Churchill: The Finest Hours

Affectionate portrait is remarkably comprehensive
Having seen almost every other documentary on Churchill, this affectionate portrait of perhaps the century's greatest political leader is remarkably comprehensive in its coverage.

Churchill's childhood, complete with self-absorbed, neglectful parents and doting nanny, is well captured with Orson Welles' sonorous narration, in spite of the documentary's visual usage mainly of photographs - some more relevant than others. His key formative years are touched upon, while the Dardanelles and Irish/Black and Tans periods are charitably dealt with (for Churchill).

Most memorable is of course the World War II ascendancy to power amid the pathetic power vacuum of the inter-war years. Whatever mistakes the man made before '39 (which no doubt were many) this documentary clearly shows the uncanny timeliness of his arrival on the world stage, as well as the remarkably arduous journey he took to reach that point. Lightly covered but almost no less remarkable was the '51 - '55...

Fascinating, if simply too small for a figure so large
Very interesting, if somewhat frustratingly limited documentary biography
of Winston Churchill. It's not really the film's fault. It's well made and intelligent.
It's just that Churchill lived such a full and fascinating life, that trying to jam
it all into an under 2 hour film means that much has to be ignored or sped through.

So in most areas we get the reader's digest version. Only the war years get a little
more detail. But we get almost nothing about Churchill the human being, the husband,
the father.

Huge changes in his political career are handled with a few sentences and a couple of images.

Yet I was never bored, and still ended up knowing much more about both Churchill and Britain
in the war years than when I started.

A worthwhile film that spurred me on to learn more.

Churchill: The Finest Hours
This 2 CD and 1 DVD set of "Churchill: The Finest Hours", is a superbly crafted commentary. Orson Wells' naration is a delight. This three disc set is a must for any serious Churchill afficionado

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