bsmith5552 "Young Winston" was an ambitious effort from Producer Carl Foreman and Director Richard Attenborough to chronicle the early life of famed politician Winston Churchill. One always thinks of Churchill as the rotund cherubic cigar smoking politician who ultimately saved the world from Nazi domination. What we get is an unexpected adventuresome war correspondent who makes a name for himself on the battlefield.Churchill's life is chronicled from the age of seven to his first election to parliament at age 27. The young Churchill is distanced from his beloved father Lord Randolph Churchill (Robert Shaw) who is a member of parliament at odds with his Prime Minister Lord Salisbury (Laurence Naismith). We follow his schooling at an expensive prep school where he is brutally caned by his professor. His American mother Lady Churchill (Anne Bancroft) also has little time for the young boy at this juncture.When he is grown, Winston manages to get assigned to the India frontier as a war correspondent. There he is cited for an act of bravery. He begins to receive the recognition that will help him in his ultimate goal of being elected to parliament. His first try ends in defeat.His father is taken ill and dies a lonely painful death at the age of 46. This has a profound effect on both Winston and his mother. Later, Winston is posted to South Africa during the Boer War where he distinguishes himself in battle but is captured. His daring escape wins him accolades in his homeland. His second try at parliament is successful and the rest as they say, is history.The cast is supplemented by a number of notables from the British Hall of Fame. Included in small cameos are Jack Hawkins, Anthony Hopkins, Edward Woodward, John Mills, Ian Holm, Colin Blakely, Jane Seymour and others.Churchill's legendary sense of humor is absent here but we do see him light up his famous cigar at the end though.

GusF Based on Winston Churchill's 1930 autobiography "My Early Life: A Roving Commission, this is an excellent and engrossing account of the early life of the future British Prime Minister. It has a very strong script by Carl Foreman, a previously blacklisted American screenwriter whose other works include "High Noon", "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "The Guns of Navarone", which hues closely to the historical facts. I have seen several reviews criticising the film for being confusing for jumping around in time but I had no such problem. It begins with a depiction of Churchill's service as a cavalry officer in India in 1897 before dealing with his childhood. I have not read "My Early Life" but I have read other autobiographies and biographies which begin with an exciting moment from the subject's life before dealing with his/her life in a more linear fashion so I don't see what the problem is, frankly. The film is very well directed by Richard Attenborough, my favourite director of all time. It makes great use of the locations from Churchill's birthplace Blenheim Palace (which I have visited) to Morocco and the action scenes, particularly the armoured train escape, are very exciting.In his first leading role and his biggest film role overall, Simon Ward gives a fantastic performance as the title character. He is exactly as you would expect Churchill to be and, in fact, was at that age: enthusiastic, extroverted, determined, arrogant and full of vaulting ambition. The film portrays Churchill as a good and decent young man but he is far from perfect as he occasionally gets in over his head and make impulsive decisions, a trait that he inherited from his father. The older Churchill, voiced by Ward in a very good impersonation, serves as the narrator and openly says at one point that his military service and work as a war correspondent were designed to increase his profile so that he would ever a better chance of being elected to Parliament. I don't know if this is a direct quote but, in any event, it is a refreshingly honest tact for the film to take. During two speeches, one to a reporter and one in Parliament, Ward perfectly captures Churchill's inflections and the theatrical manner in which he often spoke in public.Robert Shaw is excellent as his father Lord Randolph Churchill (a role originally offered to Attenborough himself), who is depicted as an emotionally distant father who spends little time with Winston. The older Churchill says that they only had three or four in-depth conversations in their lives and I have no trouble believing that. While Randolph would be considered neglectful in an emotional sense these days, this was a pretty common state of affairs among the British upper class in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. At the beginning of the film, Randolph is a young and strong man who has a bright future ahead of him and speaks very well in the House of Commons. However, after he is diagnosed with syphilis, he goes into a steep mental and physical decline and his final speech in Parliament is very moving as he repeats himself and stumbles over his words constantly due to his condition. Anne Bancroft has the largest role of any woman in the film as Churchill's mother Lady Randolph and is likewise extremely strong. Lady Randolph is depicted as a supportive mother but the older Churchill says that he loved her from a distance like the sun. She does her best to keep him on the straight and narrow when he spends more money than he has and tries to stop him from throwing his career away as his father did.As is typical of Attenborough's films, the film has a very strong supporting cast such as Pat Heywood as Churchill's devoted nanny Mrs. Everest (who was more of a mother to him than Lady Randolph), John Mills as Lord Kitchener (as in Attenborough's first film "Oh! What a Lovely War", Mills is cast against type as the closest thing that the film has to an individual antagonist), Ian Holm as "The Times" editor George E. Buckle, Anthony Hopkins as Lloyd George, Edward Woodward as Captain Aylmer Haldane, Patrick Magee as General Bindon Blood and Laurence Naismith as Lord Salisbury. It also features many great actors in smaller roles such as Peter Cellier, John Woodvine, Basil Dignam, John Stuart, Attenborough's brother-in-law Gerald Sim, Colin Blakely, Julian Holloway, Thorley Walters, Norman Rossington and Robert Flemyng. The director's then daughter-in-law Jane Seymour has a very early role as Churchill's love interest Pamela Plowden while the film features one of the final roles of Jack Hawkins, who died the next year. As was often the case in his later years, he was cast in a role that did not require him to speak as he had unfortunately lost his voice due to throat cancer and the removal of his larynx.Overall, this is an excellent film which does a great job of exploring the early life of the one of the most important politicians of the 20th Century.

thinker1691 From the autobiographical works of the Prime Minister of England comes this remarkable chronology of his life. The Film is called " Young Winston " and was directed by equally famous, Sir Richard Attenborough. The film encapsulates Churchill's early life (Russell Lewis) during his formative school years of which he later recalls both the loving affection given by his nanny (Pat Haywood), a woman he fondly remembers in his memoirs and the brutal education system he was subjected to. It is to his credit he relates his Father's (Robert Shaw) struggle to maintain his conservative political status as well as his parental obligations. All the while, Winston tries to earn approval and become a success. His mother, Lady Jennie Churchhill (Anne Bancroft) is seen as both a proper wife and mother as well as a spirited Representative of her family's social affairs. The audience is also privy to the courageous undertakings of the ambitious Churchill (Simon Ward) as he experiences both the hazards of war and the warnings of the political arena. In this he is scrutinized carefully by both friend (Anthony Hopkins) and adversaries like Lord Salisbury (Laurence Naismith) alike. The movie, like his biography, is creatively smooth and contains both the hurtles and inner doubts. As a result, it becomes an exceptional narrative studded with noted movie icons like Jack Hawkins, Patrick Magee, Edward Woodward and John Mills. In addition the colorful costumes, panoramic scenes and exciting action make for an interesting historical film of one of the world's most respected leaders. Superb Movie and definitely a Classic. ****

Niv-1 Young Winston directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Anne Bancroft, Robert Shaw and Simon Ward as Winston Churchill is a good movie. Anne Bancroft gave an excellent performance. For a movie that got Oscar nominations she should have been a supporting actress nominee. The device of having an off camera reporter interview the three main characters was best for her interview. Shaw was excellent when his mind goes during a parliament speech.A lot of time is spend in Africa where there are big action scenes. If it was all in Africa it could have been titled Winston of Africa because there the movie strives to be something like Lawrence of Arabia.Ward was kind of a blank but did narrated well as Old Churchill.