Very Disappointing

Rating: 1/10 (26 January 2018)

I expected so much more from this film but was totally disappointed. I didn't expect a documentary and any film has to enjoy some literary license but this is a work of sickly perfumed fiction which completely misrepresents the man to the point of unrecognizability. If the film is a portrayal of a man, then it is certainly not Churchill.
Churchill has to be understood in the light of his heritage and class. If a peripheral player initially, he was born into the ruling class. Like many only begrudgingly accepted into its ranks, he was therefore one of its strongest proponents. He believed he was born to rule just as much as commoners were born to die in the service of empire. The class system meant that he would never, ever have confided in someone he regarded as a commoner and the notion of him even addressing a black man is ludicrous. He was a committed racist firmly believing it to be the natural order of things. This is the man who, as a boy, simply wrote "Marlborough" on his entrance exam to Harrow believing this was enough to gain entry. It was.
Churchill was well known for summoning servants and government employees to action while he was toileting or in the bath. This was not because he was accessible, charismatic or comfortable with his body as portrayed in the film. Rather this was a man who simply didn't simply care what they thought because he was Churchill and they weren't.
The film quotes Churchill as supporting the marriage of Edward VIII to Wallis Simpson. In actuality Churchill was a pivotal character in opposing the marriage of Edward VIII to Wallis Simpson. Not because she was a divorcee and he was morally outraged (Churchill's father died of syphilis after a lifetime of philandering and his mother used sex as a social tool) but because he knew Edward would resign over it and he vehemently opposed Edwards desire to be an involved monarch. Simpson was widely believed to be having an affair with Von Ribbentrop (Hitlers foreign minister) and Churchill knew Hitler would use this to his benefit against a weak and easily influenced king. Churchill would never have been familiar with George VI and probably privately despised him as a weak and unprepared monarch. The royal family and many of their closest allies were closet supporters of Hitler believing him to be far preferable to the Communists who were a substantially more concrete threat. Churchill was utterly loyal to the throne and monarchy but George VI was only the current incumbent just as Edward VIII before him, had been.
The film portrays Halifax and Chamberlain as weak appeasers when in actuality their fears were the loss of a complete generation of men like that experienced in WWI. Horror was embedded deep within many politicians who had seen/survived active service during WWI and were desperate to not revisit that period. Chamberlain is recorded as believing Hitler would most likely break his word but knew he had no choice but to try and gain time for rearmament despite the cost to his own career and legacy.
It might not be a convenient truth but, successful evacuation of the troops at Dunkirk was solely because of 'Churchills' flotilla but probably because of Hitlers stated reluctance for a massacre. Hitler did not feel the British were the natural enemy (that was the communists) and that a massacre would negate the possibility of a agreement.
If Gary Oldham wanted to be Churchill, then he failed. Churchill was much more imposing, had a deeper voice with substantially more gravitas. Oldhams voice is thin and reedy and, at one point, he even adopts a regional accent. Churchill was a war monger, rude, inconsiderate, terribly ill mannered and selfish but would sacrifice himself in a second for the notion of service and empire. He was not your irascible but charming uncle as portrayed in this film.