Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan is highly regarded for its moving story, accurate depiction of battlefield violence, and excellent cinematography. It also has one of the best casts of any war movie, with Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Vin Diesel, Bryan Cranston, and Paul Giamatti all doing excellent work. However, a lesser-known WWII movie, The Gathering Storm, is executive produced by Ridley Scott and has even better actors.
Coproduced by the BBC and HBO, The Gathering Storm is a biographical movie about the life of legendary British politician Winston Churchill in the years leading to World War II. The title of the movie is drawn from the first volume of Churchill’s largely autobiographical six-volume history of the war, which documents events from 1919 to Sep. 3, 1939, the day Britain officially declared war on Nazi Germany. It’s a compelling watch, especially for those who appreciate standout performances in their war dramas.
‘The Gathering Storm’s Cast Elevates the Movie’s Drama and Action
The Gathering Storm seems like a lesser movie than Saving Private Ryan on paper, but it easily surpasses Steven Spielberg’s war movie in pure cast caliber. That’s because it relies on a denser concentration of elite classical British performers. Its stars deliver nuanced, dialogue-driven performances, instead of going for showboating and naturalistic ensemble work.
Saving Private Ryan stars Tom Hanks, who was already a two-time Academy Award winner for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump at the time he made the WWII movie. He is supported by Matt Damon, who also won an Oscar for co-writing Good Will Hunting. However, prestige was only concentrated at the top.
Most members of the movie’s supporting cast were still on the rise or relative unknowns at the time. Edward Burns, Bryan Cranston, Adam Goldberg, Paul Giamatti, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, and Giovanni Ribisi all built bigger careers afterward.
By contrast, The Gathering Storm has a deeper bench of classically trained and accomplished actors. Albert Finney is a five-time Oscar nominee. He never won an Oscar but collected a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Emmy for his work. Then there is Vanessa Redgrave, who won an Oscar for Julia and is one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting (Oscar, Emmy, Tony).
The supporting cast is equally strong, extending beyond current recognizable talent such as Tom Hiddleston. Jim Broadbent had just won the Oscar for Iris (and a BAFTA for Moulin Rouge!). Sir Derek Jacobi, knighted for services to theater, won a Tony, multiple BAFTAs (including for I, Claudius), and is a peerless stage actor. Tom Wilkinson, too, was nominated for an Oscar for In the Bedroom, as well as a BAFTA and an Emmy.
In short, the underrated WWII movie is a showcase for virtuoso thespian work in a tightly written historical drama. Saving Private Ryan is a masterpiece of immersive filmmaking whose cast serves the larger vision rather than defining it. Because of the sheer density of elite, classically trained actors delivering precise, layered performances, The Gathering Storm is arguably superior.
‘The Gathering Storm’ Excels by Showcasing the Journey to War Rather than War Itself
Director Richard Loncraine does a thorough job in The Gathering Storm. He didn’t only work with Ridley Scott, either. He worked with Spielberg at around the same time. In 2002, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special for the acclaimed miniseries Band of Brothers with other series directors.
The Gathering Storm glows by prioritizing something many battle epics forget: the decisive fighting often happens in the quiet rooms and half-empty chambers before the storm. The tension comes from watching a man who can already see the tanks and the camps try to make others see them too.
Such is the war in The Gathering Storm. The fun lies in the long, grinding campaign against comfortable denial. The plot isn’t presented as a confrontation between two nations but as the exhausted logic of a country still bleeding from the last war and afraid of the next one. When Churchill finally gets the secret papers from Ralph Wigram (Linus Roache) and begins to prove why Britain could be in danger, we feel the small, crucial victory of evidence over wishful thinking.
Vanessa Redgrave’s Clemmie makes the stakes personal and helps elevate The Gathering Storm to a contender for one of the best romance movies. Her marriage to Churchill is not just a supporting romance arc. It is the home front of Churchill’s private war against despair and financial troubles. Redgrave plays her with a weary, intelligent love that refuses to be merely decorative. The domestic arguments about money and the future carry the same weight as the parliamentary ones about Germany.
In both arenas, Churchill is fighting to remain useful before history needs him. The Gathering Storm thus ends, appropriately, not with a speech of triumph but with Churchill’s return to the Admiralty as the first bombs fall. We already know what comes next; the movie’s achievement is to make us understand whether Britain was prepared or not.
- Release Date
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April 22, 2002
- Runtime
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94 minutes
- Director
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Richard Loncraine
- Writers
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Hugh Whitemore, Larry Ramin
- Producers
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David M. Thompson, Frank Doelger, Lisa Ellzey, Nick Gillott, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Tracey Scoffield, Julie Payne
