Which films make it to the cinemas, and which ones have to make do with a screening on streaming services like Prime Video and Netflix, is a bit of a mystery.
I assume it’s partly fashion, and partly belief that films aimed at an older audience are more likely to pick them up at home.
Case in point, an old-fashioned Second World War spy thriller showing on Netflix and based on a best-selling novel by Robert Harris called Munich The Edge of War.
Photo: Supplied
It’s an indication of how fertile the war years are for movie plots that I don’t think I’ve ever seen one about the events surrounding Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s futile attempts to stop Adolf Hitler with diplomacy.
Munich is the story of two estranged former friends – Englishman Hugh Legat, German Paul von Hartmann. They fell out over Hitler - Paul was convinced the Fuhrer wasn’t as dangerous as he was painted by his enemies.
Five years later he’s drastically changed his mind as Hitler prepares to invade Czechoslovakia. Prime Minister Chamberlain – the best I’ve seen Jeremy Irons for ages – is adamant that peace must prevail.
In fact, Chamberlain is taking a delegation to Munich to persuade Hitler not to start another war in Europe.
What he doesn’t know is the existence of a document containing Hitler’s real plans. One that Paul has secretly got hold of and will only pass on to his old mate Hugh.
It’s the sort of film that – generally – they don’t make any more, or at least not for cinemas.
But on Netflix it benefits from a solid story from Harris, a decent script from the National Theatre’s Ben Power and good, bilingual direction from the German Christian Schwochow, who cut his English language teeth on several episodes of The Crown.
The cast is pretty good too. As well as Irons, it features 1917’s George MacKay as Hugh and a trio of terrific young German actors – Jannis Niewöhner as Paul, a touching bit from Berlin Babylon star, Liv Liese Fries, and Sandra Hüller – so good in Anatomy of a Fall
The story follows Paul getting the document to Hugh under the nose of the Gestapo, and then Hugh attempting to get it to Chamberlain.
Though getting the willfully obtuse Prime Minister to read it is another matter.
Of course, with the benefit of all these years of hindsight, we’ve become used to the idea that Chamberlain was one of history’s great dupes.
The hat, the umbrella, the deluded cry of “peace in our time!” as he waves Hitler’s worthless affidavit…. It’s hard to imagine anyone believing a word of it.
But at the time, Chamberlain’s mission to Munich was seen as a diplomatic triumph, such was the dread of a repeat of the recent Great War.
And it’s to the credit of this Anglo-German production that it manages to capture that era so effectively.
One of the great things a halfway-decent historical drama can do is put us in the shoes of people who didn’t know what was coming.
The performance of Ullrich Mattes as Hitler is rather more psychotic than usual – Mattes was a better fit playing Goebbels opposite Bruno Ganz’s Hitler in Downfall – but his scenes opposite Irons are still chilling.
Left-wing critics of Munich The Edge of War have complained that the slightly self-conscious inclusion of a few non-white characters in Whitehall rather flattered the British establishment of the time. The fact that it wasn’t as bad as Nazi Germany is hardly saying much.
But it’s a better film than ‘straight to Netflix’ might suggest. It’s also faintly reassuring, in an era of mindless monster movies, that a film that tries to include the truth somewhere in its mission statement can still get made now and again.
Though we may have to wait until the actors and writers strike gets settled, hopefully sooner rather than later.
