Genre
Country
Great Britain
Cast
Synopsis
The Finest Hours is a tribute to Sir Winston Churchill as he is best remembered, as the war leader who rallied the British nation in the dark days after the fall of France and used his superb mastery of the English language to give hope to the vanquished and to strengthen the revolution of all who shared his indomitable fighting spirit. Based on Sir Winston's own memoirs, iy is primarily a documentary record of World War II as seen through his eyes and recounted in his own words. But director Peter Baylis and writer Victor Wolfson have wisely given it the format of a biography, for as Sir Winston himself once said-all his life was a preparation"for this hour and this trial! Those 65 eventful years of preparation are sketched-in rapidly but fully, from his birth in Blenheim Palace in 1874 to the momentous day that marked the beginning of the end of Hitler's dream of Godlike supremacy. The facts are not new to us; nor are all the excerpts from newsreels and other sources chosen to illustrate the major events of the war against Facism. But the selection has been done with such skill and artistry that it is impossible to watch The Finest Hours without feeling a glow of pride and thankfulness. This very fine documentary is not, and makes no pretence to be, 'warts and all' portrait of the whole man. It is exactly what its gifted makers intended it to be; an affectionate tribute to the Grand Old Man with the pugnacious set to his jaw, eyes gleaming with determination or twinkling with humour, who strode through streets and battlefields like a Colossus symbolising not only his country's bloody-minded refusal to surrender but also the ingenuity and eccentricities that where to prove so valuable in defeating the highly trained, well-equipped forces of the enemy. Not Sir Winston, but the Mr Churchill who was known and loved as 'Winnie'.
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