The story opens with Winston Churchill (Simon Ward) in India during a punitive raid against the Mohmand. Though attached as a war correspondent, he is shown participating in battle. From here, the movie jumps to his youth, showing the 7 year-old Winston on his way to Harrow, a prestigious school for boys. He proves to be a disappointment to his father, Lord Randolph Churchill (Robert Shaw). In fact, his scholarly talents are questionable to the point that a career in law or politics seems unlikely. Randolph suggests a career in the military. Though Winston attends Sandhurst and becomes a cavalry officer, his father is again disappointed that he failed to qualify for the infantry. Much of the first half of the movie concerns Lord Randolph's political rise and fall. He had risked all on a threatened resignation to get his way. The gambit failed and his resignation was accepted. Sadly, his father died before Winston had any notable accomplishment to make his father proud. After India, Winston served in Sudan where he participated in the last cavalry charge by British troops. He sought election to parliament on his return but lost. Back to his old job of war correspondent, this time in South Africa during the Boer War. This time, he was captured by the Boers and held as a prisoner of war. However, he escaped, winning great fame in the process and finally securing a seat in parliament. No sooner did he arrive in parliament than he took up the very topic that had led to his father's political fall; he called for a cut in the military budget.
The movie is packed with stars, many of whom get only a scene or two. Anne Bancroft has the largest role besides Ward, playing his mother from his youth until his taking up his father's lost cause in parliament. Ian Holm appears as editor George Buckle, John Mills as General Kitchener, Jane Seymour in the non-speaking role of Pamela Plowden, Edward Woodward as Captain Haldane, and Anthony Hopkins as Lloyd George. Though I failed to spot him, Nigel Hawthorne (The Madness of King George) appeared as a Boer Sentry.
Directed by Richard Attenborough, the movie is based on an autobiography by Churchill about his youth: My Early Life. It was interesting to see how much he idolized his father while at the same time admitting that he only had a handful of long conversations with him. He had a distant, disapproving father who ruined his career on what the adult Winston recognized as a suicidal ploy. He also likely died from syphilis. I was reminded of how Barack Obama had a hero complex for his father, despite having been abandoned as a toddler and only meeting him a few times. Much of his rise can be attributed to his mother's various contacts in British society. Of note, she was an America. Gee, that reminds me of Downton Abbey, where Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) is American. Was it a common practice for English lords to marry American heiresses?
It is a very different picture of Churchill, seeing him as a lithe young officer and man of action rather than a portly, bald man with a cigar and a glass of alcohol. His desperation to make something of himself before he is 25 is funny, especially for a man who lived to 90. That both he and his father sought to limit military spending is surprising. The disarmament notion goes back farther than I realized.
Both entertaining and educational. Recommended.
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