Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years 1929 - 1939
by Ferdinand Fairfax
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Chloe Salaman, Nigel Havers, Robert Hardy, Si?n Phillips, Tamsin Murray-LeachDirector: Ferdinand Fairfax
Brand: Koch International
Writer: Ferdinand Fairfax
Producer: Mark Shivas
Producer: Richard Broke
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Content/Copy-Protected CD, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 415 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-05-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: KOCH VISION
Movie Reviews of Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years 1929 - 1939
Movie Review: Not What I Expected
Summary: 3 Stars
I am a very big fan of the historical drama series that the BBC produced in the 1970's and 80's, including "Fall of Eagles", "Six Wives of Henry VIII", "Elizabeth R", "The Last Place On Earth", "Mountbatten" and others. Churchill, of course, is one of the most interesting political-military leaders of all time. Then, when I came upon this series, and seeing that it was directed by Ferdinand Fairfax, who also directed "The Last Place on Earth" which is one of the finest historical-adventure productions of all time, in addition to starring Robert Hardy, who starred in "Elizabeth R" as Elizabeth's boyfriend Robert Dudley-The Earl of Leiceester, I had VERY high hopes for what I was going to see.
The reality proved to be very disappointing. The series is largely flat and uninteresting, with long sequences which are outright bores. I will list some examples of what I find to be flaws in the series:
(1) Sian Phillips was one of the stars of I, Claudius playing the malevolent Livia, earning eternal fame for that role. Here, playing Clementine Churchill, she really doesn't have much to do. Frankly, Churchill's personal life and his problematic relationship with his children and his odd relationship with his wife are just not very interesting and are irrelevant to the story of Churchill the politician and leader. One relatively interesting aspect which is not explored in enough detail is the strange relationship between Churchill and his young disicple in Parliament, Brendan Bracken who Churchill alternately loves and then rejects (Bracken at one point was leading people to believe that he was the "bastard son" of Churchill), but we aren't really shown the reasons for Churchill wide swings in mood towards him. We also see similar inconsistencies in his attitude towards his son Randolph who is forced to live in the shadow of his great father.
(2) Martin Gilbert, who wrote the official biography of Churchill, was historical advisor for the series and his being a worshipper of Churchill distorts the portrayal of him. A good example was the proposal to give India autonomous self-government within the British Empire in the 1930's. Churchill was an inveterate opponent of proposals to give autonomy or outright independence to India. Even the greatest admirers of Churchill admit that he was on the wrong side of history on this issue. Yet, the viewer of this series is subjected to a very long, boring, segment dealing with Parliament's conduct of hearings regarding the proposals on India. Churchill discovers that certain industrialists who testified in front of a Parliamentary committee preparing the Bill coordinated their testimony with high-ranking members of the government who were pushing the bill. Churchill believes he has uncovered a major scandal, but nothing comes of it in the end. That whole segment should never have been included.
(3) There is a bizarre scene where Churchill is visiting Munich at the end of 1932, just before Hitler comes to power. Churchill is dining with "Putzi" Hanfstangel who was a close associate with Hitler and it is proposed that Churchill meet with Hitler. We then see Hitler with a sour look on his face, stalking around the dining room, glaring at Churchill, but the meeting never takes place. The whole scene of course is supposed to show the close encounter between the two antagonist-titans of the upcoming war, but in reality, Hitler would not have really cared much about Churchill at the time because he was a backbench MP whose "future was behind him". The frowning, scowling Hitler we see in this scene was also a caricature because he knew how to charm people (unfortunately) which is what helped him come to power and he certainly would have turned on the charm had he had the opportunity to meet him at this stage.
(4) Samuel Hoare, a close associate of British Conservative leader and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin is portrayed as an ogre in the series, as Churchill's greatest nemesis within the political establishment. However, at the end of the series, when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is dithering about whether to declare war on Germany as a result of its invastion of Poland in 1939, we suddenly see Hoare as the main force pushing Chamberlain to end his policy of appeasement once and for all and to show backbone for once. It would have been interesting to see how Hoare made this turnabout, but we are told nothing about it. In another historical drama made in the late 1980's about the beginnings of World War II we are shown that John Simon, Chamberlain's Chancellor of the Exchequer was the main force in the Cabinet forcing Chamberlain's hand. I don't know where the truth lies.
(5) Churchill was at his best and most entertaining when he was speaking in Parliament. We do see his famous "the Boneless Wonder" speech made attacking Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, but I think it would have been better to show more scenes like that one. Churchill's secret of success was that he was able to make the most pointed criticism of political rivals yet he always worked hard to maintain the most cordial relations with even his most severe critics. It was this quality that enabled his opponents to agree to having him appointed Prime Minister at the time of the greatest crisis in 1940. We do see some of this in the series, but I think it would have been instructive to show more of how we worked in the interpersonal realm of politics.
All-in-all, this series just did not live up to the promise the idea behind it had.
Summary of Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years 1929 - 1939
Studio: E1 Entertainment Release Date: 05/10/2005 Run time: 300 minutes Rating: NrIt's easy to stay glued to all 390 fascinating minutes of this 1981 television series, which concentrates, in great detail, on an agonizing decade in the political life of Winston Churchill. Ousted in 1928 from his powerful position in Britain's Conservative government, Churchill (Robert Hardy) assumes--for the first of many times to come--that his career is over. But a pattern emerges: Churchill, the maverick defender of Britain's empire, is pressed back into service only to be attacked for unpopular views about the King's abdication and Hitler's threat. Time and again Churchill is banished, but this sprawling drama provides much colorful detail about the great man's trips to America (what a sight: Churchill in Monument Valley), his passion for his family, and his prescient drive to complete a historical tome before 1939--the year he becomes Prime Minister. Hardy is superb; excellent support comes from, among others, Eric Porter as Neville Chamberlain. --Tom Keogh
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