Voted the Greatest Briton of all time in 2002, the figure of Winston Churchill looms large over both British history and world cinema.
Over thirty actors have depicted the two-time PM on-screen and it takes a performance of real strength to capture his complex character.
Some have it, some don’t. Here are our picks of the best and worst of on-screen Churchills.
Continue reading Churchill On-Screen | 5 of the Best and Worst
★★★★★
There have been so many cinematic depictions of war-weary London, May 1940, that one might be forgiven for momentarily believing that they were actually there in the flesh rather than the stalls. Few of these, however, have come as close to conveying the contemporary emotional turmoil as Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour. At the beating heart is Gary Oldman and an all-time great performance.
★★★
It’s a biographical performance that Albert Finney, Richard Burton and Michael Gambon have all taken on. Here, in Churchill, Sir Winston, named in a 2002 poll as the Greatest Briton of all time, is played with aplomb by Brian Cox. This is however, from the directorial eye of The Railway Man’s Jonathan Teplitzky and the pen of historian Alex von Tunzelmann, a far more destabilising depiction of the icon and well represented caricature. Churchill has both the bull and black dogs of its protagonist’s life at heart but is unfortunately every bit as conflicted and flawed as the man himself.
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