Cast: Simon Ward, Anne
Bancroft, and Robert Shaw
Director: Richard Attenborough
157 minutes (PG) 1972
Powerhouse / Indicator
Blu-ray region B
[Released 28th October]
Rating: 4/10
Review by J.C. Hartley
I
remember seeing an interview between Sir Ralph Richardson and Bernard Levin, in
which Sir Ralph recalled a play he appeared in early in his acting career. At
one point during the performance someone had called out from somewhere in the
auditorium: “Is there a doctor in the house?” There was a pause, and then the
reply came: “Yes, I’m a doctor.” Following this initial exchange, the original questioner
concluded: “Doctor, isn’t this an awful play!” Without the benefit of a General
Practitioner handy, I had to sit through this cinematic travesty alone. This
really is an awful film.
I
see from Wikipedia that Young Winston
was one of the most popular films of 1972 at the UK box office, and one can
only conclude that this was down to clever marketing and the residual affection
for Winston Churchill himself in the hearts of the British people. Director Richard Attenborough, in an
interview - ‘Reflections Of A Director’, included here as an extra, notes that
despite being opposed to Churchill politically, he believes that WW2 could not
have been won without him. This is how a lot of people feel, and despite the
revisionism of later historical scholarship pointing out many of Churchill’s
flaws, and some arguably reprehensible acts, it is hard to hold that against
him. I feel the same way about John Wayne.
Those
of us with parents and indeed grandparents who lived through the Second World
War will already be aware of the gratitude that Attenborough expresses, and
inevitably something of Churchill’s stature and reputation impressed itself
upon our generation. Arguably, Churchill
was a politician in the right place at the right time. Because if the War hadn’t
happened, then, rather like his father Lord Randolph Churchill, he would have
remained a footnote in political history, such are the fine margins at play.
This takes nothing away from his achievement in leading the nation in war.
The
film is effectively, and literally in this uncut version, presented in two
parts. Part one deals with Churchill’s (Simon Ward) young life and his
relationship with his parents, his father the political maverick Lord Randolph
(Robert Shaw), and his mother the former American socialite Jennie Jerome (Anne
Bancroft). Part two of the film deals with some of the young Churchill’s
military exploits, and his early political career. In ‘Camel Blues’, assistant
director William P. Cartlidge, who says that the film wasn’t a success,
suggests that Attenborough and writer/ producer Carl Foreman had different
visions about the film that they wanted to make. Foreman, who had High Noon (1952), The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957), and The Guns Of Navarone (1967), on his writing credits, wanted to make
an action movie; Attenborough was interested in a film about fathers and
sons. Attenborough, in his own
interview, says that it is biography that interests him. Sadly, as a hybrid,
neither vision of the film works, although perhaps as a straight-forward action
flick it might have stood a chance.
Attenborough
praises Foreman’s screenplay and script, but some of the dialogue is stiff and
unrealistic and has a consequent effect on the performances. That wonderful
actress Bancroft seems in the grip of a particularly uncomfortable bout of
constipation throughout. Foreman was apparently very impressed with
Attenborough’s work on Oh! What A Lovely
War (1969) and some sequences in the film appear to be attempting the same
stylistic approach. As Kitchener, John Mills struts and marches about in
precisely the same manner as he was required to do as Sir Douglas Haig in the
earlier film, to the extent that one half expects him to play leapfrog or burst
into song.
More bizarre is the insertion of three stylised ‘interviews’ in
which a supercilious ‘voice off’ interrogates Lord Randolph, Lady Churchill,
and Winston himself. Alternatively sycophantic and accusatory this unseen
interviewer pitches somewhere between the Today
programme and Hello! magazine. The
interview with Lady Churchill is the weirdest. She has already learned from
medical specialists that her husband has an STD that will lead to General
Paralysis of the Insane, if the audience are in any doubt as to the diagnosis
the doctors ask Lady Churchill when she last had ‘relations’ with her husband,
declaring ‘Thank God!’ when she tells them it has not been for some time.
In
the interview, the interlocutor demands to know details of Lord Randolph’s
final illness, she attempts to leave and his parting shot is that surely in
this day and age there is no mystery about syphilis. Quite what these
interviews are intended to achieve is never clear, but they do hint at the film
that might have been, an approach such as that seen in Oh! What A Lovely War might just have worked. Young Winston, despite appearing in 1972, seems like a film from a
previous era compared to Oh! What A
Lovely War. Just four years later, in 1976, BBC2 presented a stylised
version of the life of Major-General Orde Wingate with the excellent Barry
Foster, partly driven by budgetary constraints that production showed what
might be achieved by an almost Brechtian approach to narrative.
There
are some effective scenes in Young
Winston, Lord Randolph Churchill’s final speech in Parliament when he is
already in serious mental decline due to his illness, and an exciting sequence
where a military train containing the young Churchill is ambushed leading to
his capture by the Boers. Simon Ward in his break-out role is generally very
good, and certainly self-assured, but did Churchill’s voice really have his
distinctive growling tones at the age of 27 when he entered Parliament?
The
film is too long, too slow, particularly in the first half, and as noted seems
to belong to a previous era of film-making. I’m not suggesting I can detect the
magic hand of the Illuminati here, but one does wonder why this has been
released on Blu-ray at this particular moment of time. Will it be the
best-seller in the Brexit Party’s Christmas wish-list on Amazon? Perhaps before
the old statesman is co-opted by today’s union flag-waving swivel-eyed lunatics
and chancers they should examine his liberal position on immigration.
There
is an extensive selection of extras on the disc. An audio-only of a John Player
Lecture from 1971, with critic Dilys Powell interviewing Attenborough, and - bizarrely - the film starts playing with audio only. The cast and crew interviews
are Attenborough’s ‘Reflections Of A Director’, Simon Ward in ‘A National Hero
Brought To Life’, assistant director William P. Cartlidge in ‘Camel Blues’, and
second-unit director Brian Cook in ‘Stars And Sand’, particularly praising
Attenborough’s ability in casting minor parts. Stuntman Vic Armstrong explains
how they had to rent 300 horses for six months and train infantrymen in North
Africa as cavalry, John Richardson talks about special effects and the train
ambush sequence which was filmed in Wales, in ‘Fires In The Sky’, and make-up
artist Robin Grantham explains his role in ‘Making It Up’. Other extras are deleted
scenes, amateurish footage from the US premiere at the Chinese Theatre in
Hollywood, the theatrical trailer, a gallery of stills, lobby cards and
posters, and the souvenir brochure.
