New on Netflix: "Munich - In the Face of War"

Created: 01/19/2022, 10:30 am

By: Michael Schleicher

New to Netflix: "Munich - In the View of War" with Jeremy Irons as Chamberlain.

© Frederic Batier / NETFLIX

The Netflix streaming service is showing “Munich – In the View of War”.

The German director Christian Schwochow filmed the thriller by Robert Harris.

The drama with Jeremy Irons and Ulrich Matthes tells about the Munich Agreement of 1938.

How do you stage diplomacy? What images do you find for hours of struggling for a contract, exchanging arguments, threatening, cajoling, haggling, bluffing? What do you show when there is hardly anything to show? Diplomacy is a tough nut to crack for any filmmaker. Christian Schwochow has taken up this challenge: "Munich - In the face of war" (to be seen on the Netflix streaming service from Friday, January 21, 2022) tells of the agreement that was signed in September 1938 in the so-called Führerbau at Arcisstrasse 12, where the University of Music and Theater sits, was signed and there is disagreement about the assessment. At that time like today. The treaty between Great Britain, France, Italy and the German Reich stipulated that Czechoslovakia must cede the Sudetenland to Hitler.With that, the so-called Sudeten Crisis was off the table and the danger of war was averted. for now.

Netflix shows the drama about the Munich Agreement in 1938

Robert Harris used the conference as a historical background for his 2017 thriller "Munich". Of course, the British author knows about the manageable entertainment factor of diplomatic work, even when dictators are involved in it. So he talks about Hugh Legat, who is in the entourage of British Prime Minister Chamberlain and who has known Paul von Hartmann on the German side since they both studied at Oxford in the early 1930s; however, their friendship suffered from the passage of time. Harris brings additional excitement to his novel by making von Hartmann a member of a resistance cell against Hitler. Above all from the perspective of these two fictitious young men, he reports on the hasty preparations for the conference and on September 29 and 30, 1938 in Munich;the change between the British and German sides also ensures speed.

From this, Ben Power distilled the script that Schwochow is now bringing to the screen.

His historical thriller was made for the streaming service Netflix, where it will be shown from January 21st.

The production pleases because of its conscientious contemporary historical equipment.

In addition, the makers did a good job of recreating Munich at the end of the 1930s on the computer.

But Schwochow rarely manages to create real tension.

Of course, Legat and von Hartmann are struggling with all sorts of questions: How far are they willing to go to prevent an impending war?

Can they even trust each other?

Ulrich Matthes can be seen as Hitler in the Netflix film

There are numerous sentences in the screenplay that are true but definitely want to be important - and therefore sound papery: "As long as the war has not started, there is still hope that it can be prevented," says Chamberlain, for example. It was once said about Hitler: "You don't know who he is. If you knew, you wouldn't be here.” And so on and so forth. What may work in Harris' "Munich" gets stuck in the film in the exchange of theses.

Every now and then Schwochow shows scenes like the one when Paul von Hartmann visits Hitler in his private apartment, hiding the revolver under files, in order to murder the tyrant.

When he ends his monologue with the statement “People are afraid.

I'm surrounded by cowardice", the diplomat has nothing to say but "Yes, my Führer" - and let the weapon disappear again.

A grateful moment for Ulrich Matthes, who also brings out Hitler's sympathetic, diplomatic side, and Jannis Niewöhner, who plays von Hartmann with great seriousness.

"Munich: In the View of War": Jeremy Irons plays Chamberlain

The ensemble could have wished for more such moments.

Above all, Jeremy Irons impresses as Chamberlain.

The 73-year-old, who can currently also be seen in cinemas as fashion prince Rodolfo Gucci in "House of Gucci", makes the British Prime Minister's struggle for a peaceful solution to the conflict and the associated mental anguish understandable.

Of course, the agreement he negotiated will not last for a year.

But this delay meant that the British gained important time in preparing their country for war.