Original subtitles

(solemn music)

Downloaded from YTS.MX

- [Voiceover] Never had the city of London

been so cold or so silent

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

as on that Saturday in January 1965.

One man was dead, and a whole country was mourning him.

With over 60 years in politics,

he had certainly made some enemies.

But on that day both friends and enemies were all there

to honor the man who had given them the courage

to stand up to the barbarity of the Nazis.

Heads of state and prime ministers had come

from the four corners of the globe

to salute, one last time, the Old Lion.

They lay Winston Churchill to rest

with a pomp reserved for royalty.

The Old Bulldog was a legend in his own lifetime.

There was a lot more to his life, though,

than those five years when he led the western world

in the fight against Nazism.

He left an indelible mark on a whole century.

(canons fire in salute)

As the oak coffin moved along the Thames Embankment,

all the cranes of London dipped their heads

to salute the great man.

(jets roar past)

Churchill was always convinced that his destiny

was a great one.

Indeed, his life would, against all odds,

be one of history's grand epics.

But it wasn't all plain sailing for Winston.

In 1940, Adolf Hitler's troops were on the way

to conquering the whole of Europe.

The Wehrmacht invaded first Austria and Czechoslovakia,

then Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium,

and the Netherlands.

Now, they were marching on France.

Hitler seemed invincible.

Only Churchill dared confront him.

Only Churchill would stand up to him.

As the recently-appointed Prime Minister of Great Britain,

he had one plan:

war, and victory, at any price.

- [Voiceover] We shall defend our island

whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on the beaches,

we shall fight on the landing grounds.

We shall never surrender!

- [Voiceover] All through the long fight, he would wage war

from the frontline

and support his people with all his force.

His fierce resistance would change the course of history.

He was the last bastion.

(crowd cheers enthusiastically)

Throughout the war, he gathered allies to him

and led the battle.

(stirring, dramatic music)

But where did he get his formidable powers of persuasion?

His will to win at all costs?

"I felt as if all my past life had been but a preparation

"for this hour, and for this trial,"

he says in his memoirs.

Winston, indeed, seemed all his life to have been preparing

for that dreadful hour.

In 1940, he was 65 years old,

Prime Minster of Britain, and already the stuff of legends.

But behind the legend,

who was this great and complex man?

Everything thus far would indicate

that he was the one and only man capable

of saving the free world.

(majestic, cheerful music)

Winston Churchill was born into one of England's

most celebrated families.

It was his ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough,

who in 1704 defeated the troops of Louis XIV,

and was given Blenheim Palace as his reward.

It is in this 320-room palace worthy of Versailles

that Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill is born

in November 1874.

His father, Lord Randolph, is a brilliant and fiery

and unpredictable politician,

a member of the Conservative Party,

but who supports Liberal reforms.

His American mother, Jennie Jerome,

is a beautiful and flighty socialite,

whose many lovers, often titled men,

include the future King of England, Edward VII.

This future architect of the 20th century

is nicknamed the Little Bulldog.

At school he is wild and unruly.

His school reports speak for themselves.

Number of times late, 20.

Very disgraceful. Very bad.

General conduct, very bad.

Is a constant trouble to everybody,

and is always in some scrape or other.

He has no ambition.

He cannot be trusted to behave himself anywhere.

He has very good abilities.

One teacher will go further and say

she thought him the meanest child in the world.

Like all good sons of the British aristocracy,

the young Winston is sent off to boarding school.

(camera flash flares)

There, the young troublemaker and scrapper

has a hard time.

"My dear Mamma," he writes home,

"do attend to my letter, I am so wretched.

"Even now I weep.

"Please, my darling Mummy,

"be kind to your loving son.

"My dear mother, please don't be so unkind.

"Answer my letter. I'm so very unhappy.

"Please do do do do do come to see your loving son."

(melancholy music)

But the Churchills are too busy with socializing

and garden parties.

Winston receives no more than one visit per year.

Despite this lack of affection,

Winston at 12 years old greatly admires his father.

He learns all his speeches by heart,

and fills endless albums with articles

and cartoons about him.

But in December 1886, Lord Randolph,

recently promoted to Chancellor of the Exchequer,

takes a huge gamble.

He resigns over criticisms of his budget,

hoping to be supported by public opinion

and bring about the downfall of the government.

It is a dismal failure.

He is simply replaced, and completely sidelined.

Although he continues to sit in Parliament,

his political career is over.

This mistake does not improve relations

between father and son.

Lord Randolph never misses an opportunity

to belittle Winston.

He already considers him a failure.

Admittedly, the young dunce does behave stupidly.

At 18, he'd rather jump from a bridge

and try to grab at a nearby branch

than be captured by his pals.

The branch is out of reach, though,

and Winston narrowly escapes death.

(loud thudding)

He's in a coma for three days,

and takes several weeks to recover.

(shots ring out)

Convinced that Winston will never succeed in life,

Lord Randolph gets him off his hands

by guiding him towards a military career.

Yet by doing so, he unwittingly gives his son

the opportunity to show what he's really made of.

Action is what he's been needing.

A horseman, a marksman, and a swordsman,

Winston distinguishes himself in every field.

You see, I'm not a good-for-nothing,

he seems to be telling his father.

One day I'll be there with you on the benches in Parliament.

It's a wonderful dream.

But that one that will end when his father dies,

ravaged by syphilis, at the young age of 46,

having never truly loved or acknowledged his son.

From that day on, Winston is a man on a mission.

He's in a hurry. To do what, he's not yet sure.

But, surely, to accomplish something

before death takes him, perhaps too soon as well.

He may have been an unworthy son,

but now he'll strive to become an illustrious descendant

of those ancestors the Marlboroughs,

the saviors of England.

So, as his tears of grief dry,

Winston seeks his baptism of fire.

(ship horn blares)

He travels throughout the British Empire

seeking out wars and rebellions,

enlisting on all the fronts.

Cuba, India, the Sudan, where he takes part

in the last cavalry charge in British history.

He'd rather have a heroic death than be a nobody.

And if he survives, he'll make a name for himself

the equal of his father's, if not greater.

It is during these wars that Winston

really becomes Churchill.

He develops a lifelong taste for the four addictions

that will forever be a part of his character,

danger, alcohol, cigars, and writing.

On every battlefield, the soldier, now doubles up

as a war correspondent.

His dozens of articles from every front

will make his name and his reputation.

(dramatic martial music)

War is raging in South Africa.

So, he rushes off there.

With fearless heroism, he saves the crew

of an armored train.

He's taken prisoner, he escapes.

A price is put on his head, £25, dead or alive.

After three weeks of wandering,

he manages secretly to hop a freight train

and arrives back at base in triumph.

In 1900, the injured are all being evacuated to England.

Winston arrives home without a scratch.

(camera flash flares)

Five years of war, and three books telling of his campaigns

have made him a hero in the defense of the Empire.

This hard-won notoriety will allow him to realize his dream

of entering Parliament to sit beside

the ghost of his father.

At age 26, he is elected under

the Conservative Party banner.

The brave soldier hangs up his uniform

and wholeheartedly enters politics.

He confidently asserts, "We are all worms,

"but I do believe that I am a glowworm."

A journalist observes him at dinner one night.

"First impression, restless, almost intolerably.

"His pluck, courage, resourcefulness, and great tradition,

"may carry him far, unless he knocks himself to pieces,

"like his father."

Winton is egotistical and pretentious.

But he's also just as indefinable as his father was.

The views he expresses on the issues of the day

are his own, and often do not toe the party line.

During a visit to the city of York,

he discovers the misery of the common people.

This unknown world comes as a revelation to him,

and he hastens to proclaim

his indignation in Parliament, declaring,

"For my own part, I see little glory

"in an empire which can rule the waves,

"and is unable to flush its sewers."

Fiercely independent, he refuses to submit

to the rules of his party,

and carries off a considerable coup.

In 1904, he leaves the ruling Conservative Party

to join the ranks of the Liberal opposition.

For the Conservatives, this is treason.

The press picks up the story.

Mocked for jumping the Conservative ship,

he's nicknamed the Blenheim Rat,

in reference to his ancestral home.

(dramatic music)

His youthful ambition will seem quite astute, though,

when just 18 months after he jumps ship,

the Liberals gain power in a landslide.

Churchill is 32 years old.

He enters government as its youngest member

for half a century.

With all this political success,

Winston completely forgets his personal life.

His mother, though, won't let matters rest.

She introduces him to the American actress Ethel Barrymore.

Then the heiress Muriel Wilson.

But they both assume the young man has no future.

But it all ends happily when Winston

falls for Clementine Hozier,

a Scottish aristocrat 10 years his junior.

They become engaged.

("Land of Hope and Glory" by Edward Elgar)

Clementine is intelligent and tenacious,

and has fallen for the charm of this powerhouse of a man.

The wedding is held in Westminster.

It's the toast of London, with 1,500 guests.

Despite these matters of the heart,

Winston keeps his eye on the ball.

Even during his honeymoon, the young groom

keeps firing telegrams off to the government.

Summing up his life with the woman

who gave him five children,

Winston will one day write,

"I married, and lived happily ever afterwards."

(camera flash flares)

He's happy in his political life, too.

Ministerial positions follow one after another

until at just 36 years old,

he's appointed Home Secretary.

He's impossible to pin down,

a liberal among the Conservatives,

he's now a conservative among Liberals,

not hesitating to stare down strikers

or arrest Suffragettes.

But it's in 1911 that the English discover

just how determined and intransigent Winston truly is.

In London, three policemen have been killed in an ambush.

The killers, anarchists, are cornered in a building

in Sydney Street, where a crowd has begun to gather.

Until this moment, no Home Secretary

has ever gone into the field.

Winston, informed of the situation while in his bath,

rushes to the scene.

Danger, and the smell of gunsmoke,

hold a terrible fascination for him.

The news media of the day tell of the zeal

of the young minister

who heads straight for the frontline

at the risk of his own life.

(tense music)

After several hours of the siege,

keen to be done with the matter,

he orders the building to be burnt to the ground.

Churchill won't allow the Fire Brigade access,

so the insurgents die,

burned alive in the blaze,

in front of the crowd and the photographers' lenses.

Photos of the minister are on every front page.

His opponents seize the opportunity

to present him as an irresponsible adventurer.

Undaunted, Churchill argues that his order

was the only right decision.

"I thought it better to let the house burn down

"rather than spend good British lives."

To one of his colleagues who reproaches him

for going to the scene he replies,

"Don't be crass. It was such fun."

(horse hooves rumble)

Churchill may have gone into politics,

but at heart he's still a soldier,

and ever will remain so.

He gives his all to the creation

of the British Secret Service.

He regularly attends military maneuvers,

including those of the German army,

in the company of Kaiser Wilhelm II,

a leader whose expansionist ambitions

are becoming more obvious with each passing week.

(military drumming)

For Churchill, there's no doubt.

Germany is preparing for war.

His conviction leads the Prime Minister to appointing him

First Lord of the Admiralty.

For Winston, it is an immense achievement.

He says, "This is a very big thing.

"The greatest that ever happened to me so far,

"the chance that I would have chosen over anything.

"I am going to give everything I have in me."

And he does.

On board the Admiralty Yacht

that is now his floating office,

he throws himself heart and soul into his work.

(suspenseful, dramatic music)

He makes ready the fleet for a German attack,

modernizing it, and launching new warships.

He is constantly innovating.

Being First Lord of the Admiralty

does not curb his interest in aviation,

and he immediately sees its military potential.

His reforms will result in the creation of

the Royal Naval Air Force.

He even, to Clementine's horror,

learns to fly.

She sees him survive three plane crashes

that would have killed anybody else.

These innovations are all expensive,

but Churchill defends his spending so eloquently

that in March 1914, MPs vote him

the most significant Naval budget in British history.

But they won't regret it when,

three months later, shifting alliances in Europe

threaten to plunge the continent into war.

The English fleet is ready.

He writes to Clementine,

"My darling one and beautiful,

"everything trends towards catastrophe and collapse.

"I am interested, geared up, and happy.

"Is it not horrible to be built like that?

"The preparations have a hideous fascination for me.

"I feel sure, however, that if war comes,

"we shall give them a good drubbing.

"Kiss those kittens, and be loved forever

"only by me."

(explosion roars)

The war Winston has been so eagerly awaiting

breaks out in August 1914.

But the good drubbing is slow in coming.

(heavy gunfire rings out)

The war gets bogged down.

Each unable to overwhelm the other,

the armies face each other along hundreds of kilometers

of trenches made up of mud,

and the tens of thousands of dead.

For Churchill, holding back and doing nothing

is simply inconceivable.

He wants to move the front,

create a new one, take Germany by surprise

by cutting it off from its ally,

the Ottoman Empire.

And that means crossing the Dardanelles Strait,

the only access route to Constantinople.

In March 1915, a massive armada of 20 warships,

including four French battleships,

enters the Straits, and bombards several Turkish forts.

(heavy gunfire rings out)

But the enemy's defenses have been underestimated.

The French battleship Bouvet strikes a drifting mine

and sinks within minutes,

taking with her, her crew of 639.

Within the half hour, three British battleships

are struck by mines.

The armada is forced to retreat

and wait for land reinforcements,

which will attempt to break the Turkish defenses

by landing ashore.

Organizing a landing so far from England takes time, though,

and the Turks seize the opportunity

to call in reinforcements.

When, a month later, the ground operation is ready,

there are 60,000 Turkish soldiers waiting,

supervised by German officers.

(dramatic, suspenseful music)

(gunfire rings out)

It's a massacre.

The blue waters of the Straits turn red.

All attempts to land will be miserable failures,

and evacuating the troops will be a bloodbath.

It ends with 100,000 Allied dead

and 150,000 casualties.

It is for Britain, one of the greatest disasters

of the First World War.

A disaster for which the politicians want Churchill

to pay the price.

The Conservatives have not forgotten their betrayal

10 years earlier by the Blenheim Rat,

and now they want his head.

The Liberals simply won't listen to his explanations.

Shot by both sides, he's forced to resign.

And the mighty Churchill has a long way to fall.

(melancholy music)

Even his five-year-old son Randolph is taken to task.

At school, when he asks a classmate to be his friend,

the answer stings.

"Never. Your father murdered my father at the Dardanelles."

Like his father Lord Randolph 30 years ago,

the heir to the Marlboroughs has failed.

"I'm finished," he declares.

Left with nothing to do, he plunges into

a terrible period of depression.

He calls it his Black Dog.

"It was one of the most difficult periods of my life,"

he will write.

"Like a sea beast fished up from the depths

"or a diver too suddenly hoisted,

"my veins threaten to burst from the fall in pressure."

Clementine is trying to keep up appearances.

"I thought he would never get over the Dardanelles,"

she will confess.

"I thought he would die of grief."

For the first time in his life,

Winston can see no future for himself.

After 15 years of continuous political ascent,

everything has fallen apart.

The former minister, soldier, writer, speaker,

and MP, will drown his sorrows in drink, tobacco,

and an expected new pastime, painting.

But the depression won't let up.

And when a friend comes by to see him he says,

"There is more blood than paint upon these hands."

Consumed by the need for action,

Winston takes his palette and easel and leaves for France.

And for what?

For the thing he loves most in the world,

war.

(explosion rings out)

(bagpipes play)

Now 40 years old, he gets himself assigned to the command

of a Scottish battalion fighting in Flanders,

from where he writes to Clementine,

"Filth and rubbish everywhere.

"Graves scattered about promiscuously.

"Feet and clothing breaking through the soil,

"water and muck on all sides.

"The unceasing accompaniment of rifle and machineguns

"and the venomous whining and whirring of the bullets

"which pass overhead.

"Amid these surroundings, aided by wet and cold,

"I have found happiness and content

"such as I've not known for many months."

In battle, Winston manages for a few hours a day

to keep at bay his two worst enemies,

inaction and depression.

As Lieutenant Colonel, he's beloved by his men

and an audacious fighter.

During lulls, he paints landscapes,

such as the Belgian hamlet known as Plug Street

engulfed by a deluge of fire.

Within six months, Winston has got his old energy back.

He returns to London,

where publication of the Dardanelles report

restores his spirits.

Churchill may have designed the naval operation,

but he was not responsible for the delays,

or for the inadequate preparation of land operations.

He is finally appointed Minister of Munitions.

And what better way to erase the shame of the Dardanelles

than to launch himself headlong into the role?

He reforms the whole department,

makes a thousand proposals,

participates in battles, and in 1917,

equips the half million American soldiers

who land in Europe.

The following year, though, he faces a terrible threat

when munitions workers start going on strike.

He announces that all workers who do not

return to work as soon as possible

will have the privilege of serving their country

on the French front.

(intensely dramatic music)

His words hit home.

The strike collapses, production of weapons

and ammunition resumes.

He has tanks made in their thousands.

These are the tanks he dreamed of

when he was First Lord of the Admiralty.

He built their prototypes back in the Naval Yards.

Known as Winston's Follies, they will prove decisive

when large scale offensives are launched.

On the 8th of August 1918, they break through the front

and penetrate to 400 kilometers behind German lines.

It marks the beginning of the end for the Kaiser's army.

It's also a personal triumph for Winston,

one that allows him, at least temporarily,

to forget the shame of the Dardanelles.

(jubilant music and cheering)

Three months later, on the 11th day of the 11th month,

and at the 11th hour,

the Armistice is signed at last.

Churchill has every reason to be confident about the future.

He will hold a succession of ministerial posts,

war, aviation, the Colonies,

until fate, and the vagaries of politics,

clip his wings.

Winston is overtaken by events.

First, his youngest daughter, Marigold, dies,

following a sudden onset of meningitis.

(melancholy music)

Although still grieving for his daughter,

Winston is faced with a new election campaign.

He's prevented from taking part

by an attack of appendicitis.

Now, the only card he has left to play

is his carefully-tended public image.

He has himself carried to vote in a chair,

yet even this does not prevent him losing the election.

Much later, once he has regained his sense of humor,

he will write, "In the twinkling of an eye

"I found myself without an office,

"without a seat, without a party,

"and without an appendix."

The blows come thick and fast,

but Winston will rise above them.

With the politician out of power and the soldier off duty,

it's the writer who comes to the fore.

In addition to his many articles,

he starts writing a sumptuous history of the Great War.

It is a great success.

And Clementine gives birth to a daughter, Mary,

which softens the terrible blow

of Marigold's death the year before.

The writer takes up the role of gentleman farmer

and buys a property, Chartwell.

Always full of surprises, he now discovers a new passion,

bricklaying.

He even joins the Guild of Bricklayers.

He builds wall after wall,

and even gets the children to lend a hand.

But gardening, bricklaying, painting and polo

do not deflect Churchill's intense scrutiny

of the political landscape

or keep him from penning many articles

criticizing the government.

As a result, two years after he left the government,

the Conservatives offer him a constituency and a portfolio,

Chancellor of the Exchequer,

like his father 30 years ago.

Despite his earlier betrayal,

Churchill returns to the bosom of the Conservative Party.

He remarks, "Anyone can rat,

"but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity

"to re-rat."

Appointing Winston is a way for the Conservatives

to neutralize him.

He's so brilliant that it's better he be in the government

than on the outside, free to undermine any initiative

that does not please him.

It's now 1925 and Churchill the human whirlwind

has been in politics for a quarter of a century.

He's become an orator without equal,

daring to address Parliament in ways

that make more than one MP shrink in his presence.

To a member who constantly interrupts him with "Liar!"

Churchill retorts,

"If the Honorable Gentleman who keeps interrupting

"consents to give his name rather than his profession,

"I'm sure we'll all be glad to make his acquaintance."

One day the MP Lady Aster spits at him,

"If I were your wife, I'd poison your coffee."

To which Churchill replies,

"Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it."

His deadly sense of repartee makes him

a very popular Chancellor.

And he never misses an occasion to be

the center of attention.

Limelight and public acclaim, the symbols of recognition,

mean more to him than the air he breathes.

An expert now in public relations,

at every budget vote he parades his family

before the cameras.

But if Winston is a master of words,

numbers are not his strong point.

He is responsible for a catastrophic decision,

returning the pound sterling to the gold standard

at its pre-war parity,

thus impoverishing the whole country

and provoking a major social crisis.

He will later admit,

"They said I was the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer

"that England ever had.

"And they were right."

The 1929 crisis sweeps through the government.

After five years as Chancellor,

Winston loses his ministry.

Once again the Conservatives hold him responsible

for the defeat.

Once again, he's a leper in his own party.

(1920s swing music)

Churchill begins a spell in opposition

that will last 10 years.

He disagrees with his party on the status of India

and is gradually marginalized

despite regular re-election in his constituency.

- Mr. Churchill's figures are 35,956.

(crowd cheers)

- [Voiceover] Alcohol and writing keep him afloat.

The one thing Winston cannot do is nothing.

He gets absorbed in writing a biography

of his ancestor Marlborough,

and his publisher sets up a US publicity tour.

He's moving on, and leaving his failures behind.

He visits Washington, New York, and California,

where he meets his compatriot Charlie Chaplin,

who's busy lighting up the world.

But Churchill is less attuned to American ways.

On December the 13th 1931,

the distracted traveler forgets

that Americans drive on the right.

(tires screech)

He gets hit by a car.

He escapes with a concussion and numerous bruises.

It will take him nearly two months to recover.

With age, near-fatal accidents become much more tiring.

But Churchill has the ideal remedy.

At the height of Prohibition America,

he's got a made-to-measure prescription.

His doctor certifies that his patient must drink alcohol,

particularly at mealtime,

as part of his treatment.

And Winston gets much better.

- [Voiceover] I'm very glad that you are back Mr. Churchill.

- I had a hard bump.

A harder bump, I think, than most people

would like to take.

However, here I am.

And I hope I'm going to have better luck this time.

I feel very much better.

And I think I'm going to be able to

get through my task.

It's a pretty hard task you are setting me.

(wistful piano music)

- [Voiceover] Churchill is completely isolated.

Nobody has forgotten his intransigence in Sydney Street,

his inconsistency in the Dardanelles,

and his turncoat behavior.

Along with his support for King Edward VIII,

who wants to marry a commoner,

it all makes him the country's most unpopular MP.

Everyone, even his own family,

agrees that his political career is behind him.

And as if all that wasn't enough,

behind the idyll of a summer in the countryside,

everything is collapsing all around him.

His wife Clementine is going away rather too often,

and even has a brief affair with an art dealer.

His eldest daughter Diana has married with great pomp,

but is now getting a divorce.

Sarah wants to join the theater

and is infatuated with a twice-divorced Austrian actor

18 years her senior.

His son Randolph has abandoned his studies at Oxford

to enter politics

but has his grandfather's profligate character

and can't handle his drink like his father does.

He spends lavishly

and makes himself unpopular in the clubs.

And yet, like a drowning man who has to hit bottom

before he can come back up,

Churchill uses the last of his strength

to make himself heard again.

(martial music)

Alone among the entire British political class,

he warns Parliament of the danger of Hitler's rise to power

and the illusion of pacifism.

And when the Prime Minister disagrees Winston retorts,

"History will prove you are wrong in this matter.

"And if I am so sure, it is because I will write it myself."

In the meantime, though, history itself proves him right

when Hitler invades Austria in March 1938

and threatens its neighbors.

But Churchill's words of warning,

his calls to make no concessions to the Nazi regime,

go unheard.

Six months later, horrified at the prospect of a new war,

Paris and London sign the Munich Agreement,

which hands over to Hitler a part of Czechoslovakia

in exchange for a mere scrap of paper.

(plane engines roar)

(crowd cheers enthusiastically)

Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister,

returns to London triumphant.

(crowd cheers)

- Some of you, perhaps, have already heard

what it contains.

We regard the agreement signed last night

and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement

as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples

never to go to war with one another again.

(crowd cheers)

♫ God bless you, Mr. Chamberlain

♫ You know we're all with you ♫

- [Voiceover] For the English,

Chamberlain is the hero who has kept the peace.

♫ God bless you Mr. Chamberlain

♫ Our hats go off to you. Come on everybody

♫ God bless you Mr. Chamberlain

♫ We're all mighty proud of you ♫

But Churchill takes a dimmer view.

"We seem to be very near the bleak choice

"between war and shame," he has written

just two weeks earlier.

"My feeling is that we shall choose shame,

"and then have war thrown in a little later."

(engines rumble)

Five months later, in March 1939,

German troops marching into Prague

swiftly put paid to any remaining pacifist illusions.

The Munich Agreement is now invalid.

Churchill's prediction proves correct.

Gradually, public opinion shifts.

The newspapers announce, "We Still Need Churchill."

(dramatic music)

When, six months later, Hitler invades Poland,

France and Britain finally enter the war.

Prime Minister Chamberlain has no choice

but to give in to public pressure.

History never repeats itself,

but Churchill is an exception.

25 years after his ousting following

the Dardanelles disaster,

Chamberlain offers him again the position

of First Lord of the Admiralty,

and in almost identical circumstances,

with the country threatened with destruction

and the enemy once again Germany.

For most men, war is a disaster.

But in Churchill it awakens a passion.

At age 65, he's full of energy.

The Bulldog has become a lion.

(soldiers cheer loudly)

His fellow ministers may be cursing

their excitable colleague,

but they're forced to hide their resentment.

Winston is untouchable,

the government's one true soldier.

Chamberlain proves to be a disastrous wartime Prime Minister

with grave consequences.

- [Voiceover] Good bye Mr. Chamberlain,

and thanks for all you've tried to do.

We welcome the new Prime Minister,

Mr. Churchill.

(crowd cheers)

(suspenseful, ominous music)

- [Voiceover] On May the 10th 1940,

the very day that Hitler launches his attacks

on Belgium and Holland,

Churchill finally takes up the position

he has always dreamed of.

This, he understandably feels,

is the moment he has been living for.

The Royal Air Force on which Britain now pins all her hopes,

it was he who pioneered it back in 1912,

and he has watched jealously over it ever since.

The hundreds of tanks that now await the land invasion,

it was he who upgraded them all in 1915.

The radars that will be the Air Force's eyes and ears,

it was he who pushed for their creation.

MI6, now in intense preparation for the invasion,

was created 32 years ago

while he was Home Secretary.

And most of the Royal Navy's new ships were built by him

as First Lord of the Admiralty

between 1911 and 1950.

For Winston Churchill the war that has just been declared

is a personal matter, and the high point of his career.

(camera flash flares)

The new Prime Minister's main weapon, though,

is not made of iron or steel,

but of spirit.

It's the remarkable eloquence he has sharpened

over the last 40 years.

Winston will find the words to awaken the British people

and give them the courage to stand brave

against all odds.

- [Voiceover] I would say to the House

as I've said to those who've joined the government,

I have nothing to offer but blood,

toil, tears, and sweat.

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.

We have before us many, many long months

of struggle and of suffering.

You ask, what is our policy?

I will say, it is to wage war, by sea, land and air,

with all our might and with all the strength

that God can give us,

to wage war against a monstrous tyranny

never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalog

of human crime.

That is our policy.

You ask, what is our aim?

I can answer in one word:

Victory.

Victory at all costs.

Victory in spite of all terror.

Victory, however long and hard the road may be.

- [Voiceover] Listening to him, even the Opposition

are in tears.

The British people are, like the French,

torn between fear and defeatism

and the will to survive.

The courage was there,

but it had to be brought to the surface.

And that's what Churchill has done.

Yet, on that first evening,

the new Prime Minister has his doubts.

Greeted by a crowd shouting

"Good luck Winnie! God bless you!"

Once in private, he breaks down in tears

and confides to one of his generals,

"Poor people. They trust me

"and I can give them nothing but disaster

"for quite a long time."

The disaster arrives quicker than expected.

Churchill is counting on France and its formidable army.

But after six weeks of fighting,

it collapses.

England is alone.

Alone against the greatest war machine

Europe has ever known.

The situation seems so hopeless

that some ministers are considering negotiating with Hitler.

Churchill categorically refuses to do so.

He'd rather die sword in hand.

The war gets off to a bad start.

Since July the 3rd 1940 his ultimatum

has remained unanswered.

So Churchill takes the terrible decision

to bomb the French fleet

stationed at Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria.

(explosions ring out)

Under the armistice signed by Marshal Petain,

the fleet could fall into the hands of Hitler,

and thus be used in an invasion of England.

Several ships are hit hard.

1,297 French sailors are killed.

A month ago, these men were fighting alongside the English.

(melancholy, wistful music)

"This was a hateful decision,

"the most unnatural and painful in which

"I have ever been concerned," Churchill tells us.

The attack is deadly,

but it proves to the world the Prime Minister's

steadfast determination.

The Old Bulldog will not back down.

And the tribulations of war all still lie ahead.

The battle for France may be over,

but the Battle of Britain has only just begun.

(air raid sirens wail)

Hitler wants to invade the British Isles.

But to do so, he must first gain control of the skies.

From mid-August 1940,

hundreds of German bombers, escorted by Luftwaffe fighters,

start pounding all military targets in southern England.

(bombs whistle and explode)

A fierce battle for the skies ensues

between the German Messerschmitts on one side,

and British Spitfires and Hurricanes on the other.

(gunfire rattles out)

The sky of Britain is aglow.

Yet despite the pilots' bravery,

within a fortnight, the Royal Air Force is near

to losing control of England's southern airspace.

A fortuitous event changes the course of destiny.

On August the 24th, a German pilot

commits a navigational error

and drops his bombs on the outskirts of London.

For Churchill, this is provocation.

He orders the bombing of Berlin to start the next day.

His generals try to dissuade him.

Berlin, they say, is too far away.

But Churchill is determined

and now, he's angry.

Most of the planes are shot down

or forced to turn around.

Only a handful of pilots somehow manage

to drop bombs on the outskirts of Berlin.

(explosions ring out)

This risky operation has totally unexpected consequences.

Hitler cracks.

Berlin bombed? He will not tolerate it.

In his fury, Hitler orders his air force

to burn London and all major British cities

to the ground.

The operation is named "Blitz,"

"Lightning."

Hitler is convinced England will be on its knees

within a few days.

(gunfire rattles out)

But despite the rain of fire that strikes the city,

the apocalyptic scenes that the population must live through

and the tens of thousands dead,

London holds fast.

Londoners eat, sleep, and have singalongs in shelters

or in the subway.

(Londoners sing)

- [Voiceover] Hitler hopes by killing

large numbers of civilians and women and children

that he will terrorize and cow the people

of this mighty Imperial city.

Little does he know the spirit of the British nation.

- [Voiceover] After a night of bombing,

it's stiff upper lip and back to work

as if nothing had happened.

The slogan on everyone's lips is

London can take it.

(noble, uplifting music)

Throughout the Blitz, Churchill is constantly on the move,

keeping morale up in the worst-hit areas.

The English are all behind him and beside him.

Hitler was convinced that the morale of the British

would collapse, as well as that of their leader.

Not at all.

The English and their leader are of one accord.

Churchill's firmness,

his imperturbable dignity,

his unwavering faith in the future,

his conviction that England will triumph,

along with his smile, his hat,

his cigar, and his fiery speeches,

all at this moment in history,

make him a symbol of resistance against tyranny.

- [Voiceover] We shall defend our island,

whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on the beaches,

we shall fight on the landing grounds,

we shall fight in the fields and in the streets.

We shall fight in the hills.

We shall never surrender!

- [Voiceover] At this point, England is Churchill.

And Churchill is England.

(crowd cheers enthusiastically)

- [Voiceover] And in the midst of it all,

the cry goes up, "Here comes Winston!"

Accompanied by Mrs. Churchill,

the Prime Minister of Great Britain and his wife,

come to be with the indomitable people of Devon.

(crowd cheers)

- [Voiceover] After bombing Berlin,

Winston gives the green light to bomb Italy,

quipping to his generals,

"We must be careful not to bomb the Pope.

"He has a lot of influential friends."

In unleashing his destructive madness,

Hitler has made a terrible mistake.

His air force is turned away from military targets.

As civilians withstand the Blitz,

Churchill reorganizes the RAF,

gets his airfields back in order,

and encourages his airmen to renew their attacks.

They cause carnage among the enemy,

and England wins the battle of the skies.

Churchill will pay tribute to these heroes,

the saviors of England,

in a speech that will go down in posterity.

- [Voiceover] Never in the field of human conflict

was so much owed by so many to so few.

- [Voiceover] Churchill has won the Battle of Britain

because he has acted impulsively,

not strategically.

And Hitler has lost it for the same reason.

The United Kingdom will not be overrun.

Hitler now turns his gaze further east,

and decides to invade the Soviet Union.

England has not lost the war,

but the question now is how to win it.

For Churchill, the answer is simple.

Bring in the United States.

Since the beginning of the conflict,

America has been selling Britain weapons and munitions,

but funds are running out,

and Churchill really needs US help.

US president Franklin Roosevelt does not know

Churchill personally.

He wants to be sure of the British people

and their leader's determination to fight.

In January 1941, he sends one of his closest advisors

to London to check:

Harry Hopkins.

Churchill spares no effort to take the American envoy

on a tour of the whole country.

(crowd cheers)

Hopkins appears very moved by his inspection

of the bombed cities.

But Churchill is concerned about what he will write

in his report to Roosevelt.

At the end of his stay, Hopkins proposes a toast.

"I suppose you wish to know what I'm going to say

"to President Roosevelt on my return.

"Well, I'm going to quote you one verse

"from that Book of Books.

"Whither thou goest, I will go.

"And where thou lodgest, I will lodge.

"Thy people shall be my people

"And thy God my God."

Then he adds very quietly, "even to the end."

The tears are streaming down Churchill's face.

He has convinced the US envoy.

In his report, Hopkins is full of praise

for the British people and their leader.

"The people here are amazing from Churchill down,

"and if courage alone can win,

"the result will be inevitable."

Churchill is the government in every sense of the word.

He controls the grand strategy and often the details.

He is the directing force behind the strategy

and the conduct of the war in all its essentials.

- [Voiceover] Put your confidence in us.

Give us your faith and your blessing.

And under Providence, all will be well.

We shall not fail or falter,

we shall not weaken or tire.

Neither the sudden shock of battle,

nor the long drawn trials of vigilance and exertion

will wear us down.

Give us the tools,

and we will finish the job.

- [Voiceover] Churchill has won Roosevelt's confidence.

The US will no longer sell but give England

the weapons it needs to resist.

But Churchill doesn't just want to resist.

He wants to win.

And for that, he wants the United States to go to war

along with him.

The result of all his efforts is a meeting with Roosevelt

in August 1941, off the coast of Newfoundland.

Churchill uses all his eloquence

to persuade the US President

that their two countries should join forces

against the murderous ravages of the Nazis.

♫ Onward Christian soldiers ♫

But while Roosevelt may appreciate

Churchill's conviction and purpose,

their unity remains merely symbolic.

In spite of all the pledges of unity on both sides,

at no point does the American president commit

to the US joining the fight at England's side.

Churchill returns to England bitterly disappointed.

He's back to square one.

(bombs whistle and explode)

On December the 7th 1941,

the US base at Pearl Harbor in the Pacific

is attacked by the Japanese.

Churchill immediately telephones Roosevelt,

who concludes, "We're all in the same boat now."

America finally enters the war.

For Winston, it's a huge relief.

"No American will think it wrong of me

"if I proclaim to have the United States at our side

"was, to me, the greatest joy.

"England would live.

"Britain would live.

"Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation,

"I went to bed and slept the sleep of

"the saved and thankful."

Two weeks after Pearl Harbor,

Winston is in the United States.

He has to convince the American Congress

not to leave the European battlefield

and to continue to support Britain.

It is one of the most important speeches of his life.

(crowd claps)

- [Voiceover] Members of the Senate,

the Prime Minister of Great Britain,

the Right Honorable Winston (applause drowns him out).

- [Voiceover] On the 26th of December 1941,

masterfully combining humor, eloquence and determination,

the master wordsmith surpasses himself.

- But if my father had been American,

and my mother British,

instead of the other way round,

I might have got here on my own.

(audience laughs)

What kind of a people do they think we are?

Is it possible they do not realize

that we shall never cease to persevere against them

until they have been taught a lesson

which they and the world will never forget?

(audience applauds loudly)

- [Voiceover] The speech is a success.

But the pressure has been intense,

and Winston's not getting any younger.

After a long meeting with Roosevelt,

he feels a sharp pain in his left arm.

He's having a heart attack.

(ominous music)

He begs his doctor,

"You're not going to tell me to rest.

"I can't. I won't.

"Nobody else can do this job.

"I must.

"You mustn't say anything.

"At this moment as we join forces with the United States,

"Britain cannot be seen with a Prime Minister

"with a weak heart.

"Everything must remain secret."

(crowd cheers vigorously)

After a few days of forced rest,

the Old Lion is back in his usual top shape.

(suspenseful music)

At 67, he sleeps four hours a night,

keeps a tight schedule of appointments,

meetings and inspections,

always in the thick of the Allied war preparations

or Allied strategy,

while continuing to drink and smoke

more than his fair share.

He has never, in fact, been happier.

His depression is a thing of the past.

He's in the limelight,

and he's going to play it to the hilt.

When an assistant asks if he can have a weekend off,

Winston scolds him, "A leave?

"But don't you like this war?"

(crowd cheers)

If the people stand united behind Churchill,

he has also managed to pull his family together.

They must all show an example.

Clementine goes everywhere with him,

working for civil defense.

Randolph has joined the Commandos.

Sarah is working in photo reconnaissance for the Air Force,

and fundraising with her husband.

- The American Artists' Ambulance Association

are asking their friends both here and in America,

to donate generously to this cause.

- [Voiceover] Diana, the eldest, is in the Navy.

The youngest, Mary, is in the Air Defense,

and often accompanies her father on military maneuvers.

- [Voiceover] The Premier's daughter, Mary,

recently christened a flying fortress.

Mary Churchill did the job with Coca Cola,

quite unperturbed by a first time miss.

- [Voiceover] These images of a man,

a family, a people,

united and confident,

seem to promise a victory that still looks

a long way off.

Everywhere, on all fronts,

the Allies are suffering terrible defeats.

In Singapore, 100,000 English fighters

are taken prisoner by the Japanese,

the biggest surrender in UK military history.

But despite all the losses and the drama,

Churchill never stops believing in victory.

Now, in a repeat of 1915,

he wants to surprise Germany and Italy from the rear.

The Americans want to land in France.

But the coasts of Europe are defended like a fortress

and Churchill, still traumatized by

the Dardanelles disaster, refuses.

He wants to avoid a bloodbath

and convinces Roosevelt to order a first landing

in North Africa,

the weakest point of the Axis powers,

in an operation dubbed "Torch."

For this, he must convince a third,

no less important partner.

Stalin.

(energetic newsreel music)

- [Voiceover] An invitation to Mr. Stalin,

Mr. Churchill has come at the head of

an Anglo-American delegation

for the war's most vital series of conferences.

As the Premier set foot on Russian soil

for the first time,

he was met by Mr. Molotov.

("God Save the King")

- [Voiceover] In August 1942 Churchill goes to meet him

for the first time.

The Bear of the Kremlin has been demanding

a second front in Europe for a year now.

Churchill has bad news for him.

English and American forces will not be

invading Europe in '42.

Meanwhile, the German army is heading straight

for the Volga, Stalingrad, and the Caucasus.

- [Voiceover] This initial conference lasted

nearly four hours,

business being conducted through interpreters.

Nevertheless, the discussions were carried on

in an atmosphere of cordiality and complete sincerity.

- [Voiceover] The press make much of the good relationship

between the two leaders,

but the reality is quite different.

(ominous music)

When Churchill announces that there'll be

no second front in Europe,

only a landing in North Africa,

Stalin is furious.

"You English, you're afraid to fight,"

he declares.

"You can't win if you don't fight."

Churchill will have none of this,

but Stalin persists.

"Your men are too scared of the Germans.

"If you fought like Russians, you'd see

"they're not so terrible."

Churchill, unable to contain himself any longer,

pounds his fist on the table.

"We fought alone for one year against Germany and Italy.

"Now that the three great powers are allied,

"victory is certain, as long as we do not fall apart.

"I made the trip from Europe

"in the middle of all my problems,

"yes, Mr. Stalin, I also have problems,

"and I was hoping to reach out to a comrade in arms.

"I am bitterly disappointed, because this hand

"has not been taken."

The Old Bear wasn't expecting

the British Bulldog to attack him.

But before Churchill's words are even translated,

he calmly raises his hand and says,

"I do not understand your words,

"but, by God, I like your spirit."

Back at his lodgings, Winston asks his secretary

to send a telegram to London

explaining that Stalin has a bad attitude

and that if this continues he may return to England

earlier than expected.

Despite warnings about surveillance,

Churchill will not change a word of it.

The next day, the atmosphere suddenly changes.

Stalin is composed, and even invites Winston into his suite.

The dinner continues, poised between friendliness

and manipulation late into the night.

In the early morning, Winston leaves for Cairo

He has managed to convince both Roosevelt and Stalin

of the validity of Operation Torch.

Back in London he tells his Cabinet,

"If Torch fails, then I'm done for."

(heavy artillery fire)

On November the 8th 1942,

English and American troops landed in Oran,

Algiers, and Casablanca.

The Torch Operation that Churchill fought so hard for,

is a huge success.

A few days earlier, the British General Montgomery

has brought down Rommel's armored divisions

in the Egyptian desert

and taken more than 30,000 prisoners.

This very same month, at Stalingrad on the Russian Front,

the German forces are being surrounded.

Churchill can breathe again.

The scent of victory is finally in the air.

(stirring music)

- [Voiceover] This is not the end.

It is not even the beginning of the end.

But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

- [Voiceover] But as Winston announces

the end of the beginning,

it is, for him, the beginning of his decline.

In 1943, Allied military successes are on the increase

yet despite Churchill's heroic tours of the battlefields,

it is Roosevelt who is now taking charge.

In this total war, solidarity between

the English-speaking peoples is well worth

a few sacrifices, though,

so Churchill remains silent.

General de Gaulle points out to him,

"I do not understand you.

"You've been at war from the very first day.

"One could even say that you are this war.

"Yet you put yourself in second place

"behind the United States.

"It is up to you to take on the moral leadership

"of this war.

"European public opinion will be behind you."

Churchill is shaken but silent,

just as he was with Stalin.

When the Polish general Sikorski informs him

of the killing of 5,000 Polish nationals

by the Soviets in Katyn Forest,

Churchill sidesteps the issue.

"If they are dead, nothing you can do will bring them back.

"We've got to beat Hitler.

"This is no time for quarrels and charges."

This alliance with the Soviets against Hitler

comes at the price of silence.

The Old Lion is holding on,

but he has ceased to roar.

When the three leaders meet in Tehran

in November 1943,

Churchill is painfully aware of his weakness.

Between Roosevelt the great provider of arms

and Stalin who is holding off

nearly 200 German divisions on the battlefield,

he's not punching at the same weight.

"I realized at Tehran for the first time

"what a small nation we are," he will write.

"There I sat with the great Russian Bear

"on one side of me with paws outstretched

"and on the other side the great American Buffalo.

"Between the two sat the poor little English donkey

"who was the only one who knew the right way home."

He was the Bulldog, the old Lion.

Now he compares himself to a donkey.

Depression looms, but the war is not over,

and he has to keep going.

He may have lost the military leadership

but he still has, as de Gaulle said,

to provide moral leadership.

After the photo session, it's time for the toasts.

Stalin, with a toothy smile proclaims,

"The power of the German armies

"is based on some 50,000 officers and technicians.

"We can simply have them shot

"to eradicate the German military definitively."

Churchill retorts immediately, with a renewed firmness.

"The British Parliament and public opinion

"will never tolerate mass executions.

"The Soviets should have no illusions on this point."

But Stalin continues,

"We'll have to shoot 50,000."

Winston is outraged.

"I'd prefer that you lead me into the garden here and now

"to be shot rather than sully the honor of my country

"and myself with such baseness."

Roosevelt attempts to lighten the situation

with more banter.

"No, I propose a compromise.

"We won't shoot 50,000, but 49,000."

Churchill doesn't find this funny.

He leaves the room.

His doctor finds him later in a state of extreme depression

and concludes the Prime Minister is appalled

by his own impotence.

(explosions echo)

Victory is not yet assured,

but the Allied landing in Normandy in June '44

is indeed the beginning of the end.

Still intoxicated by the smell of gunpowder,

Winston dreams of being there,

but the King has forbidden it.

The war is not yet over, and the Old Lion is irreplaceable.

Only six days after D-Day can he at last

visit the battlefield.

- [Voiceover] Winston Churchill now came himself

onto the soil of Normandy.

The visit was brief.

It didn't take long for the Prime Minister

to satisfy himself that all goes well

on the first stage of the assault of Europe.

The Prime Minister and his party

return to the Destroyer Kelvin

in complete confidence of still greater successes to come.

The architects of victory return home.

(soaring music)

(heavy gunfire)

- [Voiceover] By the end of 1944

the Nazi armies are in retreat.

Now that the end is near,

Churchill is already preparing for the post war period.

If he wants to limit the Communist expansion,

he must now negotiate with Stalin.

I've discovered, he says, that I can talk to him man to man

and I'm sure he'll be reasonable.

So, when in October '44, he slips Stalin a piece of paper

with percentages scribbled on it,

he may or may not be bluffing.

The figures represent the future

division of power in Europe.

In fact, they're completely fanciful.

How else to account for 10% British influence

in Romania, and 25% in Bulgaria,

where the Soviets reigned supreme

and the British don't even have any access?

Churchill obtains 90% influence in Greece.

Stalin ticks the document, and hands it back.

Winston is satisfied.

He writes to Clementine, "The affairs go well.

"We have settled a lot of things about the Balkans

"and prevented hosts of squabbles that were maturing.

"I have had very nice talks with the Old Bear.

"I like him, the more I see him.

"Now they respect us here,

"and I'm sure they wish to work with us."

Churchill comes back from Moscow

with this scrap of paper in his pocket

as delighted as Chamberlain coming back from Munich.

In fact, he's been taken for a fool.

(melancholy music)

To cut his losses, Winston the Warrior

dons his armor once more.

In Greece, the Communists have triggered

an armed uprising in the capital.

Churchill won't tolerate Greece falling

under their control.

On Christmas Eve 1944, on a sudden whim,

he flies to Athens.

It's a crazy escapade.

Aboard an armored car, he roars at full speed

through the devastated capital,

fires a few shots, gives firm instructions

to the British forces trying to contain the Communists,

and meets with all factions,

strongly suggesting that they negotiate.

The Prime Minister's impromptu visit is a success.

British reinforcements drive the Communists

out of the capital.

After a bloody civil war, Greece will be saved

from the fate of many of its neighbors.

Two months later, in February 1945,

Winston, the only man said to travel with more

hat boxes than his wife,

attends the Yalta Conference.

The indefatigable septuagenarian

is still trying to control the insatiable greed of Stalin,

who is making vague promises of democratic elections

in central Europe.

These promises are mere castles in the sand,

but Churchill can obtain no more.

As for Roosevelt, he's sick, weak, and credulous,

and ready to make any concession.

The sandcastles will soon be destroyed

by the red wave that engulfs Eastern Europe.

(bell tolls)

On May the 8th 1945,

Nazi Germany finally surrenders.

For Churchill, it is the triumphant reward

for five years of unremitting and often desperate effort.

The whole of Britain applauds him.

(soaring, majestic music)

Although elderly and infirm,

he has always stood solid as a rock,

and convinced his people that victory would be his.

- [Voiceover] This is your victory.

Victory of the cause of freedom

in every land.

In all our long history,

we have never seen a greater day than this.

(crowd jubilates)

(cheerful, victorious music)

- [Voiceover] For five years,

Churchill has never stopped making history.

And, strangely enough, they've been happy years,

which, despite the constant overwork,

have kept him from depression.

The return to normality is brutal.

(crowd cheers)

Parliament is dissolved.

And after leading an international coalition

and becoming a figure of world renown,

the Old Lion must now run for re-election.

- We're going to win.

I can feel it in,

I can feel it in my bones we're going to win.

I ask you to give me a chance to finish this job.

(crowd cheers)

- [Voiceover] While awaiting the election results,

Winston joins Stalin and President Harry Truman,

who has replaced the recently-deceased Roosevelt,

at the Potsdam Conference.

Churchill is weak and a little deaf.

The elections, he admits, are hovering over me

like a vulture of uncertainty.

On July 25th 1945 the conference is adjourned,

so the British delegation can return to London

for the results.

Stalin predicts an 80-seat majority.

A good sign.

Stalin has never been mistaken about USSR election results.

A great shock awaits Winston on his return.

Despite the immense gratitude the British people

feel towards him,

they are dubious of the old warrior's ability

to manage the peace.

The man who won the war has lost the election.

Churchill feels humiliated.

At the Potsdam Conference he is replaced by the new leader,

Labour's Clement Attlee, a man whom Winston has described

as "a modest man with much to be modest about."

Churchill is extremely depressed,

and inevitably, his Black Dog

starts barking louder than ever.

"I can't school myself to do nothing

"for the rest of my life.

"It would have been better to have been killed

"in an aeroplane or to have died like Roosevelt,"

he says.

Clementine rather welcomes the return to normal life.

For Winston, it is hell.

He becomes extremely irritable.

Clementine writes to her daughter Mary,

"We seem, instead of clinging to each other,

"to be always having scenes.

"He is so unhappy."

The imminent disintegration of the British Empire

further saddens him.

For an old school imperialist,

the independence of India the Labour Party proposes

is heartbreaking.

But Winston has not fired his last shot.

The former cavalier of the 4th Hussars

saddles up again, and picks up where he left off.

The French Riviera, the casinos, the cigars and brandy,

new writing, and his one true muse, painting.

He will once again find a way to influence history.

Invited by President Truman in March 1946

to speak at Missouri's Fulton University,

Winston, no longer a player on the world stage,

proclaims aloud what is being whispered

in the corridors of power.

That Soviet expansionism represents a new mortal threat

to democracy.

- From Stettin in the Baltic

to Trieste in the Adriatic,

an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent.

(audience cheers)

- [Voiceover] This speech,

which marks the beginning of the Cold War,

rings out across the century.

But Winston has not simply exposed the problem.

He is also proposing a solution.

To deal with Soviet expansionism,

the only course of action is to unify

those European countries that have escaped its clutches.

In Zurich, the Hague and Strasbourg,

he defends the same credo:

The United States of Europe,

whose Franco-German partnership

will be the cornerstone of a European Council.

It's an extraordinary vision,

and one that has since come true.

(Churchill speaks in French)

(audience cheers)

He has been a soldier, a minister,

a writer, a journalist, an MP and a painter.

Now, he's a prophet.

And in 1951 at the age of 76,

he is once again appointed Prime Minister.

(solemn, majestic music)

The old warrior, never so happy as on the battlefield,

has now become a pacifist

with the audacious objective of,

in one last magnificent gesture,

calming the Cold War.

But Russia and the US couldn't care less

about the Prime Minister of a Britain

now stripped of much of its empire

and downgraded to a secondary power.

And this, Winston simply cannot accept.

However, the man is a living legend.

He is honored throughout the whole world.

Knighted by the Queen of England,

awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953,

he shines wherever he goes

under the weary gaze of a political class

that is just waiting for him to pass on the baton.

For his 80th birthday, a ceremony is held

in his honor at Westminster.

("Pomp and Circumstance Marches No. 4" by Edward Elgar)

The members all sign the guestbook

and he is presented with a surprise gift,

as if to force his hand a little.

- I ask you to accept this portrait.

(audience applauds)

- The portrait is a remarkable example of modern art.

(audience claps and laughs)

- [Voiceover] Clementine can't stand the portrait

and will destroy it.

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] On April the 4th, an epoch in British history

ended with the resignation of Sir Winston Churchill

as Prime Minister.

The man who in 1940 had said

that he had nothing to offer but blood,

toil, tears, and sweat,

has paid his part of the bargain in full.

(melancholy music)

- [Voiceover] All that remains for Winston

is to deliver his final victory,

the most difficult, and the most bitter:

his resignation.

"I feel like an aeroplane at the end of its flight,"

he says.

"In the dusk, with the petrol running out,

"in search of a safe landing."

A page of England's history has turned.

The last 10 years of his life

are divided between his country house,

long stays on the Riviera or the Onassis yacht,

and even at the house of Marshal Tito.

He writes, paints, smokes his cigars, and drinks.

These are difficult and painful years.

Winston suffers from hip fractures,

pneumonia, and several strokes.

Little by little, he is losing the greatest battle.

His return trips to England

are all for health reasons.

Each time he is released from hospital,

and each birthday, is the occasion for much,

mostly unwanted, public attention.

Churchill stops painting for good.

Idleness opens the door wide to his Black Dog,

the faithful depression that will always

return to its master.

In the twilight of his life,

he feels it has all been futile.

He wanted a strong Britain and a world at peace,

and he has ended up with neither.

He sees only his failures, and laments,

"I have achieved a great deal,

"in the end to achieve nothing."

His children's shortcomings disappoint him

more than ever.

Randolph is a womanizer.

He drinks too much, and his gambling debts

are mounting up.

Sarah is more often in the headlines

for being drunk than for her performances

as an actress.

As for Diana, she commits suicide

during a final overwhelming depression.

Only Mary seems to have a stable life

and looks after her parents.

On the day of his 90th birthday

a crowd gathers below his balcony.

He appears at his window to wave to them

one last time.

(wistful, sad music)

On January the 10th 1965,

he is hit by a massive stroke.

He loses consciousness and falls into a coma.

When his secretary John Colville is asked

if the moment is nigh he replies,

"He won't die quite yet.

"Not until the 24th of January.

"Because he always said he would die

"on the day of his father's death.

"And I am certain he will do just that."

Two weeks later, on January the 24th,

70 years to the month, day and hour

after the death of his father,

Winston Churchill passes away.

Even his death, then, seemed like a last cry

to the one who had so despised him,

and whose love he so craved.

Was this perhaps the key to the Churchill enigma?

In the end, did all the qualities of this exceptional man

derive from the same source?

Warrior, it was his father who made a soldier of him

when he was 20 years old.

Speaker, it was by listening to his father's speeches

and devouring all the newspaper articles on him

that Winston learned to love politics.

Man of ambition, he was driven to succeed

where his father had failed,

and restore the shine to the family crest.

Churchill never sat next to him in Parliament

as he had dreamed of doing.

But his father's ghost was there

throughout his entire career,

staring sternly down on him.

If only Lord Randolph had seen Winston

in the summer of 1940,

when he changed the course of history,

he might then have admitted he'd been wrong

about the boy.

And had, finally, to accept him

into the Marlborough clan.

It was an old Battle of Britain class steam locomotive

that hauled the funeral train

carrying the remains of the Old Lion

to his final resting place,

the small cemetery of Bladon,

where he would lay next to his father Randolph.

It's only just over a mile from Blenheim Castle,

where Winston Churchill was born 90 years earlier.

He took almost a century to travel a mile.

Yet on the way, he changed the fate of England

and the world.

(soaring, majestic, hopeful music)

- [Voiceover] Mr. Churchill, scene two, take one.

(clapboard snaps)

- Ladies and gentlemen,

permit me, please,

to claim your attention

for a moment.

It can only be a moment

for, as you know,

we are all of us

strictly rationed.

- [Voiceover] Scene six, take one, wait a moment.

- We are the chosen few.

Now wasn't that better?

- [Voiceover] Scene four, take one.

(clapboard snaps)