Introduction -
This solid straight ahead drama by Steven Spielberg is the story of the weight of possible war on the shoulders of natural peacemaker, Chamberlain and his staff.
Name of film: Munich Edge of War
Director: Christian Schwochow
Year: 2021
Official Poster
Trailer
Review
In 1932, Hitler and the Nazi’s are threatening to invade Czechoslovakia. Hitler, played in quite muted and yet threatening tones by Ulrich Matthes, is in talks with Chamberlain to find peace. The principled British PM wants it, but Hitler doesn't – he is just playing along. He has megalomaniac plans. Slowly Chamberlain, portrayed by a statesmanlike, robust Jeremy Irons, realises his best hope is to sign a peace agreement in order to buy time for England to prepare its troops for a full on war - he is clever enough to know it is going to come. His slow realisation that he is dealing with an unreasonable evil, and irrational man is really at the centre of the film for this reviewer. George MacKay delivers his second-straight great performance in a war film, after the Oscar-nominated 1917. In that, he was a disillusioned and naïve soldier. Here, he is the secretary to the British PM, caught in the middle of ongoing political negotiations and torn between loyalty to his country and his family.
His old German mate, from University days, Jannis Niewohner, gives a hyper performance as the young idealistic foot soldier, who eventually perceives the danger that Hitler represents to Germany and to every other country and becomes part of the resistance against the Nazis aggressive policies - the two old friends meet up again in Munich and plot together, as the film slowly build to its excellent climax.
Munich Edge of War, is not the spectacle and action of many other war films. It is in the genre of more realistic and psychological films like, The Imitation Game (2014) - a behind the scenes drama, still running as effective and gripping.
The cinematography by Frank Lamm is lush as you would expect from a Spielberg film.
JIrons portrays Chamberlain with intelligence and integrity, a man, whose desire for world peace becomes problematic - it is the scenes between him and Mackay that are really work, as Irons reluctantly begins to seek the younger man's advice, before arriving at his own devastating conclusions about Hitler.
The film based upon the 2017 novel Munich by Robert Harris and premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 13 October 2021.Netflix gave it a limited US theatrical release on January 14, 2022, before its streaming release on January 21, 2022.
My favourite scene - I could have shot Hitler.
Niewohner regrets that he was inches away from assasinating Hitler as the two were in the same room..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_zrmFmirRg
Number of SUBs out of 10 - **7 out of 10 **
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Thanks for reading my review, always up for comments and a chat about films and TV.
