Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Churchill Blu-ray Movie Review

Winston Light.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 2, 2017

A rather unexpectedly large number of performers have ridden their portrayals of political figures or those in some kind of power to at the very least nominations for an Academy Award, with several of them taking home the trophy. Limiting the list to only male performers in the leading actor category (for the sake of time and space) still reveals a pretty lengthy assortment, which goes all the way back to George Arliss in Disraeli (a winner in 1929) and then continues on to include Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII; Raymond Massey in Abe Lincoln in Illinois; Alexander Knox in Wilson; Laurence Olivier in a whole host of Shakespeare offerings like Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III, and Othello; Louis Calhern in The Magnificent Yankee; Marlon Brando in Julius Caesar and Viva Zapata!; Yul Brynner in The King and I; Rex Harrison in Cleopatra; Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole in Becket (with O’Toole garnering another nomination for playing Henry II again years later in The Lion in Winter ); Richard Burton in Anne of the Thousand Days; James Whitmore in Give ‘em Hell, Harry!; Ben Kingsley in Gandhi; Kenneth Branagh in Henry V; Anthony Hopkins in Nixon; Sean Penn in Milk; Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon; Morgan Freeman in Invictus; Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln; and Colin Firth in The King's Speech. That last named film is probably the most relevant to assessing whether Brian Cox’s turn as Churchill will join this storied aggregation, since Churchill covers some of the same temporal ground as The King’s Speech and in fact King George VI, played here by James Purefoy, shows up a few times, including in what is arguably the film’s emotional highlight, albeit a highlight tamped down by that famously stiff upper lip the British are known to display. If Cox doesn’t wrest an Academy Award nomination out of his work on Churchill, I’d reckon the main reason will not be Cox’s generally excellent acting, but instead a rather ineffective screenplay, as well as a presentational style that seems to want to make Winston taking a good long drag off one of his iconic cigars some kind of meaningful totem of a character going through a severe emotional crisis.

Kind of ironically given some of the controversy her work on this film has engendered, scenarist Alex von Tunzelmann has made a name for herself courtesy of a running article in England’s The Guardian called “Reel History”, which attempts to delve into the historical accuracy of various “real life” based films. Churchill is von Tunzelmann’s first feature film screenplay, and some curmudgeons might suggest the author “heal herself”, so to speak, since there have been a number of “take downs” of blatant historical errors the film offers, even separate and apart from what is at least its questionable assertion of how strongly Churchill was against Operation Overlord, the massive allied effort to invade Normandy and begin to push back against the Nazis on their own (occupied) territory.

Aside from this particular disputed element, the film’s very focus on D-Day is kind of fizzle worthy, since von Tunzelmann tries to inject suspense into a timeline which has a foregone conclusion, at least for those who have had even a passing introduction to the history of World War II. I mean, did the invasion of Normandy not happen? That would seem to be what von Tunzelmann is going for in a number of overly drawn out skirmishes that have Churchill loudly proclaiming his vehement opposition to Operation Overlord (an opposition other historians state never occurred) while also praying for bad weather to put the kibosh on things if a certain Eisenhower (a badly miscast John Slattery) doesn’t come to his senses in time. Mixing in a completely unnecessary and overly melodramatic subplot involving marital friction between Churchill and his wife Clementine (Miranda Richardson) just seems like adding insult to injury, since, again, historians are on the record that no such interchanges took place.

Cox does essentially fine work in what is rather incredibly an underwritten role (given the larger than life opportunities a “character” like Churchill could have provided a perhaps more experienced screenwriter). In fact, the film’s most moving performance is arguably Purefoy as the sweet natured but ill prepared for the throne George VI. A short scene between the King and Churchill where George tries to bring the Prime Minister to his senses in terms of what people in their positions are required to do during wartime is the best written and performed scene in the entire picture, and might in fact bring Purefoy a nomination in the Supporting Actor category, where he’ll join a list which is frankly not quite as stuffed full of depictions of politicians and others in power as is the Best Actor category.

Churchill Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Churchill is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Media Group with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Shot with a variety of Arri Alexa models by cinematographer David Higgs. In an interesting interview with British Cinematographer, Higgs speaks toward filling the wide frame, often placing a foreground object or character out of focus, with the "real" action taking place in the background. The film also has its fair share of "arty" shots, with almost abstract imagery intruding at times (see screenshot 3). A brief foray into black and white territory also occurs early in the film (see screenshot 15). Detail levels are uniformly quite high throughout this presentation, especially in the many close-ups when Higgs and director Jonathan Teplitzsky keep the characters in focus. Some individual scenes feature boosted contrast which can tend to eliminate some detail in backgrounds, since they're often swallowed up by effulgent light sources.

Churchill Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Churchill offers a somewhat subtle DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that delivers some intermittent surround activity that at times is kind of reminiscent of the sound design of Patton, when the general "hears" the echoes of long ago battles. The bulk of the film plays out in much more cloistered dialogue moments, and as such immersion is typically limited to either the score or occasional ambient environmental sounds. Fidelity is fine throughout, and dialogue always sounds clear.

Churchill Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Churchill: Behind the Scenes (1080p; 22:38) is a decent EPK with some good interviews.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:22)

Churchill Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Winston Churchill is such an outsized character that this film's attempt to cut him down to "ordinary human" levels just seems like an odd decision, especially since the actual historical record doesn't support the overwrought dramatics the film's screenplay proffers in terms of both D-Day and the Churchill marriage. Still, Cox is a lot of fun to watch in the role, and several of the supporting performances are excellent as well. Armchair historians who don't mind this film straying fairly far from "just the facts, ma'am" territory may find this a fitfully engaging enterprise due largely to those performances, and for those folks, technical merits are strong.