The Edge Of War’ Is A Gripping Historical Drama On Netflix

Netflix has released a new movie, Munich: The Edge of War, by German director Christian Schwochow, starring George MacKay, Jeremy Irons and Jannis Niewohner. Munich: The Edge of War is a film set in 1938 on the eve of the Second World War that still resonates today.

Based on the historical novel, Munich, written by British author Robert Harris, Munich: The Edge of War was adapted for the screen by Ben Power. It tells the story of two fictional characters Hugh Legat, a British civil servant, and Paul von Hartmann, a German diplomat. Hugh and Paul know each other from their university days when both were attending Oxford. Now, in 1938, Hugh and Paul travel to Munich, both with their respective national delegations, as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is meeting with Adolf Hitler for an emergency Conference. Hitler is preparing to invade Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain and the British government are desperately seeking a peaceful solution. The two old friends, Hugh and Paul find themselves at the center of these historical negotiations.

Munich: The Edge of War is a tense historical fiction. The film manages to sustain a certain suspense even though we know how it ends. From the beginning, we know that any effort to stop the Second World War from erupting is doomed. The film, and the novel it is based on, offer a different outlook on Chamberlain’s actions and the Munich Agreement.

Th story of the film is based on real historical events. On September 29, 1938, the leaders of Germany, Italy, France and the United Kingdom signed the Munich Agreement. Hitler had threatened war unless the Sudetenland—a region of Czechoslovakia that bordered with Germany and which contained an ethnic German majority—was handed to Germany. Czechoslovakia was not invited to the Agreement in Munich, where France and Great Britain agreed to the annexation of the Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge for peace from Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Returning from the Munich Agreement on September 30, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was welcomed as a hero. With hindsight, Chamberlain has often been depicted as a fool for declaring “peace for our time” after signing the Agreement. These now ironically sinister few words pronounced on the eve of the Second World War, for which Chamberlain is most remembered for, are never uttered in the film. Munich: The Edge of War instead offers an explanation as to why Chamberlain said such words, in an attempt to rehabilitate (quite convincingly for my part) his image within history. Harris wanted to change this negative view of the British Prime Minister and show that what he achieved in Munich was “a brave effort.”

The film does this through the guise of two fictional characters, Hugh (played by George MacKay) and Paul (played by Jannis Niewohner). It is through these two characters that the film shows the intensity of that pre-war moment. Knowing Hugh from his Oxford days, Paul sees an opportunity to inform directly Chamberlain (played by Jeremy Irons) of Hitler’s real intentions.

The two old friends had become estranged for political reasons. While visiting Paul in Germany, Hugh discovered that his friend agrees with Hitler’s nationalist discourse, seeing Hitler as the leader that will “remind them of their nation’s greatness.” Years later, as Paul meets his British friend again in Munich, he clearly no longer thinks the same. He has seen but the beginning of what such nationalism really leads to.

There are many words exchanged between these two characters as they discuss Germany’s rise in nationalism and the threat of war that has resonances with today. Nationalist discourse is never insignificant or harmless. It is the foreshadowing of something much worse. It is empty promises that hide a much darker agenda. This, the story suggests, is what the character of Paul has come to understand, and he cannot wait and just hope, as his friend Hugh tells him. “Hoping is waiting for someone else to do it,” Paul responds.

And in a way, the story suggests that perhaps Chamberlain’s greatest fault was hoping, hoping that the signed agreement would maintain the peace and he wouldn’t have to declare war. But hoping also gives you time to prepare.

Munich: The Edge of War is an elegant adaptation of Robert Harris’ historical fiction, with strong performances. The film had a short U.S. theatrical release on January 14, before its release on the streaming platform on January 21. The film is number 7 in Netflix’s Top 10 Movies in the U.S., and number 6 the Top 10 shows in the U.K. a day after its release.