I was thinking to myself ''I want to watch that Oscar Bait movie with Winston Churchill in it.''
So I go on the old Netflix and look up Churchill.
I find a dramatic looking film called 'Churchill'.
Glorious.
I think to myself.
''That's the one i wish to watch.''
So I watch the film, I enjoyed it for the most part and then I realise afterwards, while looking up the poster for this one. That there was a different Winston Churchill movie that came out the exact same year, with a bigger budget that was most definitely aimed at Oscar bait.
So I ended up watching an entire Churchill movie only to discover that it wasn't the initial one I was interested in.
Needless to say it altered my perception somewhat.
Still, was the film I watched any good?
Yes in a dramatic\entertaining sense.
No if you're looking at it as a historical document* as this not only needlessly glorifies its intended personality, But does so in a slightly unrealistic way.
For one thing Winston Churchill wasn't all that opposed to the Normandy Landings and some of the insight he gave into the alternatives of The Landings were so much more ridiculous than anything anyone had ever even opposed during the war.
A good example. Churchill's supposed invasion of Spain. Or maybe even worse and invasion of Spain from Portugal as an alternative to getting troops on Mainland Europe.
An invasion through two very large neutral countries in Europe. one of which is your oldest Ally and the other one is a not-so-happy fascist state who is given the opportunity would probably sign with Hitler. Especially if they're being invaded by the opposing armies.
But we're not here to talk about the military genius or lack thereof of Winston Churchill or anyone else for that matter.
So there are several ways you can depict someones life within the realm of film. You can go the Cinematic approach and make their life look like a never-ending roller coaster of derring-do when Adventure.
You can take a humanistic approach and try to address the more basic or natural tendencies of the person. Or you can go to the dramatic route where you take supposedly basic everyday events turn them up to 11 and make them out to be fully serviced affairs with drama, romance, High Charisma acting and beautifully done set pieces.
This Winston Churchill film aim for the last one. Everything's dramatic. Brian Cox delivers an absolutely fantastic performance as Winston Churchill and everyone else involved dose their roles adequately.
If anything that's probably as big as fall back. Nobody else can stand on the same level as Brian Cox and the overall story (though entertaining to me) isn't all that phonetically interesting to most other people.
There's no fighting, depravity or fisticuffs**. It's just a very old very angry man getting in one last hurrah as he starts to realise that his power is dwindling and that although everyone appreciated him in the beginning when things were at the darkest, nobody seems to care about him now that everything is starting to turn around.
*To be fair you should never watch a film if you're looking for a accurate representation of a chunk of History. Regardless of what that should be. Simply put a movie has to add in things differently form history.
You can't very well just have a person's everyday life showing on screen. It would come off as incoherent and boring to your audience. You need to insert certain bits of action or rearranged set pieces to create a more narratively pleasing story. Fortunately most people's lives just aren't that well set.
At the end of the day if you're going to make a cinematic experience to based on someone's life Winston Churchill is one of the best options. He's dramatic, over the top, arrogance and Incredibly well kept. Is signature form of speech fits oh so well into the Golden Screen of Cinema. And his writing is among some of the most entertaining you could find.
**However you could argue there was one part ludicrousy. Where Winston boldly proclaimed that he was going to join the men on the battlefield in D-Day to oversee operations. Out of all the ridiculous things that happened in this movie that are fictitious or flat-out lies this wasn't one of them.
Winston really did want to go out into the field. He was only convinced later on when he was told by the king that he wasn't allowed to.
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