Review of Young Winston (1972) by Stuart K — 23 Apr 2012

After making his directorial debut with Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Richard Attenborough followed it up with this epic adventure about England's most famous Prime Minister in his early years, from his 1930 autobiography My Early Life: A Roving Commission.

It makes for a good film, mixing British aristocracy, heroics in the battlefield and entry into politics. It has an all star cast mixing drama with a little dry wit too. This tells the story of Winston Churchill (Simon Ward), or rather his early life and his rise to school, which was tough, especially under his strict headmaster (Robert Hardy), and how the death of his father Lord Randolph Churchill (Robert Shaw) affected him deeply.

But, he remained close to his Anglo-American mother Jeanette Jerome (Anne Bancroft), and Churchill ended up as a cavalry officer in India and the Sudan, where he ends up serving under Lord Kitchener (John Mills), and then his travels to South Africa to fight in the Second Boer War, and Churchill's subsequent capture and escape to Portuguese East Africa, and then his entry into politics at the age of 25.

You couldn't tell Churchill's life in one film, but his early years make for an entertaining watch, with Attenborough getting the best from his cast, and even Ward manages to do the great man justice, and has a bit of fun along the way.

But, the appearances from greats like Anthony Hopkins, Ian Holm, Edward Woodward, Patrick Magee, John Woodvine, Norman Rossington and Jane Seymour compliment the film.