Born for the storm
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- May
- 29
There are fewer qualities more necessary than leadership and, judging from the sorry state of our world, fewer more elusive.
And yet, we know a great leader when we see one. Since the postwar era and particularly after 9/11, one man perhaps more than any other has defined what it means to lead — British prime minister Winston Churchill, who saved his island nation from the Nazis and thus, spared Western civilization (with a good deal of help from us).
HBO’s “Into the Storm” (9 p.m. Sunday) — with Brendan Gleeson and Janet McTeer triumphant as the irascible PM and his long-suffering wife, Clementine — is an often stirring, often moving account of Churchill’s finest hour. After watching it, you may conclude that a true leader leads as much from his want as from his strength.“Into the Storm” actually begins after the war, with Churchill on holiday in France, nervously awaiting the outcome of the election that would sweep him out of power and generally driving everybody nuts, especially the patient, tolerant “Clemmie,” whom McTeer portrays as her husband’s radiant conscience. She wishes he would be less brusque to his manservant and take more time with their youngest child, Mary, who has accompanied them on the trip. But what becomes clear to us, if not to her, is that those who are brilliant at war are often lousy at peace. As was once said of Andrew Jackson (and could also be said of Rudolph Giuliani) Churchill was “born for the storm”.
The not-so-idyllic vacation scenes are interspersed with the main story of Churchill’s rise to power in the wake of cowardly predecessor Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler and Mussolini. We’ve been here many times before — the struggle to hold on by the skin of the teeth after the fall of France; the early disasters at Dunkirk and Singapore; the wooing of the isolationist Americans through their equally commanding but somewhat enigmatic president, Franklin Roosevelt (Len Cariou); the magnificent speeches, still masterpieces of the spoken and written word; the promise never to surrender.
It’s amazing just how resonant and thrilling those speeches are. (“Not bad,” Roosevelt says to an aide after reading one of them.) Part of it was Churchill’s gift for writing. But it’s also Gleeson’s performance, which captures the man right down to the question mark-shaped stockiness, the bulldog expression and the hard cadences. (Note the use of the braying long “a” and soft “z” in Churchill’s pronounciation of “Nazi.”) If, as we’re told in the story, Churchill was born to save his people, Gleeson was born for this part.
Through the star and screenwriter Hugh Whitemore — who tackled Churchill before in HBO’s award-winning “The Gathering Storm” — we glimpse a man driven not only by the urgency of the times but the need to be loved. (At one point, Clementine confides that her husband adored his parents, who gave him short shrift.)
Like a lot of overachievers with cold parents, the Churchill of “Into the Storm” has a odd relationship with love, pushing it away when it’s offered by those closest to him and seeking it instead from those who would prove distant and fickle — Roosevelt and the British people themselves.
Perhaps some viewers will find this interpretation psychologically simplistic. But regardless of what spurred him, “Into the Storm” demonstrates that Churchill had the stuff of a real leader. He had a bold vision for the future that he communicated clearly, and he lead from the front, taking responsibility for its execution.
Sure, he made mistakes. He hurt others and at times, was hurt by them. But Churchill kept soldiering on. “Into the Storm” suggests that often, that is the greatest victory.
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 12:54 pm by Georgette Gouveia.
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I am really looking forward to Into the Storm hitting UK TV screens, I have been a great admirer of Churchill for many years. I came across his WW2 memoirs some years ago all 8000 pages of them and whilst reading them I was struck by how many skills and talents Churchill had which remained hidden from view. I decided to write a book called Churchill’s Secret Skills which I have just published on Amazon in America. The book highlights his hidden talents and applies them to a modern business environment. To avoid the boredom that is a prerequisite of most business books it is packed full of interesting stories and anecdotes about Churchill and the war.