There is a particularly moving scene in which Churchill presents a Victoria Cross to a young airman, who is gradually revealed to have suffered terrible facial injuries.
(In this he far exceeds another oversized Churchill actor, John Lithgow, who often seemed to bend over double in the 2016 Netflix drama The Crown in order to compensate for being nearly a foot taller than the character.) Though much taller and broader than the real Churchill, Gleeson adopts a posture and demeanor that effectively embody the great man. The film is handsomely shot and generally well acted, and Gleeson acquits himself rather well as the wartime prime minister. It depicts Churchill from his elevation to the premiership until his summary dismissal by the electorate in 1945. The gifted, bearlike Brendan Gleeson took on the role-the only Irishman yet to do so-in this sequel to 2002’s The Gathering Storm. (2017’s other major film about the Second World War, the riveting Dunkirk, which climaxes with a reading by an exhausted soldier of Churchill’s famed “Fight on the Beaches” speech of 4 June 1940, did not depict the prime minister.) One was the worst Churchill film ever made ( Churchill, starring Brian Cox), and the other the best. In a remarkable coincidence, two of them were released in theatres last year. Of these productions, about a dozen feature Churchill as the lead character. Churchill has been depicted on screen more than sixty times, usually in supporting roles, and often on television, a medium he abominated. Perhaps his most intriguing cinematic near miss was an epic film about Napoleon, which was to feature Chaplin in the lead role.Īs we imagine him gazing time and again upon the silvery images of his favorite film, That Hamilton Woman, eagerly watching Laurence Olivier as Admiral Nelson lead his country to victory at Trafalgar, one wonders whether Churchill envisioned himself as a character in the films of the future perhaps inspiring some president or prime minister yet to come.
Churchill also pursued the very modern practice of writing screenplays for movies that were never made, a lucrative sideline that helped keep at bay the ever-present creditors that so haunted his middle years. Not long after the end of his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer following the defeat of the Conservative government in 1929, Churchill found himself in Hollywood, where he visited Charlie Chaplin and was filmed with the diminutive actor at his studio. “After it, then tears down his face, and wiping them away, “The best film I’ve ever seen.” 1Ĭhurchill knew something about the film industry. “He loved the films, any film,” recalled one of his private secretaries. Whether in or out of power, Churchill turned to movies for entertainment, relaxation, and inspiration. Visitors to Chartwell and Chequers during Winston Churchill’s time were often treated to film screenings hosted by one of the premier cinephiles of his era.
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