Film Review: "Munich: The Edge of War" (2021).

"Secrets. Betrayal. Treason." This is Munich: The Edge of War. This German/British war drama film directed by Christian Schwochow, adapted by Ben Power, and based upon the 2017 novel Munich by Robert Harris. It is Autumn 1938 and Europe stands on the brink of war. Adolf Hitler is preparing to invade Czechoslovakia and Neville Chamberlain's government desperately seeks a peaceful solution. With the pressure building, Hugh Legat, British civil servant, and Paul von Hartmann, German diplomat, travel to Munich for the emergency Conference. As negotiations begin, the two old friends find themselves at the center of a web of political subterfuge and very real danger.

By October 2020, it was announced that Jeremy Irons, Alex Jennings, George MacKay, Jannis Niewöhner, Sandra Hüller, Liv Lisa Fries, August Diehl, Jessica Brown Findlay, Anjli Mohindra, Ulrich Matthes and Mark Lewis Jones were cast in a film adaptation of Harris 2017 historical novel with Schwochow hired to direct, Power to pen the adaptation and Netflix set to distribute. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in December. Filming took place in Berlin, Potsdam and Munich, Germany and Liverpool, England and under the working title Munich 38.

The film stars Irons, Jennings, MacKay, Niewöhner, Hüller, Fries, Diehl, Findlay, Mohindra, Matthes and Jones. The cast brings a gung-ho excitement and energy that's generally missing from war movies today (they're more concerned with being stern and glum and anti-war).

As both a World War II film and an Espionage story, the film largely succeeds. No one part may stand above its fellows (not to mention other films) but what it adds up to is more than worthwhile and you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. Maintaining tension in the face of a foregone conclusion is no mean trick, but Mr. Schwochow and company do as well as anyone could hope. The film proceeds to show how everything, little by little, falls out of place -- not the most thrilling of events to cover, but interesting all the same. A thrilling political war movie that sees a stellar cast of high-ranking Brits and Germans who plot to stop Hitler before both England and Germany go to war. The film may not be awards bait but it is a solid, at times gripping, thriller that wrings every ounce of drama out of what is, at heart, a pulsating tale of the courage and idealism of some undone by the cowardice and politics of others. The film is no action extravaganza. Yet despite having a rich seam of moral ambiguity to mine, the characterisation is no deeper than in Schwochow's Je suis Karl. The film is a good one with more than enough there to keep your attention and for you to have come away feeling satisfied and informed. Schwochow marshals his camera and soundtrack well as his tense, behind-the-scenes chess game plays out. Everyone does a jolly good job, including Schwochow, as the Espionage plot offers adequate tension and bores sturdily onwards.

 

Simon says Munich: The Edge of War receives:

Also, see my review for Je Suis Karl.