Countdown to War

This British ITV production was timed for the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War and is both intelligently scripted and engrossing.

The fine cast of actors is dominated by Ian McKellen's mesmerising Hitler. Many actors have attempted to inhabit the skin of the German dictator but to my mind McKellen's performance is one of the best ever committed to film (or in this case, videotape). It is completely convincing and never lapses into caricature. McKellen possesses the same piercing blue eyes as the Fuhrer which adds to the verisimilitude of his performance.

Does anyone else but me find it peculiar that the Nazis are speaking in an English accent? At least they could have had the Nazis speaking English in a German accent!

I remember when this was first shown over 20 years ago and l'm as impressed now as l was at the time. How anybody can rate this production or, in fact, any production as 1 or 2 is beyond me - if the film is that bad then anyone of any sense would stop watching after a few minutes, in which case how can the review be a fair one? I notice that the poorest review was by an outright Nazi sympathiser who blames Jews for bringing Germany to such a pass that it forced the country to invade its neighbours and it must be convenient to have a world view that dismisses some of the complexities that are brought out in this TV play.

As someone who is a keen historian with a particular interest in the Second World War, I was very eager to watch a film all about the actions which precipitated the most terrible conflict in history. I was also excited about watching this film because it seemed to have an excellent cast, full of actors I admire and respect: Sir Ian McKellen, Michael Culver, Michael Aldridge, Alan Bates, John Woodvine et al. But oh, it was so disappointing. Having seen Ian McKellen's stunning performance as Richard III, I was expecting something similar as Hitler. Oh dear lord, how wrong I was. It was as if all the actors had been instructed to act badly. The pacing was leaden, the script was cringe-making and the direction was atrocious.

The upside of this - and it is considerable - is that it was hilarious. I'm not joking: I watched this with my family, and we roared with laughter almost all the way through. Several times we had to pause the DVD to wipe tears of mirth from our eyes. Some particular gems are Stalin's "roving" accent; the portrayal of Mussolini as an embarrassingly stupid imbecile; Peter Vaughan playing Goering like the Penguin from Batman; the scene in which Ciano and Ribbentrop are discussing Italy's readiness for war. Ciano asks, "Does the Fuhrer have a date in mind?", and then Hitler - Hitler! - who had been facing the window, spins around with a mischievous grin on his face, revealing to the audience that he has been standing there all along. All the characters are played like caricatures.

I don't know what went wrong, I really don't. On paper, it's perfect. Good subject matter, good cast, where's the fault? I can only blame the director, but that seems unfair, as I have seen some other things he's directed, and they were OK. But anyway, its accidental humour has to be seen to be believed. For that alone, everyone should watch this film; it's spectacular.

(The review would have been two stars if it hadn't been so unintentionally hilarious).

Every nations characters have formal English accents. The uniforms the characters wear are not accurate and unidentifiable at times. The characters are not introduced or named. The scenes jump for location to location and nothing is displayed on screen or mentioned in conversation therefore locations are not identified. The only way to follow the movie is to have a baseline understanding of the events. And the only way to know what nation you're in or listening to is to closely listen to the conversations, which ever country they aren't talking about is that nations representative that's talking. I only gave it 5 stars because it's one of few movies that leads up to the beginning of WWII.