User reviews

This film may make a good story but it doesn't make good history.It is true to say that the casualties on the first day in Normandy equalled those on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.However it is difficult to give much credence to the notion of the film.Churchill would have been aware of the threat posed by the V rockets and the prospect that if nothing were done eventually the whole of Europe would have been overrun by Stalin's Soviet army.Also by this time Churchill had very little say in things and he was aware of this.He was not senile,which the film implies,but he was haunted by depression,which the film chooses not to mention.All told this is a film which is totally unworthy of the great man's memory.

It's not like this viewer watched 'Churchill' expecting or wanting to hate it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Actually very much wanted 'Churchill' to succeed, considering that it is based on an important historical figure and his incredible story. Also very much like historical dramas and the cast is enough to draw anybody in.

'Churchill' turned out to be a real disappointment. Not one of the year's worst, it's nowhere near as bad as 'The Mummy' or 'Transformers: The Last Knight', but it's one of the most disappointing. It has been remarked that the representation of Churchill and his story is grossly inaccurate to the point of perversity. This is true, but 'Churchill' has more wrong with it than just historical inaccuracy and for now will be judged on its own as a film.

Let's start with the good things. The best thing about it is the magnificent performance of Brian Cox, a blistering portrayal and also a nuanced one that never resorts to mimicry, caricature or imitation. He may not sound like Churchill but man did he do his work. Faring best in support is an imperious Miranda Richardson and the two work very well together.

Jonathan Teplitzsky directs with some degree of dignity and the production values are spot on meticulous, beautifully photographed and with production and costume design that's atmospheric, sumptuous and evocative. The make-up for Churchill is well done.

Unfortunately, 'Churchill' is let down primarily by a thinly sketched, melodramatic and contrived script and a plodding over-stretched story that feels muddled in tone and focus. Most of the support acting doesn't work, John Slattery lacks the gravitas for Eisenhower and James Purefoy is in every sense one of the grossest miscasts for any film personally seen recently.

Pacing is leaden, and this is coming from somebody who is quick to defend deliberately paced films criticised for being "boring" (one of his most hated words as of now), too often and the music score is far too intrusive to an annoying degree.

Overall, disappointing but not a complete disaster. 5/10 Bethany Cox

It's hard to understand the motivation of the makers of this movie in producing such an appalling and deliberate distortion of the facts. It is nothing but a hit piece intended to defame a great man. Don't waste one minute of your life on it.

Despite the title, "Churchill" is not a comprehensive biopic of the British wartime leader. It concentrates upon a very brief, limited period in his career, the few days leading up to the D-Day landings in June 1944. Moreover, its take on these events is an astonishing, almost incredible one. It alleges that Winston Churchill, haunted by memories of the bloody Gallipoli landings in Turkey during the First World War, became convinced that D-Day would be a disastrous failure and desperately, but unsuccessfully, tried to persuade Eisenhower, Montgomery and other Allied generals to cancel the plan. He argued instead that the Allies should concentrate about on their offensive in Italy and fight a multi-front war by launching new operations in Norway, the Balkans and the Bordeaux area of western France. When overruled, Churchill insists that he should sail in person on board one of the ships accompanying the invasion fleet, and only abandons this idea when ordered to do so by King George VI.

Needless to say, this line has been criticised by historians and biographers as historically inaccurate. The decision to land in Normandy in the summer of 1944 had been taken at the highest political level long before; it Churchill had wanted to challenge it he would have needed to raise his objections at a much earlier stage with Roosevelt rather than Eisenhower. (And possibly with Stalin as well). The film-makers do not seem to appreciate what an enormous political storm would have been raised had the British Prime Minister attempted to cancel, at the very last minute, the greatest Allied offensive of the war.

Despite this criticism, I have given the film a relatively high mark because of the quality of some of the acting involved, although not all the performances are equally convincing. Julian Wadham as Monty and Richard Durden as Jan Smuts are both instantly recognisable, but the same cannot be said of John Slattery as Eisenhower or James Purefoy as the King, as neither actor looks anything like the man he is supposedly portraying. Miranda Richardson, however, is excellent as Churchill's wife Clementine, the one person with the courage to speak common sense to the great leader. In looks, as well as in the forthright, no-nonsense style of her acting, Richardson reminded me of Judi Dench, or at least of Dame Judi as she was twenty years ago.

The best performance, however, comes from Brian Cox as the great man himself. Cox, admittedly, does not bear much physical resemblance to Churchill, although the make-up people have done a good job in this respect, but he has clearly studied his subject in depth and mastered his voice and mannerisms well enough to enable him to give a fine impersonation and to deliver his speeches with an authentically Churchillian ring. The storyline may be historically doubtful, but in psychological terms Cox's portrayal of an elderly wartime leader exhausted by his gargantuan efforts and suffering under the burden of self-doubt (and possibly also of guilt over his own part in the Gallipoli affair) is strikingly convincing. It is hardly surprising that the critics, even when they were less than enthusiastic about the film as a whole, singled him out for praise. "Rolling Stone" called his performance "a master class in acting" and "Time Out" said he was "rudely magnificent". My own verdict would be similar; Cox lifts what would otherwise be an indifferent movie into the category of something well worth watching. 7/10

The critics have not taken very kindly to this 4-day biopic, but I found much to admire. It's June 1944, in the week before D-Day, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Brian Cox) is having grave doubts about the Normandy landings. World War One saw a similar beachhead go catastrophically wrong at Gallipoli, and Churchill took much of the blame for the disaster. Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery (John Slattery and Julian Wadham) are gung-ho for a great victory, and even King George (James Purefoy) is quietly optimistic. Clementine, Mrs Churchill (Miranda Richardson), worries about her husband's stress – and his drinking. She doesn't seem to worry about his smoking: we hardly ever see him without a cigar.

This is something of a 'chamber piece', more like a play than a movie, all talk and little action. There are no battle scenes; the Blitz is in the past; London is more or less a safe place in which to be planning a mighty campaign to defeat Hitler and Nazism. Brian Cox is made up to be a very believable Winston and he does a splendid job with the great man's voice without lapsing into caricature. Only the cigars are overdone.

The rest of the cast are convincing, although Ms Richardson could have done with some sharper lines: her Clemmie is a bit like a Jane Austen mumsical matriarch. Cox is well-served by the script, although critics and historians are claiming that Churchill never actually had the four dark days of doubt and despair pictured here. There's a scene of him at prayer which becomes very Shakespearean – the PM as King Lear!

So: a talky drama, not slight but a bit slender (in spite of Churchill's Hitchcockian girth). The eve of a great moment in history. Authentic or not, this is stirring stuff.

Churchill is a British movie directed by Jonathan Teplitzky. It stars Brian Cox as Winston Churchill, and Miranda Richardson as his wife, Clementine Churchill. John Slattery portrays General Dwight Eisenhower.

The entire film takes place just before and just after the allied invasion of Normandy, which occurred on June 6, 1944. I'm not a history buff, and I always assumed that D-Day represented a stroke of true military genius. I was never aware that Churchill was vehemently opposed to landing troops in northern France. According to what I've read, Churchill believed that the allies would do better throwing everything they had into the Italian campaign.

In what is apparently historically correct, Churchill fought against the invasion, but he wasn't really in control of the battle against Hitler. Eisenhower was the supreme allied commander, and the ultimate decision was his.

Brian Cox sort of looks like Winston Churchill, and after a while I could believe it. However, I don't think John Slattery looks at all like Eisenhower, so that portrayal just didn't work for me.

Also, given that we all know that D-Day took place, there's not much tension in whether or not Churchill can stop it. So, what we see in the movie is Churchill ranting and raving, bullying his wife and his secretary, and praying that God sends a rainstorm to prevent the invasion from taking place.

What bothered me most is that, according to the movie, Churchill's opposition was based on his own terrible decision to invade Gallipoli in World War I. It's true that the invasion of Gallipoli is considered one of world military history's great blunders. It's true that Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty when that blunder took place. However, this was a different world war, and the conditions and nature of battle were different. It's hard to know, from the film, whether Churchill would have been equally opposed to D-Day if someone else had been First Lord of the Admiralty in World War I.

We saw this film at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, NY. Because there are no battle scenes and no shots of the D-Day armada, the movie should work as well on the small screen.

It's a must-see if you're interested in the history of WW II, or if you're interested in the role Churchill played towards the end of the war. If neither of these really matters to you, it probably won't work.

I don't think the movie is worth seeing just to see Brian Cox portraying Winston Churchill. He's very good, but I don't believe that the film is worth a special trip.

On the basis that other reviewers have very adequately covered the glaring objections to this film I will keep this brief.

In an action packed life of 80 years involving 2 world wars and one other significant war (The Boer War), a momentous political career, a life filled with both failure as well phenomenal achievements, that the filmmakers should think it necessary to MAKE UP a story about Churchill seems like the pinnacle of perversity. It just defies any logic hitherto known to mankind.

"Poetic license" is nothing new in movie making. However this movie is more like a "license to kill", kill a man's reputation, kill the concept of history, and kill the truth. The preservation of actual history in the light of revisionism is difficult enough without the general public being exposed to downright lies to further confuse and deceive them.

I give this movie a 1 as a protest, in the probably forlorn hope that if enough people do the same to all movies that mess around with history, movie makers will get the message and steer their movies in a way that treats people and history responsibly.

I'll be honest, I don't feel the acting was as good as other reviews says it was. Not that I did not love watching Brian Cox do his thang on the big screen but I was not as impressed. It felt like I was watching a play as Cox performance seem heighten like he was on the stage, especially compared to the other actors around him who did not have the same gusto.  

Of course, I could be missing something. I know who Churchill is but I don't know any personal details of which the movie seems to have a lot as it refers to relationships between him and his wife played by Miranda Richardson. For all I know Churchill was that type of guy.

Wow. What a waste of an opportunity to make a brilliant film. To summarise it in 5 words: BORING, INACCURATE, EMPTY, UNINSPIRING AND REPETITIVE.

What really makes me angry about this film is the thought of the thousands of people who know very little about Churchill who watched this to gain more insight into him. What they'll come away with is the sense that Churchill was a bumbling alcoholic, did nothing during WW2 and was a senile, absent leader. Of course, no such thing is true.

Shame on the writers of this abomination for taking 'artistic license' and redrawing history.

The very low budget shows, too. With a bizarre lack of any battle scenes despite the entire film being centred around one of the largest battles in military history. The film is also littered with needless time-wasting shots of Churchill getting into cars, getting out of cars, then back into cars and so on.

Cox's performance is good, but his accent irritatingly varies widely, particularly in shouty scenes, which ruins any sense of genuine character. This is the first film where I've sat in the theatre and honestly wished it would end sooner. For that reason, this is one of the most disappointing films I have ever sat through. AVOID AVOID AVOID.

We sometimes forget some of the greatest leaders in history suffered from the devil that is depression. While not focusing on it, his struggle with the 'Black Dog' is acknowledged within the plot.I suspect a reasonable amount of licence has been taken but the nub of the story I would imagine is true. The Churchill's, Eisenhowers, King George's and Clemintine's of this world are treated as real, fallible human beings and indeed often flawed, but wholly accepting of their duty. Brian Cox makes an excellent Churchill. I see a couple of people have given this a one star review? Really not sure what movie they were watching...Well acted, shot and produced...this movie is well worth your time.

The movie "Churchill" chronicles the days before the invasion of Normandy in which the British Prime Minister finds himself no longer in control of the fate of his country. Ike Eisenhower is now in command of the allied invasion. The movie captures his extreme difficulty in letting go and placing his trust in the comparatively less experienced generals in charge of the invasion. Churchill feels that he, himself, must serve a vital role.

Beyond the historical backdrop of the movie, we are made to gaze upon a vital nuance of our humanity as well - the challenge to trust others.

This is a shambolic mess of a film with a one-sided view of Churchill, factual inaccuracies and appalling errors. The scriptwriter obviously did not read Field Marshal Alanbrooke's diaries or the many biographies of Churchill.

Even basic military details were so wrong, it is farcical. Couldn't the budget stretch to a military adviser? Monty addressing 20 or so soldiers? He went round addressing brigades, thousands of soldiers at a time.

The way that the characters addressed each other, the salutations, the lack of an equerry for the King, no PPS for Churchill...all utter rubbish.

I have often thought I would like to again experience watching films such as Aliens, The Thing, Saving Private Ryan or Blade Runner for the first time. All were exciting and entertaining. What am I served up with now? This tripe. Never mind factual issues, it is just plain boring. Churchill is, possibly, one of the worst films I have watched (well, I stopped after 50 minutes - my jaw was nearly dislocated with yawning). Dreadful. How was this ever released?

Greetings again from the darkness. Well, well. The image to most of Winston Churchill is epitomized by his nickname, The Lion of Britain. Undeniably one of the most iconic historical figures of the last 150 years, there have been volumes of articles and books and movies documenting his important role in so many moments that shaped our modern world. Director Jonathan Teplitzky (The Railway Man) and writer Alex von Tunzelmann (she herself a British historian) take us behind the public façade and into the personal doubts and fears … even literally into his bedroom and the middle of his marital spats.

Brian Cox takes on the role of Churchill, and seems to relish more than the ever-present stogie and its lingering smoke. He captures many of the physical traits and movements, while employing his stage-trained voice in an exceptional reenactment of the infamous and impassioned D-Day radio speech. Complementing his performance is Miranda Richardson as Clemmie Churchill, the strong and diligent great woman behind the great man.

Most of the film takes place in the four days leading up to the June 6, 1944 Allied Forces invasion of Normandy, known of course as D-Day and Operation Overlord. At the time, Churchill was almost 70 years old, and what we see here is man teetering between past and present while cloaked in an almost paralyzing fear stemming from the 1915 Gallipoli debacle. He is presented as vehemently opposed to the Normandy invasion, though most documentation shows his initial resistance from (1941-43) had subsided, and he was fully on board by this time.

Although the ticking clock throughout the film leads to the invasion, this isn't a war movie per se, but rather a peek at the human side of leadership in a time of crisis. Ask yourself if you could readily order tens of thousands of young soldiers to face slaughter, especially after you had experienced such tragic results a still-fresh-on-the-conscience 29 years earlier.

John Slattery ("Mad Men") plays General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander (and future President of the United States) and he more than holds his own in scenes with Cox/Churchill. Julian Wadham plays Bernard Montgomery, the Spartan General. He was over all Allied ground forces and accepted Germany's surrender in 1945. Taking on the role of British Field Marshal Jan Smuts (also the Prime Minister of South Africa) is Richard Durden. Having the thankless job of trying to keep Churchill on track, Smuts was the only person to sign the peace treaties for both WWI and WWII, and later established the League of Nations. James Purefoy does a really nice job as King George VI (replete with minor stutter), and Ella Purnell (Emma in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children) shines as Churchill's bright-eyed new secretary, and invested British citizen.

The best scenes are between Winston and Clemmie, and those where he fine-tunes his remarkable speeches. At times the film veers into near-caricature mode, but manages to right itself thanks to the counsel and wisdom of two strong women. Later this year, Atonement director Joe Wright will present Darkest Hour, with the great Gary Oldman as Churchill, and it's likely to feature more politics and acts of state. Despite the blustering and sense of "losing it", all is well when the D-Day speech is delivered. It's so much more than words on the page. Well, well.

The director and screenwriter have courageously created a movie that shows Winston Churchill during one of his periods of deep depression. Brian Cox is impressive in the title role and the rest of the cast: excellent.

The cars of the period were beautifully polished and prominent but the number of times we saw VIPs getting in and out of these beautifully polished vehicles could've been cut back.

Although I'd question the historical accuracy of the film, the 105 minutes were great theatre. Unlike quite a few films nowadays, the actors' diction was clear – many in the cast were trained for the stage.

One of the best scenes is when Churchill finally realises his place in history is to use his skill as orator to maintain British morale and not to inhibit the work of the war generals and strategists. The final speech – after the troops had landed on the beaches of France - is truly uplifting.

Churchill stars Brian Cox and its the story of how the prime minister copes with the plan of D-day. This movie has a very movie-like plot and has very movie-like characters, but it still works. It may be clichéd and it may be very obvious, but what really elevates this movie are the performances. All of them are great. Brian Cox delivers an astounding performance, he was so in the moment and real. He was completely in his character and his accent was well made. His character is well- developed enough that we can care about him, and his main motivation is really clear as his past haunts him and it makes him think twice about his decisions. He really deserves an Oscar nomination. The script is good, but it could be better. There are a lot of great scenes throughout the movie that really stand out, but then there are other scenes that are really flawed and predictable. I literally predicted 2 lines in one scene. The cinematography is gorgeous. A lot of wide and long takes of the wilderness and the beach. The production design and the sound was also great with a lot of references to the past and of the time period. The direction is good but it could be much better. There really isn't a style in this movie, and if the direction had made more unique and original choices, this movie wouldn't have been clichéd. The story is engaging, riveting and it really makes you think behind the decisions made before soldiers step on enemy soil and it makes you sympathize with the characters since the decisions made in the story are really brave. I had a good time with this movie and its a really good biography about a man that really made a huge difference in the world. 7/10

Another fine portrayal (as well as The Darkest Hour and The Crown) of a man of strong morals trying to do the right thing in a near impossible situation, gleaming from experiences yet reluctantly learning and changing.

However with the climax of the film already known (D-Day) there needed to be more of a plot. This was lacking. Worth a thing though for anyone interested in the background to this WW2 operation.

I'm surprised that an actor of Brian Cox's status allowed himself to be involved in this manipulative and totally fictional account of Winston Churchill as a weak, dithering, bumbling-incompetent of a prime minister who tried to sabotage the plans of D-Day. This is the first time in 20 years that I have walked out of a movie. Anyone too young to know about WWII will learn nothing of Churchill from this movie. The events depicted simply didn't happen.

There is much discussion of "fake news" today. This disgraceful film is another heavy stone threatening to bury the truth. I rated it 1/10 but without the acting of Cox it doesn't even deserve 1.

A bold biopic that tells the untold story of Churchill's opposition to operation overload - never retold by the man himself as he wrote his own history but is covered in Max Hastings book which this film has possibly drawn on. Brian Cox delivers a powerhouse performance and is in almost every scene - it's an uncompromising and brutal portrait that is warts and all. Watched this on the big screen at a preview and while some scenes play a little long and dusty the resolution is worth it - here was a man responsible for bringing peace to the world but with the weight of so many soldier's lives on his conscience - that so Tunzelman's script shows only came of age at the age of 70. When he finally realized his place in history was as the champion of the people and the British spirit - and not amongst the war generals and strategists. The film is beautifully photographed and Miranda Richardson delivers an awards worthy turn as Churchill's wife. Other supporting cast are strong even John Slattery with a bald head! A solid historical drama for fans of Kings Speech or The Iron Lady.

"Churchill" (2017 release from the UK; 105 min.) is a movie about Winston Churchill. As the movie opens, we are reminded it is "June 1944", and we see Churchill walking on the beach, thinking back to the horrors of a WWI amphibian attack that went horribly wrong. The action then movies to "Downing Street Annexe", where Churchill is seemingly practicing lines for an upcoming speech--we later learn that it is for a tete-a-tete with King George during one of the last briefings before D Day. At this point we're 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky. Here he brings a snapshot of Winston Churchill to the big screen. Don't call it a biopic as only the days leading up to D Day are covered. And what we see isn't a pretty picture. Churchill comes across as a cranky old man who is petulant and aloof. As the movie ends, the end titles inform us that "Churchill is viewed by many as the greatest Briton ever", and while it certainly is true that he was a great WWII leader, if what we see here reflects reality, Churchill also was a most unpleasant man. That makes the task of director Teplitzky much harder to make a movie that is compelling. I watched most of the movie simply being annoyed at Churchill. I can't imagine that was the intent of the film... Veteran UK actor Brian Cox does a fantastic job in the title role, but of course he cannot make Churchill into a sympathetic figure. I must wonder whether what we see in the film is an accurate reflection of what happened in the days leading up to D Day. Did Churchill really battle Eisenhower and Montgomery to stop D Day from happening? I have no idea. Given all the commotion that is portrayed, the movie is surprisingly flat-footed.

The movie opened recently at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Friday evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay but not great (I'd guess about 15 people). If you are interested in WWII history or perhaps Churchill himself, I'd suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. Just don't expect a riveting movie, or a pleasant man.

Yet another film where they feel the audience is too stupid to have any knowledge of the subject, so must dumb it all down into patronising pap.

Not happy with insulting us already, they then take historical facts and rewrite them totally for no other reason than they can. Then slip in the old adage "Based On A True Story" which like so many films, claiming to be 'Based on a true story' is actually code for a load of B.S. pretending to be factual.

Churchill was one of the greatest, complex and most flawed characters of recent history.

Instead of going with truth (and therefore being much much more interesting) they went for a Hollywood horrible caricature full of errors and downright lies.

I'm not surprised the writer has no other credits shown on IMDb. This is atrocious pap. Insulting to a great man, who we were privileged for him to give 'the lions roar' for us, in the face of evil.

People watch films like this and others e.g. 'The Imitation Game' and think they are portraying factual history. They leave the theatre feeling they have learned something, instead it varies from gross distortion of the truth to out and out lie.

The irony is, the true story is so much more interesting. But it means the writers would have to put a lot of work in portraying it. Hence it's more convenient to serve us this pap and pass it off as 'historical'.

the reviews saying this is an 'Insight into Churchill' etc, shows real ignorance and how Hollywood rewrites history.