The Gathering Storm

This film focuses on Winston Churchill during the five years between 1934 and Englands declaration of war with Hitlers Germany, circa 1939. It is a character study rather than a conventional story line even though plot points do exist during the performance. It is however a marvelous recreation of Churchill by Albert Finney. In his first appearance during the film, I was struck by how much he even looked like Churchill.

Churchill was a man of peculiar brilliance, an aristocrat who believed in Englands class structure, a historian and author, an orator, an artistic painter of some merit and in one scene, a bricklayer. Finney portrays Churchills compulsive behavior, his arrogance, his greatness and his mistakes with an excellent accuracy. Churchill was a patriot regardless of ethics, for example he viewed Gandhi as an enemy because he advocated Indias independence. Some people loved him, some despised him and he destroyed at least one person. We see all of this in the film.

Albert Finney began as a Shakespearean actor and made his film debut in The Entertainer (1960) alongside Laurence Olivier. I saw him first as the lead in Tom Jones (1963). In addition to Churchill and Tom Jones, he has played Scrooge, Hercule Poirot, Pope John Paul II and Earnest Hemingway to name a few character parts in his 50 plus film roles. I look forward to his films in which he is always good and occasionally great.

Vanessa Redgrave plays Mrs. Churchill. She has been in numerous films since 1958. I remember her from Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Howards End (1992). This was a subdued role for Redgrave who has had title roles like Mary Queen of Scots (1971) and Isadora (1968). She won an Oscar as Julia the inspiration for Lillian Hellerman in Julia (1978). She is a woman of strong opinions and has had conflicts with the Vatican over her role in The Devils (1971) and the Jewish community over her support for the Palestinians.

Both of these British actors are excellent, however the supporting cast of English equity actors is also excellent. Derek Jacobi plays Stanley Baldwin the Prime Minister who preceded Neville Chamberlin. Jim Broadbent plays Desmond, Churchills friend and Linus Roache plays Ralph Wigram, the Foreign Affairs minister. I also loved the butler, Inches, the secretary, Mrs. P, and the son, Randolph.

As a historical film I believe Storm selects too small a slice of time to be effective. And as a story it omits significant factors, like the resolution of Churchills financial problems or his family problems and it does not explain how or why he regained his position as head of the Admiralty.

However, the film is excellent as a snapshot of Churchill the man and the politician. His battle cry was KBO, keep buggering on. It beat off his depressions and it carried Great Britain through the crisis of WWII.

Reviewed April 25, 2003.