''Churchill'' is a 2017 British
historical war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
-
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
film directed by
Jonathan Teplitzky
Jonathan Teplitzky is an Australian writer and film director who has directed the movies '' Better Than Sex'' (2000), ''Gettin' Square'' (2003), ''Burning Man'' (2011), '' The Railway Man'' (2013), and ''Churchill'' (2017). Teplitzky has also dir ...
, which portrays
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
in June 1944 – especially in the hours leading up to
D-Day. The film stars
Brian Cox as the titular character, with
Miranda Richardson and
John Slattery
John M. Slattery Jr. (born August 13, 1962) is an American actor and director widely known for his role as Roger Sterling Jr. in the AMC drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–15), for which he was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award fo ...
in supporting roles.
The film was released on 2 June 2017.
Plot
Exhausted by years of war,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
awaits the 1944
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
, which he believes will be a disaster.
Cast
*
Brian Cox as
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
*
Miranda Richardson as
Clementine Churchill
Clementine Ogilvy Spencer Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, (; 1 April 1885 – 12 December 1977) was the wife of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and a life peer in her own right. While legally the daughter o ...
*
John Slattery
John M. Slattery Jr. (born August 13, 1962) is an American actor and director widely known for his role as Roger Sterling Jr. in the AMC drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–15), for which he was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award fo ...
as General
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
*
Julian Wadham
Julian Neil Rohan Wadham (born 7 August 1958) is an English actor of stage, film and television. He was educated at Ampleforth College and the Central School of Speech and Drama, third son of Rohan Nicholas Wadham DFC and Juliana Wadham, née ...
as General
Bernard Montgomery
*
Richard Durden
Mark Richard Durden-Smith (born 8 February 1944), known as Richard Durden, is an English actor, with a range of television, film and stage credits.
Personal life
Durden-Smith was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College and Merton ...
as General
Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...
*
Ella Purnell
Ella Summer Purnell (born 17 September 1996) is an English actress best known for her roles as Jackie in the Showtime drama series ''Yellowjackets,'' Jinx in the Netflix animated television series ''Arcane'', and Gwyn in the Paramount+/Nickelod ...
as Helen Garrett
*
Danny Webb as Field Marshal
Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke
*
Jonathan Aris as Air Chief Marshal
Trafford Leigh-Mallory
Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, (11 July 1892 – 14 November 1944) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. Leigh-Mallory served as a Royal Flying Corps pilot and squadron commander during the First World War. Remaining in ...
* George Anton as Admiral
Bertram Ramsay
*
Steven Cree
Steven Cree (born 29 February 1980) is a Scottish film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as Ian Murray in the Starz television series '' Outlander''. His other work includes the films '' Brave'' (2012), '' 300: Rise of ...
as Group Captain
James Stagg
*
James Purefoy
James Brian Mark Purefoy (born 3 June 1964) is an English actor. He played Mark Antony in the HBO series ''Rome'', Nick Jenkins in ''A Dance to the Music of Time'', college professor turned serial killer Joe Carroll in the series ''The Followin ...
as
King George VI
* Peter Ormond as
Asa Briggs
Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs (7 May 1921 – 15 March 2016) was an English historian. He was a leading specialist on the Victorian era, and the foremost historian of broadcasting in Britain. Briggs achieved international recognition during his lon ...
* Angela Costello as
Kay Summersby
Kathleen Helen Summersby (née MacCarthy-Morrogh; 23 November 1908 – 20 January 1975), known as Kay Summersby, was a member of the British Mechanised Transport Corps during World War II, who served as a chauffeur and later as persona ...
* Kevin Findlay as Fanshawe
* Miro Teplitzky as Adjutant Howard
Production
On 4 November 2015 it was reported that
Brian Cox would star as
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
in ''Churchill'' after
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor and filmmaker. Known for his versatility and intense acting style, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three British Academy ...
turned it down. Brian Welsh would direct from a script by
Alex von Tunzelmann. On 12 February 2016 it was reported that
Jonathan Teplitzky
Jonathan Teplitzky is an Australian writer and film director who has directed the movies '' Better Than Sex'' (2000), ''Gettin' Square'' (2003), ''Burning Man'' (2011), '' The Railway Man'' (2013), and ''Churchill'' (2017). Teplitzky has also dir ...
would replace Welsh as director.
Miranda Richardson and
Stanley Tucci
Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's '' Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in fil ...
would also join the cast as
Clementine Churchill
Clementine Ogilvy Spencer Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, (; 1 April 1885 – 12 December 1977) was the wife of Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and a life peer in her own right. While legally the daughter o ...
and
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
, respectively. On 28 April 2016,
John Slattery
John M. Slattery Jr. (born August 13, 1962) is an American actor and director widely known for his role as Roger Sterling Jr. in the AMC drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–15), for which he was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award fo ...
replaced Tucci. On 24 May 2016 it was announced that
principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...
had begun. Some scenes were shot in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
and
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
;
Arniston House was used as film location for many of the scenes between Gen. Eisenhower and Churchill, specifically the Oak Room as Gen Eisenhower's war room and the north exterior.
Reception
On review aggregator site
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has an approval rating of 49% based on 116 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Churchill'' gets sterling work out of Brian Cox in the leading role, but it isn't enough to overcome a muddled and ultimately unsuccessful approach to an incredible real-life story." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Noted Churchill biographer
Andrew Roberts gave the film a scathing review, saying that a series of historical errors made Winston Churchill almost unrecognisable. After praising the film's acting, photography, and music, he wrote that the film failed due to a script filled with blatant errors, grossly mis-characterizing Churchill on numerous points. About the film's author, who, while a historian, is not a
WWII
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
scholar, he wrote, ''"''The only problem with the movie – written by the historian
Alex von Tunzelmann – is that it gets absolutely everything wrong. Never in the course of movie-making have so many specious errors been made in so long a film by so few writers." His review went into detail on numerous errors, such as the false portrayal of Churchill as anti-American, or claims that he dithered about
Operation Overlord (the Normandy landing), or the marital strife with his wife, Clementine. None of these points have a basis in fact, according to Roberts.
Robbie Collin
Robbie Collin is a British film critic.
Collin studied aesthetics and the philosophy of film at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He edited the university's student newspaper, '' The Saint''.
Collin has been the chief film critic at ''The D ...
of ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' rated the film 4/5 stars and said that "Brian Cox dazzles in a scalpel-sharp, timely lesson in political leadership", while
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...
, writing for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
,'' noted that "Miranda Richardson shrewdly plays Churchill's wife Clemmie: imperious, exasperated, gimlet-eyed", and rated the film 3/5 stars. In ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'' rated the film 3/5 stars and wrote "There are elements of both
King Lear
''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare.
It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane ...
and of
Colonel Blimp
Colonel Blimp is a British cartoon character by cartoonist David Low, first drawn for Lord Beaverbrook's London ''Evening Standard'' in April 1934. Blimp is pompous, irascible, jingoistic, and stereotypically British, identifiable by his walr ...
about Cox's Churchill. Like Blimp, he's a man out of time, accused of trying to fight a modern war with a mindset stuck years in the past. Like Lear, he is an old man, raging against the elements." In ''
Time Out'' magazine, Tom Huddleston rated the film 3/5 stars and wrote "Cox is rudely magnificent, capturing not just the wilfulness of the man but the nagging self-doubt at his inner core."
Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
, writing for ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
,'' said Brian Cox's performance "cannot be faulted. It's a master class in acting", and gave the film 3/4 stars. Gary Goldstein of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' wrote, "Brian Cox's towering performance in ''Churchill'' is worthy of the great man himself". In the ''Radio Times'', Alan Jones said Cox "gives a tremendous performance as the charismatic politician who inspired Great Britain to resist Adolf Hitler."
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
Ignatiy Igorevich Vishnevetsky (; russian: Игнатий Игоревич Вишневецкий; born September 5, 1986)Vishnevetsky, Ignati''Time Indefinite'': "A Talk with Sergei Loznitsa"
'' Mubi'' is a Russian-American film critic, essayi ...
of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' described the film as "inert, decorous, and almost absurdly repetitive," and wrote: "All too often, it toes the line that separates legitimately stupid movies from ones that merely presume that the viewer is stupid."
Brian Cox said that he talked to military experts from the
Sandhurst military academy
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town o ...
about Churchill's own plan to invade Europe, and that "... they said it would have probably shortened the war by six months."
References
External links
*
{{Winston Churchill
2017 films
British biographical drama films
2017 biographical drama films
Cultural depictions of Bernard Montgomery
Cultural depictions of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Cultural depictions of George VI
Cultural depictions of Winston Churchill
Films about Winston Churchill
Films scored by Lorne Balfe
Films set in 1944
Films set in the United Kingdom
Films shot in Edinburgh
Films shot in Glasgow
Operation Overlord films
World War II films based on actual events
2017 drama films
Films directed by Jonathan Teplitzky
2010s English-language films
2010s British films