source: My Early Life

Young Winston

This is incredible.The Churchhills look just like the real people.The acting is brilliant and so is the music. I am very surprised that on the Rotten Tomatoes there were no comments for it at all. I recommend this film.

Young Winston definitely shows Attenborough on a large scale - one can see where some of the crowd scenes in Gandhi came from - and is a cracking film. Entertaining from start to finish with a riveting performance from Simon Ward, who never quite reached these heights again and went on to light adventure roles like the Duke of Buckingham in the Three Musketeers. All in all, this is history light, but it completely watchable. It cleverly mixes the battle scenes and the politics to produce a Boy's Own adventure with great costuming and nice attention to details. Helped along by an excellent all-star cast you can't really go wrong if you like adventure history films - the last half hour is superb, and a two hours long it doesn't waste time but never rushes. Great fun, and just serious enough to remind you why the Churchill myth, rightly or wrongly (and the film never touches the darker side of Churchill) meant that in 2003 he was voted the greatest Englishman of all time.

Solid biography of the early life of Winston Churchill. The casting is top notch, it's a pity we don't get to see more of Anthony Hopkins, but it was an early appearance for him. The boy that played kid Winston and the guy who played young man Winston have a extraordinary resemblance to the real Churchill, and they perform their parts very well too. The story is directed well enough to keep you entertained for 2,5 hours. The only hindrance is Churchill's annoying voice-over; although the manner of speaking may be historically correct, it distracts from the story with its quaint intonation. This may be a minor issue to some, but the distraction keeps coming back. All in all a well-directed biopic, which will also appeal to non-connoisseurs.

While Winston Churchill remains a perennial favourite character for filmmakers to explore - with the overrated DARKEST HOUR being the latest of many biopics to do the rounds - YOUNG WINSTON is something a bit different. It's an epic-feeling movie from 1972, directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Simon Ward in a definitive performance as the future prime minister. Much of what takes place here I had no idea about, so I found it very interesting indeed. The film is bolstered by strong production values, excellent photography and attention to period detail, and a fine supporting cast. Robert Shaw stands out with a moving portrayal of Randolph Churchill and the likes of John Mills and Edward Woodward are more than welcome. The running time is a bit long and the first half is noticeably slow, but things really pick up in the second half with a lavish trainbound set-piece and a thrilling climax.

Like most reviewers here - I saw the film originally on the big screen back in 1972. As an eager young historian then - I recall how much this film helped bring to life Winston Churchill and political and social life of Great Britain in the decades before the First World War. Simon Ward was brilliant as the young Winston but Robert Shaw's tortured performance as Lord Randolph Churchill stand out - especially the scene where he is addressing the House of Commons when clearly his mind was fast gowing. Anthony Hopkins does have a small - but crucial role in the film as Liberal M.P David Lloyd George. It was his friendship with Churchill and the then political issue of tariffs v Free trade that led to Churchill leaving the Conservatives and becoming a Liberal for the next 20 years. I do also recall the final 'ghost' scene - so i will be interested to see what the new DVD will do about that as a missing scene from the earlier video release.

This was an excellent and engaging film about the early years of Winston Churchill. The acting and writing were superb. The directing was generally good as was the writing, though there were a few moments when the movie was a bit slow or skipped over a little too much of his life--though certainly not in the last half of the movie when he is involved in the Boer War. About my only serious gripe about the movie was that once it was finished, I was left wanting to know more. This would have been a much better mini-series than a movie. That's because I think the movie attempted to do too much in too little time. However, what it did do, it did very well and the movie offers excellent insight into the man's formative years.