This most recent film follows on/'The Crown'/ and/'Churchill's Secret'/,
proving the enduring and desirably increasing interest in WSC, and the
craving for the leadership and humanity he embodies.
I haven't seen this /'Churchill'/ film. I watched the trailer, which was
not encouraging.
However, we who in this group see ourselves as guardians of Churchill's
legacy, must be careful for two reasons. Through these works a lot of
people are familiarized with Churchill, accurately or not. That's a fact.
And those that create such works are not idiots or vandals. I know. I'm
one of them.
I have written and performed, for 20 years, a one-man play set on the
night before Churchill resigns in 1955.
The vast majority of my audience members enjoy and are inspired by my
play. However, from a few academics I have received flak for
'inaccuracies'. Churchill lived a very full life for 90 years. Enormous
amounts of careful editing, condensing, and simplification are required
to present any form of dramatization of even a portion of his life.
Guardians of WSC's legacy must understand the needs of drama, the entire
premise of which is 'the suspension of disbelief'.
If you go into every dramatization of Winston Churchill with a yellow
pad, a pencil, and a puritanical grimace muttering 'never said that' or
'that was edited' etc. you will always be disappointed.
In my play Churchill goes to his wartime bunker under London to decide
'to go or not to go'. I have been derided for this by one reviewer, as
on the night before he resigned Churchill was in Downing Street, having
just entertained the Queen and Prince Philip to dinner. Why send him to
the hated bunker? Because dramatically _he has to be alone_, in a place
he cannot be interrupted by a servant, a staff member, even his wife.
The assumption that playwrights or screen writers are careless
ignoramuses can easily become elitist snobbery, not considering that the
writer has a legitimate dramatic reason. And pedantry can go too far. Is
it really logical to allow on stage/screen the Bessie Braddock
drunk/ugly anecdote, but not the Lady Astor poison one? Or to forbid the
much loved Shaw/Churchill theater ticket exchange, now known not to have
actually happened? Or to accept invented dialog, but not a saying such
as 'if you're going through hell, keep going', because no attribution
can be found, although nobody would deny it is highly Churchillian?
As a group we need to take a step back and take several deep breaths.
Criticism is legitimate and fine, but sometimes goes over the top as
much as some presentations of WSC are cringe-worthy.
We should be far more worried if there are fewer dramatizations of
Churchill in future - good, bad, or indifferent.
BTW the dramatization of WSC would be an excellent subject for a
seminar, debate, or similar forum. I for one would be happy to attend,
take a few rotten eggs, and fight my corner.
Andrew Edlin
On 6/6/2017 10:01 AM, Brett Weiss wrote:
The review is by Godfrey Cheshire, and appears on RogerEbert.com (Mr.
Ebert having been dead since 2013). You will get a clear picture of
his thoughts by the first paragraph:
In the annals of historical biopics, Jonathan Teplitzsky’s “Churchill”
stands out as a uniquely awful and tedious caricature of a fascinating
subject. The film, which imagines British prime minister Winston S.
Churchill as wracked with misgivings and opposing the Allied Forces’
D-Day invasion until the very last minute, strikes this reviewer as a
load of utter rubbish from first frame to last.
Take care.
Brett Weiss
*From: *<[email protected]> on behalf of Sandy Finlayson
<[email protected]>
*Reply-To: *<[email protected]>
*Date: *Tuesday, June 6, 2017 at 10:37 AM
*To: *"[email protected]" <[email protected]>
*Subject: *[ChurchillChat] Churchill Film
I made the mistake of going to the new Churchill film last night.
While the producers made the point in the credits that the film was
based on historical events but that scenes and dialogue had been made
up, this was still an awful film that does a disservice to WSC. Roger
Ebert's review which can be read here
<http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/churchill-2017> is an accurate
summation of many of the "issues" with the film.
What's most alarming to me is that a lot of people get their history
from the movies and if they do in this case they will get a deeply
flawed picture of Churchill. After watching the film the most sensible
question to ask would be, why on earth would anyone have followed the
Churchill portrayed in this film?
If you haven't already seen it, don't waste your money on it.
Sandy
--------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Sandy Finlayson <http://faculty.wts.edu/posts/?facultyfilter=193>
Director of Library Services &
Professor of Theological Bibliography
Westminster Theological Seminary <http://www.wts.edu/library>
Philadelphia, PA
"Google can bring back a hundred thousand answers.
A librarian can bring you back the right one.
~ /Neil Gaiman/
Recent Release: Thomas Chalmers
<http://www.wtsbooks.com/thomas-chalmers-sandy-finlayson-9781783970728>
See also: Unity and Diversity: The Founders of the Free Church
<http://www.wtsbooks.com/unity-and-diversity-sandy-finalyson-9781845505509>
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