Netflix Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Reviewing Netflix’s Churchill: The Things We Do for England…

5 January 2025 Comments 2 Comments

There’s a way to derive a mostly correct picture of the man from this show: ignore Part 1. The other three parts also suffer from occasional forays into fiction. But they are more accurate, with honest dialogue, well-chosen quotations and spectacular footage, much of it freshly colorized. Kudos to Andrew Roberts, Jon Meacham, Allen Packwood and Catherine Katz for keeping it on track, and to Lord Roberts for his eloquent finale.

“Munich, The Edge of War,” with Jeremy Irons: Fine Acting, Edgy History

25 February 2022 Comments 1 Comment

Regardless of whether you like the movie—and Jeremy Irons gives it an authentic, watchable flavor—we know much more about Munich in the light of scholarship since. We know that Soviet Russia was prepared to stand with Czechoslovakia in 1938, and had become a German ally in 1939. We know how—with the help of Czech armaments—Poland was eradicated in three weeks, the Low Countries in eighteen days, France in six weeks. If resisting Hitler was so ludicrous an idea in 1938, what was there about fighting him in 1939-40 that made it preferable? Given what we know, we are obliged to consider Churchill’s opinion—which was, characteristically, far from baseless.