THE GATHERING STORM (HBO 2002) HBO Home Video

The difficulty in bringing truly famous historical figures to life on the big screen is that the actor in charge of the performance is usually twice removed from the subject they are portraying: once by a span of years (most biopics are made long after the actual subject is dead), and next, by the daunting amount of recorded popular literature (newspapers, autobiographies, unauthorized biographies) and newsreel footage made available to the actor that transforms a seemingly ordinary individual into a rarified icon. As such, the actor approaches the role as though he/she were impersonating a monument with the performance often translating into camp mimicry.

All evidence to the contrary in director Richard Loncraine’s The Gathering Storm (2002), a film that provides actor Albert Finney with the daunting assignment of resurrecting the gutsy, proud and utterly defiant morale of Sir Winston Churchill; a task Finney is more than up to the challenge of tackling.

To discover Finney in rare form on this outing is perhaps not surprising. He is one of the last few truly gifted thespians of his own generation or any other for that matter. What is quite remarkable, apart from Finney’s uncanny physical assimilation into the role, is his ability to so completely absorb the essence of Churchill – both his public and private self – that, as a result, we quite forget that Albert Finney is not Winston Churchill almost from the moment he first appears on the screen.

The story opens with Churchill’s political career in utter disarray. Not only has he fallen to the backbenches of a near empty parliament, but the powerful message in his political convictions seems to be waning. In an England that is weary of another world war, Churchill is surrounded naysayer pundits. Even Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin (Derek Jacobi) is embarrassed by what he believes is Churchill’s futile attempt to stir political animosity and public dissention against a free Germany.

At home, Winston’s ambitions are equally unfulfilled. Although he has been working on a book for some time, Churchill’s attentions and shortness of patience are often cast elsewhere; annoyed by his daughter, Sarah’s (Dolly Wells) desire to become an actress, concerned over son, Randolph’s (Tom Hiddleston) late night boozing, and, with the very real specter of personal bankruptcy looming over his head. Flying in the face of this ‘gathering storm’ on the home front is Winston’s greatest comfort; his wife, Clemmie (Vanessa Redgrave). Always a stabilizing force, she brings order and calm to the daily fray.

Battling personal demons, Churchill also entrusts his closest concerns to longtime family friend – and British spy – Desmond Morton (Jim Broadbent). It is Morton who first introduces Winston to Ralph Wigram (Linus Roache); a foreign secretary with access to secret government files that can help Churchill in his uphill battle to convince parliament of the very real danger in Adolph Hitler’s Germany.

At a scant 96 minutes, the teleplay by Hugh Whitemore brilliantly condenses a lifetime of world events and private history, from Churchill’s relative political obscurity in the mid-1930s to his appointment as Chancellor of the British Navy; never losing sight of the fact that the film is more an intimate and finely textured portrait than a grand canvas of the man who became a legend in his own time.

As Churchill, Finney is the embodiment of stoic substance, miraculously reducing the great sweep of this larger than life political figure back into just an ordinary man with extraordinary ideals and the conviction of his principles to see them through. Vanessa Redgrave delivers a sustained and subtly nuanced performance as the woman behind the power – content to embrace her ever-love with the passage of years.

The remaining cast also seems moved to greatness. There is great heart to the piece as a whole. Peter Hannan’s evocative cinematography captures the very essence of an England teetering on the verge of either total destruction or absolute distinction, while Howard Goodall’s sublime score heightens the fragile nature of this celebrated man. The Gathering Storm is therefore one of the finest melodramas in quite some time. ‘Superb’ is somehow inadequate to describe it.

WHY ISN'T THIS ON BLU-RAY YET?

HBO Home Video’s anamorphic DVD delivers a rather impressive image; smoothly rendered. For the most part, colors are warm, rich and bold. Flesh tones are accurately represented. Occasionally, there is an awkward softness to the faces with an absence of fine detail – particularly in medium shot, though elsewhere fine details are evident for a thoroughly crisp visual presentation.

Owing to the fact that this is a made for television movie, the audio is presented in Dolby Stereo – quite adequate and occasionally showing promise in spatiality. Apart from a fascinating audio commentary by director Loncraine and his producers Frank Doelger, there are NO extras. Highly recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
5

VIDEO/AUDIO
4

EXTRAS
1