Munich: The Edge of War

A tricky aspect of films based on real-life his­tor­i­cal events with glob­al­ly-impact­ful con­se­quences is main­tain­ing any ten­sion when the view­er already knows the out­come. In some cas­es, the pro­tag­o­nists we’re fol­low­ing are those thwart­ed, such as in Valkyrie, a drama­ti­sa­tion of the failed 20 July 1944 plot to assas­si­nate Adolf Hitler.

Adapt­ed by play­wright Ben Pow­er from a Robert Har­ris nov­el, Munich: The Edge of War faces a sim­i­lar chal­lenge with ten­sion. Sim­i­lar­ly to Valkyrie, it depicts an attempt­ed ter­mi­na­tion of Hitler’s pow­er, though here before World War Two start­ed. In 1938, British PM Neville Cham­ber­lain (Jere­my Irons) is eager to find a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion to Hitler’s pro­posed inva­sion of Czechoslovakia.

Attend­ing an emer­gency con­fer­ence in Munich with Cham­ber­lain is nervy civ­il ser­vant Hugh Legat (George MacK­ay), assigned to the task after a Ger­man diplo­mat, Paul Hart­mann (Jan­nis Niewöh­n­er), makes con­tact with British Intel­li­gence – since estranged, Legat and Hart­mann were once dear friends at Oxford. Leaked doc­u­ments regard­ing the führer’s hor­rif­ic plans for geno­cide force Hart­mann and a net­work of Ger­man sabo­teurs to act to see Hitler deposed.

Although osten­si­bly an espi­onage sto­ry, the thriller stands out in focus­ing on low­er-lev­el diplo­mats, rather than spies and sol­diers, and thanks to its com­pelling refram­ing of Chamberlain’s appease­ment of Hitler (spoil­ers?) as an astute action to bet­ter pre­pare for con­flict down the line. Direc­tor Chris­t­ian Schwochow’s stag­ing is unos­ten­ta­tious to the point of com­ing across as pedes­tri­an, but the film is ulti­mate­ly engag­ing thanks to the dilem­mas wres­tled with by the script.