film, although I do not think it will have wide appeal.  There were only a handful of people in the theater, but it was a Tuesday night.  And, incidentally, it was June 6, the anniversary of D-Day in Europe.  It is a fictional portrayal of Winston Churchill on the eve of the D-Day invasion of Normandy by the allies in World War 2.  I can't really comment on how fictional it is, but it is clearly a dramatization that feels somewhat contrived and kind of schmaltzed up.  The character of Churchill (played by Brian Cox) is on screen probably 95 percent of the time.  It is all about him.  His wife, Clementine (played by Miranda Richardson), plays a supporting role, but neither she, nor her relationship to her husband, Winston, is developed in any great depth.

Churchill comes off as an inwardly tormented man.  Tormented by guilt and traumatic memories of his previous experiences of war.  Haunted by the memories of these previous disasters as well as the onerous sense of responsibility that he carries for the many deaths and their lasting legacy, he takes a hard position against the looming prospect of another such disaster in Normandy.  The invasion, however, is not under his control, but rather by a coterie of generals headed by Dwight Eisenhower.  Churchill and Eisenhower clash over the plan and execution of the invasion, but Churchill is overruled and finally forced unwillingly to retreat to his political role as cheerleader and morale booster to the British people.  The real conduct of the war is left in the hands of the military men. 

The film makes Churchill a bit of a buffoon, a Donald Trump light, a bumbling old man who is out of touch with modern realities, whose opposition to the Operation Overlord plan expresses sentimentality and excessive. caution by a man who doesn't really get what is necessary and who is thus making a nuisance of himself.  We are left impressed with the wisdom and capability of military leadership, something that has stayed in our culture for at least seventy years.  Civilian control of the military is devalued, and political leaders are reduced to the supporting role of boosting public morale and mobilizing support for the decisions and plans of the military, who are really running things.  The film is subtly pro-fascist. 

What I liked about it is that it focuses strictly on characters and human interaction.  There is not a lot of action or spectacle.  The action in this film is the conflicts and confrontations between people over matters of substance.  The emotional and psychological impact of war, the burdens of leadership, and the internal agonies that come with the uncertainties and dangers of momentous decisions.  The marriage between Churchill and Clementine does not seem to be going well, although it is not clear exactly why.  They come to the verge of separating, but I didn't really understand it.  Although Clementine does play a significant role in the film, her role in the life of Churchill is not well portrayed.  The dynamics of their relationship remain murky. 

One character I did like was the typist, Helen Garrett (played by Ella Purnell).  She is a very attractive, captivating young woman, whose strength of presence on screen is disproportionate to the role she is in.  I wonder if she was a real person or a made up phantasm for the film?  In any case, she was a good idea, and the appeal of Ella Purnell helps the film a lot. 

The film made excessive use of musical backgrounds in an attempt to cloy and manipulate the audience. It was as if the words, interactions, and situations did not speak loud enough.  The music tended to function like canned laughter on television comedy shows.  The filmmakers seemed to want to hit you over the head with sentimentality and drag you along emotionally as if they expected you not to grasp the proper mood or experience the proper response to the actions and circumstances.  The film is not too long at one hour and thirty-eight minutes, but there is a certain amount of fluff that could have been sliced away to make the film even shorter.  This is not a great film, but it is pretty good.  It is thoughtful, and gives some sense of the character and burdens of Winston Churchill at a crucial historical moment.