"Glorious 39" is a film which has mostly mediocre scores and reviews. I can understand why, as the story has an interesting and novel idea...but it also manages to bore many viewers because of its pacing and because you really have to know and understand this period of time well in order to get the most from the plot...otherwise it's just confusing.
The story is set in England during the summer of 1939. At first, things seems carefree for the rich swells in the story, but with a possible war looming with the Germans, the fun and games are apparently over. And, the story begins to focus on Anne, the oldest and adopted daughter of some rich jerks...though she doesn't know this yet that her family is so god-awful.
Here is the part of the story that the film COULD have done better. In 1939, many Brits were in favor of war with Germany, many more were in favor of avoiding war at all costs...and a tiny minority actually thought the Nazis were pretty cool and wanted to forge a CLOSER alliance with them or were willing to give the enemy ANYTHING to avoid war. The worst of these was King Edward VIII*...who was forced to abdicate not just because of the Wallace Simpson affair but because he was Adolf's BFF. And, one of the characters in this story, Anne, has slowly come to the realization that some of her upper class family might just be in the third group...and are willing to do almost anything to keep their pro-Nazi sympathies hidden now that public opinion is sliding towards war. And, I do mean ANYTHING!
Unfortunately, to get to this point...that the family is pro-Nazi, took forever and really did get there in a very slow and meandering manner. I also think it might have helped had the film made clearer about the divisions within Britain...something most people would like to forget. The same can be said of France and the United States...both of which had large homegrown Fascist movements.
By the way, one aspect of the film made very little sense. Having Anne being adopted as a baby was fine...but later you find she was biologically a Romani (Romani and Roma are the more PC and acceptable ways of referring to Gypsies these days). But if the family WAS pro-Nazi, this makes little sense as they would have been infected with the same 'master race' ideology...and the Romani were considered among the lowest and during the war and thousands were executed by the Germans. Additionally, the family was upper class...and I cannot imagine the class-conscious Brits like this in 1939 ever adopting a Romani child...whatever their political bent.
I recommend this film only for folks was adore history and understand the forces at work in 1939. Otherwise, it's just a confusing mess. As for me, I taught world history and am very familiar with the time period, so I really appreciated it...even with some mistakes.
*Traditionally, the story of Edward's abdication was told in a very romantic way...as if he quit being king solely because he fell for an American divorcee and refused to dump her. In recent years, a few well documented documentaries have shown evidence about Eddie's treasonous love of the Nazis. It even made it to the Netflix series, "The Crown"...as more and more are accepting this new interpretation of the king's removal (or abdication) from office.
The story is set in England during the summer of 1939. At first, things seems carefree for the rich swells in the story, but with a possible war looming with the Germans, the fun and games are apparently over. And, the story begins to focus on Anne, the oldest and adopted daughter of some rich jerks...though she doesn't know this yet that her family is so god-awful.
Here is the part of the story that the film COULD have done better. In 1939, many Brits were in favor of war with Germany, many more were in favor of avoiding war at all costs...and a tiny minority actually thought the Nazis were pretty cool and wanted to forge a CLOSER alliance with them or were willing to give the enemy ANYTHING to avoid war. The worst of these was King Edward VIII*...who was forced to abdicate not just because of the Wallace Simpson affair but because he was Adolf's BFF. And, one of the characters in this story, Anne, has slowly come to the realization that some of her upper class family might just be in the third group...and are willing to do almost anything to keep their pro-Nazi sympathies hidden now that public opinion is sliding towards war. And, I do mean ANYTHING!
Unfortunately, to get to this point...that the family is pro-Nazi, took forever and really did get there in a very slow and meandering manner. I also think it might have helped had the film made clearer about the divisions within Britain...something most people would like to forget. The same can be said of France and the United States...both of which had large homegrown Fascist movements.
By the way, one aspect of the film made very little sense. Having Anne being adopted as a baby was fine...but later you find she was biologically a Romani (Romani and Roma are the more PC and acceptable ways of referring to Gypsies these days). But if the family WAS pro-Nazi, this makes little sense as they would have been infected with the same 'master race' ideology...and the Romani were considered among the lowest and during the war and thousands were executed by the Germans. Additionally, the family was upper class...and I cannot imagine the class-conscious Brits like this in 1939 ever adopting a Romani child...whatever their political bent.
I recommend this film only for folks was adore history and understand the forces at work in 1939. Otherwise, it's just a confusing mess. As for me, I taught world history and am very familiar with the time period, so I really appreciated it...even with some mistakes.
*Traditionally, the story of Edward's abdication was told in a very romantic way...as if he quit being king solely because he fell for an American divorcee and refused to dump her. In recent years, a few well documented documentaries have shown evidence about Eddie's treasonous love of the Nazis. It even made it to the Netflix series, "The Crown"...as more and more are accepting this new interpretation of the king's removal (or abdication) from office.