Jackboots on Whitehall Review

The simplest way to describe Jackboots on Whitehall is as a World War 2 Team America. Set in an alternate history where the English soldiers have not been rescued at Dunkirk and taking its cues from the comic book heroes of the era, Jackboots is an anarchic comedy that proves very hard to dislike.

After losing their land and air forces, England is invaded by the Nazis, led by the high camp trio of Goebbels, Himmler and Goering, when they tunnel under the channel and emerge in Trafalgar Square, with an aim to capture Winston Churchill and put him in a cage. Clearly realism, sensitivity and political correctness were far from the top of the priority list. It’s left to simple farm boy Christopher, rejected by the army because his hands are too big (ahem), to save the Prime Minister and fight off the invasion. He rallies the inhabitants of his sleepy Kentish town, including the charming Daisy, her psychotic father and local reverend, a swarthy French resistance fighter and a misguided American fighter pilot, who is convinced that they’re fighting commie Ruskies. Together, they join the fight to save England.

The cast list is impressive. Lending their voices are none other than Ewan McGregor, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Timothy Spall, Alan Cumming, Stephen Merchant and Sanjeev Bhaskar, to name a few. The film is also shot surprisingly well, with some very nice aerial photography over the carefully constructed sets. The puppets are well done, though those based on actual historical figures (Churchill, Goebbels, et al) are somewhat superior to the fictional characters. The caricatures owe a lot to the likes of Spitting Image and really are very good, even if Goebbels is almost nauseatingly disturbing to look at.

It is of course the film’s humour that it hopes to trade on. Much of it is very funny, if rather juvenile. There are several instances of razor sharp satire, interspersed with very broad and blunt comic assaults. The laugh rate, however, isn’t quite as high as it needs to be, though, to come off favourably in the inevitable comparisons to Team America the film will receive. Edward and Rory McHenry (who also wrote the film and were heavily involved with the production design) direct the film pretty well, especially for such an unorthodox feature debut. I would suggest that the pace of the editing could have been picked up in places and some scenes felt a little like filler, however.

Despite its numerous flaws, though, I loved Jackboots. I found myself grinning all the way through and was even a little stirred at times (but then, who isn’t by a rousing chorus of Jerusalem, even when sung by puppets?). Jackboots on Whitehall may not quite make it onto any best films of the year lists, but it should at least go down as one of the most memorable.