Brian Cox Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill Bio-Pics: The Trouble with the Movies

10 August 2017 Comments 2 Comments

“The Trouble with the Movies” was published in the American Thinker, 5 August 2017.

David Franco, reviewing the film Churchill, starring Brian Cox, raises questions he says everyone should be asking. “Isn’t the ability to accept one’s mistakes part of what makes a man a good leader? …. To what extent should we rely [on] past experiences in order to minimize mistakes in the future? These are the questions that make a bad movie like Churchill worth seeing.”

Well, I won’t be seeing this bad movie. Described as “perverse fantasy” by historian Andrew Roberts, it joins a recent spate of sloppy Churchill bio-pics that favor skewed caricatures over historical fact.…

Is the Movie “Dunkirk” Dumbed Down?

21 July 2017 Comments 5 Comments

Reviews of Christopher Nolan’s new film on Dunkirk, which take quite opposite points of view.

Dunkirk without Context

Dorothy Rabinowitz, in The Wall Street Journal, proclaims “the dumbing down of Dunkirk.” Mr. Nolan, she writes:

…considers Dunkirk “a universal story…about communal heroism.” Which explains why this is—despite its impressive cinematography, its moving portrait of suffering troops and their rescuers—a Dunkirk flattened out, disconnected from the spirit of its time, from any sense even of the particular mighty enemy with which England was at war.

When an event in history has become, in the mind of a writer, “universal” it’s a tip-off.…

Brian Cox as Churchill: An Interview on Charlie Rose

8 June 2017 Comments 4 Comments

It is depressing and disheartening for anyone who knows the barest facts to hear history told by actors, with reality turned on its head under guise of entertainment. Invented dialogue and scenarios are of course necessary for dramatic effect.