Amoeba Music

What I know about history I learned from movies and documentaries. So whether the facts behind The Gathering Storm are accurate I can’t argue, but as a piece of entertainment this BBC/HBO telefilm is wonderful and certainty feels factual. Chronicling the years before World War II in the 1930s, the doddering Winston Churchill stands alone in The House Of Commons as he seems to be the one politician in England speaking out about the rise of Hitler. Played brilliantly by Albert Finney, Churchill begins the film an all but broken man and as England slowly catches on to his German paranoia he regains his footing as a visionary (the film only chronicles a few years and ends before he becomes Prime Minister and leads England though WWII).

A lifetime military man and vivacious history writer, Churchill was a disappointment to himself. He hadn’t amounted to the greatness he expected and is reduced to tinkering around the house, annoying his staff and his devoted wife, Clementine (Vanessa Redgrave), as well as his fellow Tory members in Parliament for his increasingly outdated views on India. But when a spook (or “civil servant”), Desmond Morton (Jim Broadbent), starts passing him disturbing documents that reveal the true nature of German industries, Churchill begins to speak out of place. Typical of politicians, the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin (Derek Jacobi), wants to appease Hitler because opposing him could be bad for the British economy. Even in his old age, Churchill proves to be a total badass rebel, single-handedly pushing his country to prepare for war. Of course history was on Churchill’s side, now those like American Joseph Kennedy (JFK’s old man), who groveled to Hitler, would forever be remembered as cowards. If nothing else Churchill was no weakling.

Meanwhile Churchill’s home life was becoming a wreck. His son was not living up to the family name and his daughter wanted to be a showgirl. And worse, Clementine departs for a long overseas trip, leaving Winston deeply insecure over one of her traveling companions. She is his rock; he’s a mess without her, but he thrusts himself into his anti-German rhetoric even more. The film showcases both the deep love affair between Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, as well the spider’s web of political intrigue that was required in order for Churchill to get information needed to educate his country of the dangers growing overseas. Real life may not have played out as neatly as it works out for the film's plot - at a clean 96 minutes you can’t expect every real life detail to be explored.

Recently the film The King’s Speech confirmed that Churchill was eventually respected as the one man who was correct about Hitler (as played by Timothy Spall, he had the same voice as Finney but looked nothing like the real life subject). Rod Taylor’s cameo as Churchill in Inglourious Basterds was one of the more interesting Churchill interpretations, while Bob Hoskins gave one of the more bizarre turns in the TV movie When Lions Roared.

Finney proves why he’s quietly been a great actor since the one-two early '60s punch of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and then Tom Jones which made him a major player in the “Angry Young Man” era in British theater and film. His career would see many lulls and comebacks. He peaked when he became a character actor, most memorable in Murder on the Orient Express, The Dresser, Miller’s Crossing, and his greatest performance as the suicidal extreme drunk in Under The Volcano. Churchill proves to be another notch in the actor's belt.

For the last couple of decades HBO films have been at the forefront of outstanding political bios, ranging from Alec Baldwin as Robert McNamara in Path To War, Gary Sinise in Truman, and James Woods as Ray Cohn in Citizen Cohn. Not to mention the dozens of other excellent non-fiction flicks they've produced, including A Bright Shining Lie, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, And The Band Played On, Citizen X, Indictment: The McMartin Trial, 61, The Positively True Adventures Of The Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom, and The Late Shift. There was also a solid Gathering Storm follow-up called Into The Storm, this time starring Brendan Gleeson as Churchill, highlighting his years after WWII. It wasn’t as good as the first flick. but still worth seeing,

Perhaps due to the cost of releasing a film in theaters and box office expectations, HBO has become the best alternative for complicated, mature fare (not to mention their television series work like The Sopranos and The Wire). In some ways over the years television has equaled films in quality. With home viewing technology getting more deluxe it’s no wonder that the quality has risen so much. Once upon a time TV Movies starred rejects from The Love Boat, and to think now we can see an actor as great as Finney to headline. Oh, what an age we live in, Churchill would be proud.