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Churchill: Preserving Britain As A New One Emerged
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| The Irish actor Brendan Gleeson portrays wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill in the HBO film “Into The Storm.” (Courtesy of HBO Films) |
By JONATHAN L. FISCHER, The Bulletin
“Into The Storm,” a new movie about Winston Churchill that will air Sunday night at 9 p.m. on HBO, mostly follows the iconic British prime minister during the years of World War II, but it frames its action from the months immediately after, as Churchill waited for the results of the election that would end his first term. That he led Britain through a war and was then voted out of office — Labour leadership replaced the national unity government — is essential to understanding Churchill and his place in the hearts and minds of Britain, said the film’s writer, Hugh Whitemore, in an interview this week.
“After the war, the old order of things, the 19th-century sort of Britain, did die,” Mr. Whitemore said. “The Britain that Churchill grew up in and was led to believe was invincible, the Britain of Queen Victoria, was swept away by the war.”
Ironically, Mr. Whitemore said, “by creating the appetite for a new Britain, [Churchill] destroyed everything he fought the war for.”
Of course, Churchill then led the Tory opposition, and became prime minister again in 1951. But it is the Churchill of those war years that has endured, in imaginations, histories and popular culture.
So it’s no accident the Churchill the orator, the great wielder of rhetoric, is key to “Into The Storm.”
“The underlying story is that he pulled everyone with him,” said Thaddeus O’Sullivan, the film’s director. When making the film, he said, the filmmakers realized “you needed to get a sense that the country was listening and that it was celebrating.”
Said Mr. Whitemore: “Through his speeches [Churchill] made people believe the war was worth fighting.”
Churchill’s awareness of the capriciousness of morale and the role oratory could play in maintaining it, the filmmakers said, was essential to “Into The Storm.” But they also wanted to show the man behind the speeches.
“What we tried to do is recreate him as a person,” Mr. Whitemore said. “To try to understand him as a man, a human being.” The film frequently depicts the prime minister — played by the Irish actor Brendan Gleeson — in his private moments, including a vacation in the south of France following the war, with his wife Clementine. It also shows Churchill the warrior; during the Battle of Britain, he charges to a rooftop, helmet atop his head, to observe the action.
Perhaps most importantly, the film witnesses the allied war effort cohere following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In a sequence showing the 1945 Yalta Conference, Mr. Gleeson’s Churchill subtlely recognizes that the men with whom he shares the room — Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Josef Stalin — will likely lead, define and polarize the postwar world, leaving once-great Britain an island in the middle. “This is basically a story of imperial power,” said Mr. O’Sullivan.
Not that the lessons of “Into The Storm” — of hope, freedom and grit — are entirely limited to a time and place, said Mr. Whitemore.
“A story about humanity’s richness is appropriate to any time,” he said.
Jonathan L. Fischer can be reached at jfischer@thebulletin.us
“After the war, the old order of things, the 19th-century sort of Britain, did die,” Mr. Whitemore said. “The Britain that Churchill grew up in and was led to believe was invincible, the Britain of Queen Victoria, was swept away by the war.”
Ironically, Mr. Whitemore said, “by creating the appetite for a new Britain, [Churchill] destroyed everything he fought the war for.”
Of course, Churchill then led the Tory opposition, and became prime minister again in 1951. But it is the Churchill of those war years that has endured, in imaginations, histories and popular culture.
So it’s no accident the Churchill the orator, the great wielder of rhetoric, is key to “Into The Storm.”
“The underlying story is that he pulled everyone with him,” said Thaddeus O’Sullivan, the film’s director. When making the film, he said, the filmmakers realized “you needed to get a sense that the country was listening and that it was celebrating.”
Said Mr. Whitemore: “Through his speeches [Churchill] made people believe the war was worth fighting.”
Churchill’s awareness of the capriciousness of morale and the role oratory could play in maintaining it, the filmmakers said, was essential to “Into The Storm.” But they also wanted to show the man behind the speeches.
“What we tried to do is recreate him as a person,” Mr. Whitemore said. “To try to understand him as a man, a human being.” The film frequently depicts the prime minister — played by the Irish actor Brendan Gleeson — in his private moments, including a vacation in the south of France following the war, with his wife Clementine. It also shows Churchill the warrior; during the Battle of Britain, he charges to a rooftop, helmet atop his head, to observe the action.
Perhaps most importantly, the film witnesses the allied war effort cohere following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In a sequence showing the 1945 Yalta Conference, Mr. Gleeson’s Churchill subtlely recognizes that the men with whom he shares the room — Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Josef Stalin — will likely lead, define and polarize the postwar world, leaving once-great Britain an island in the middle. “This is basically a story of imperial power,” said Mr. O’Sullivan.
Not that the lessons of “Into The Storm” — of hope, freedom and grit — are entirely limited to a time and place, said Mr. Whitemore.
“A story about humanity’s richness is appropriate to any time,” he said.
Jonathan L. Fischer can be reached at jfischer@thebulletin.us
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