MUNICH: THE EDGE OF NONSENSE. Andrew Roberts, the author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny, reviews Netflix’s new film, Munich—The Edge of War, starring Jeremy Irons as Neville Chamberlain — strategic genius(!):

This movie which attempts to rehabilitate Chamberlain is historically illiterate, a farrago of nonsense. Yet in a sense, it performs a useful task because if—even with the bending of the facts and putting the best possible gloss on him—Chamberlain still emerges as a fool and a failure, which he does, it shows that the generally held view of him is the correct one. Although Chamberlain states in the movie, “If I’m to be made to look a fool, that’s the price I must pay,” he never said anything of the kind at the time, as he believed himself to be the greatest peacemaker since Disraeli.

Neville Chamberlain was such a poor wordsmith that this movie is reduced to quoting (without attribution) the words of Winston Churchill about people “falling below the level of events,” a phenomenon of which Chamberlain was the primary exemplar. Churchill is not even mentioned in this movie despite its several scenes of the House of Commons, which was where he made the greatest critique of the Munich Agreement.

“Do not suppose that this is the end,” Churchill prophetically said of Chamberlain’s sacrifice of Czechoslovakia. “This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.” Churchill was proved totally right within a matter of months, whereas for all this movie’s attempted advocacy, Chamberlain is still wrong eighty-four years later.

And speaking of Churchill, if you’re looking for an alternative, or if you suffered through Munich—The Edge of War as I did last week, Netflix also currently has a much more enjoyable alternative: Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman and his incredible — and deservedly Oscar-winning — makeup as Winston Churchill. As Victor Davis Hanson wrote when it played theaters (remember those?) in 2017: “Churchill assumed that if Britain and its overseas Empire could hold out, then a frustrated Hitler might turn elsewhere — and thereby gain new enemies (and new British allies). That is exactly what happened in 1941. A blundering and frustrated Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Later, he would declare war on the United States. By December 1941, Germany was at war against the world’s largest economy (American), largest navy (British), and largest army (Soviet) all at once. Germany and its allies could never win such a global war. Darkest Hour takes place almost exclusively indoors during Parliament sessions, private meetings, and scenes between Churchill and his equally brilliant wife, Clementine. But the dialogue is riveting, the acting superb.”