Munich - The Edge of War is a British historical spy film directed by Christian Schwochow and based off Robert Harris' 2017 book Munich. The film was released on Netflix on January 21, 2022 with a limited theatrical run.
In Autumn 1938, a British civil servant and a German diplomat cross paths in Munich and conspire to prevent war in Europe as the Conference
is taking place between Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the United Kingdom and France about the Sudeten German territories crisis in Czechoslovakia.
The film stars Jeremy Irons as Neville Chamberlain, George MacKay as Hugh Legat, Jannis Niewöhner as Paul von Hartmann, Sandra Hüller as Helen Winter, Liv Lisa Fries as Lenya, August Diehl as Franz Sauer, Jessica Brown Findlay as Pamela Legat, Anjli Mohindra as Joan, Ulrich Matthes as Adolf Hitler and Mark Lewis Jones as Sir Osmund Cleverly.
Not to be confused with Munich.
See also Days of Betrayal.
Munich - The Edge of War provides examples of the following tropes:
- All for Nothing: Hugh and Paul's efforts to bring proof of Hitler's plans for European war to Chamberlain do nothing to budge him from his current course.
- And I Must Scream: Doctors aren't sure if Lena is aware of her surroundings because she can't move to speak or react, but the fact that she makes a sound once her old friend Hugh appears in her field of vision implies she can and is trapped inside her own mind. In Nazi Germany.
- Artistic License – History: Paul and Legat meet in Munich at a jazz club, where among the patrons are several Gestapo officers in uniform. While not technically illegal, jazz music was severely panned by the Nazis as "degenerate music," and it would be very unlikely for a Gestapo officer to be seen in a jazz club, let alone in uniform.
- Bittersweet Ending: Hugh and Paul fail to convince Chamberlain to oust Hitler from power by declaring war on Germany, though the extra year Chamberlain buys with the false truce is instrumental to the Allies' eventual victory. Proof of Paul's involvement is concealed, saving him from immediate execution, but he's on the Gestapo's radar and it's likely only a matter of time until he's killed. Hugh is disillusioned by politics and will almost certainly never see Paul again, but he plans to join the RAF and fight in the upcoming war. Lena, as a quadriplegic Jewish woman, is guaranteed to be an early victim of the Holocaust.
- Disappointed in You: Chamberlain hits Hugh with this after Hugh arranges a disastrous meeting between him and Paul. It's more than mutual.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The trailer features the Feldherrnhalle at one point. It is one of the iconic landmarks of Munich.
- Faux Affably Evil: Adolf Hitler himself, who is personable with his supporters and even engages Paul in a running joke about stealing his watch but is still, you know, Hitler.
- Foregone Conclusion: Several characters talk about how they want to prevent a war. Anybody with the most basic notions of history knows how it ended.
- Also applies to the scene in which Paul takes a gun into a meeting with Hitler, with the intention of shooting him.
- Hidden Depths: The film's portrayal of Chamberlain is fairly sympathetic, suggesting that rather than being wilfully blind to Hitler's conquest ambitions, Chamberlain is playing for time so Britain can prepare itself for the inevitable war.note
- Historical Domain Character: Neville Chamberlain, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini are featured in the film, though most prominently Chamberlain.
- Hypocrite: Paul notes how absurd it is for the British to condemn Hitler's expansionism, which Hugh readily concedes.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Paul's support of Nazism collapsed in 1935, after Lena was tortured into full-body paralysis by police for attending anti-Nazi protests and being Jewish.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Paul von Hartmann and Hugh Legat are fictional characters loosely based on Adam von Trott zu Solz, an anti-Nazi diplomat executed for his part in the July 20 conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, and A.L. Rowse, a British academic and von Trott's close friend from his Oxford days.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Passionate, temperamental Paul is the red to cautious, distant Hugh's blue.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Paul is hardly thrilled to discover Hitler has taken a shine to him.
- We Used to Be Friends: Hugh and Paul by 1938.
