Young Winston shows how the British film industry uses creative casting, brilliant dialogue, costumes and beautiful cinematography to make a period in history great popular entertainment. Examples abound in many productions on television and in the movies, from the ground-breaking television series Upstairs Downstairs in the 1970's to more recent stories such as Amazing Grace.
This movie focuses on the early life of Winston Churchill. Simon Ward gives a brilliant performance and a glimpse of the force of personality that would one day roll out on the world stage. The sets, sweeping photography, scenes of military action, oratory in the House of Commons, the music of Edward Elgar with vignettes such as Churchill's handling of a tough interview all make this a production that can be viewed 40 years on and still give great entertainment value.
Director Richard Attenbrough, who would later film the epic Gandhi, has mounted a superb production here and used some of the finest actors of his time to portray the Churchill family and the political era at the turn of the 1900's: Robert Shaw as the brilliant but erratic Randolph Churchill, Ann Bancroft as his elegant American-born wife, Anthony Hopkins as David Lloyd George, and John Mills as Lord Kitchener. Jack Hawkins, Patrick Magee, a young Jane Seymour, Robert Hardy, and other notables also appear.
Definitely for history buffs, this movie will also whet the appetite of viewers to learn more about one of the great figures of the 20th century and the aristocratic world of his youth.
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