Munich: The Edge of War (2021)
(George MacKay as Hugh Legat and Jannis Niewöhner as Paul von Hartman in “Munich: The Edge of War”)
Munich: The Edge of War (2022)
Now streaming on Netflix
We’ve all been taught that World War II had multiple causes, the first arising from concessions wrung from a defeated Germany at the post-World War I 1919 Versailles Peace Conference. We’ve also come to believe that the proximate cause of WWII – the fateful trigger, as it were – came in Munich in September 1938, when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain foolishly signed a “peace” agreement with Hitler.
With his signature, the Fuehrer promised that Germany’s territorial ambitions would cease if he were granted dominion over the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia with a large German population. Of course, Hitler spectacularly welched on this bargain, and his march toward what he hoped would be world domination was launched, not prevented, by Chamberlain’s naivete.
But could matters have gone differently? The new historical spy thriller Munich: The Edge of War teases out that what if? with skill and wit. We know that Hitler wasn’t stopped, so there’s no doubt about the outcome. Still, the movie, adapted from Robert Harris’ 2017 novel Munich, poses a provocative question: Could the course of history have been turned if two young low-level diplomats, one British, the other German, had joined forces to pull Chamberlain back from the brink?
Neither of these young upstarts is a historical figure. They’re fictional. Harris’ novel uses them to set up a sort of alternate history, and the movie takes both bold characters and runs with them.
Let’s imagine along with Harris and the movie’s screenwriter, Ben Power. We begin in 1932 at Oxford University, when the British Hugh Legat (George MacKay) and the German Paul von Hartman (Jannis Niewöhner), along with Paul’s German girlfriend, Lenya (Liv Lisa Fries), are celebrating their graduation. Paul is a fervid German nationalist who sees Hitler as a savior, while Lenya, who’s Jewish, angrily upbraids him for misguidedly idolizing Nazi “bullies and racists”.
By 1938 Hugh has become a private secretary to Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons), and Paul, back home in Germany, is a diplomat who’s soured on the Nazi Party and is secretly looking for ways to bring Hitler down. Paul’s married lover, Helen Winter (Sandra Hüller), hands over to him a document outlining Hitler’s true plans for the conquest of Europe. With the Munich Conference rapidly approaching, can Paul get the document into the hands of his old friend Hugh to pass it on to the Prime Minister? Paul is convinced that if Chamberlain learns of Hitler’s true designs, he'll refuse to sign any agreement.
(George MacKay as Hugh Legat and Jeremy Irons as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in “Munich: The Edge of War”)
These attempts to change Chamberlain’s mind form the core of Power’s script, and he effectively keeps us on edge though we know the young men’s scheme won’t succeed. Paul is even prepared to assassinate Hitler, concealing a gun in his briefcase. If Chamberlain won’t stop Hitler's scheme, Paul is ready to take down the evil aggressor by himself.
But he can avoid that by reviving his old friendship with Hugh in order to get the revelatory document in Chamberlain’s hands. The two friends, who’d grown apart while Paul’s nationalist zeal burned hot, are now reconciled in a vital cause. Paul sees Nazi evil for what it is, and with Hugh as part of the British delegation in Munich, they join forces working undercover to hand the document to Chamberlain. But even if they succeed, will the Prime Minister, who deeply regrets not having served in WWI and longs to secure peace, be convinced that his dream of preventing war stands no chance?
Both young men are playing with fire. Paul could be hanged as a traitor. And even if Hugh manages to get the document to Chamberlain, how will the PM react to such high-level maneuvering behind his back by a junior – trusted – diplomat?
Between Chamberlain’s idealism and Hitler’s ruthlessness, tensions escalate. The three lead actors keep the high stakes written across their faces, and their scrupulous attention to detail makes the plot excitingly plausible. Propelled by director Christian Schochow’s trim camera moves and quick-witted editing, the action crackles.
MacKay, after his spectacular, largely silent performance as a soldier alone in enemy territory in 1917 (2019), here suavely adopts a diplomat’s bespoke charcoal suits and precise, tactful diction. Hugh studied German at Oxford, so he’s fluent in two languages; the same is true of Paul, who’s fully conversant in English. All the movie’s German dialogue is subtitled, so the heat and menace in the two-culture exchanges feels charged. It also helps that the swirling scenes of the Munich Conference are shot in the actual building where the talks took place.
Niewöhner as Paul is tightly wound as the driven “traitor” willing to risk his life; yet his delivery of Paul’s impassioned assertions is, except when he’s alone with Hugh, swift, silken, and calmly assured. He’s the definition of poise. When he’s confronted by a menacing Hitler (Ulrich Matthes), he stays composed staring into the Fuehrer’s still, reptilian eyes. When he clandestinely caresses the automatic pistol he could use to end Hitler’s life on the spot, his steadiness tells us the moment isn’t quite right. It’s a vivid portrayal of a man whose hatred of a monster could, but fortunately doesn’t, turn him cold-blooded, too.
I can’t recall seeing Irons this physically and vocally sleek since his mesmerizing, Oscar-winning turn as Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune (1990). We know that von Bulow was all calculation, whereas Chamberlain seems naively hopeful, tactically nimble when that’s required, but settling for a short-term gain without recognizing that the long-term odds are dire. Irons plays the ill-fated PM as a dedicated but less than fully imaginative leader. His certainty about holding Hitler at bay is founded on sand, but he has to make it seem to the British public that he himself is a rock. We know how sadly wrong he was, but Irons wisely never plays the role for pathos. His stiff upper lip is all the more powerful for never dropping.
Undeniably, the movie gets a lift, and its brisk pace actually feels urgent, because right now we have only to go online or turn on our TVs to see a small country in Eastern Europe menaced by a much greater military power, with the rest of Europe anxiously watching, and the U.S. carefully considering how much and how soon it should weigh in. This movie may be nothing more than lively speculation. And given the “scale and scope”, as the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs describe them, of Russian deployments around Ukraine today, it’s most unlikely in this moment that two young low-level diplomats could lower international stress levels. But perhaps one might be allowed to hope. Maybe this movie could kindle our own . . . what if?