Warlords

A four-part series from Britain's Channel Four, Warlords focuses on the mind games that the political leaders of World War II—Churchill, Roosevelt, Hitler, and Stalin—played against one another to achieve their strategic goals. Writer-director Simon Berthon employs archival footage as the backdrop for analysis of these one-on-one “psychological duels,” beginning with an episode looking at how Hitler maneuvered Stalin into signing the non-aggression pact that ultimately permitted the German invasion of Poland in 1939, and then lulled Stalin into a false sense of security even as the Nazi leader prepared to violate the agreement in 1941. The second program examines the early relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt, during which the British prime minister unsuccessfully attempted to draw the American president into the conflict while the latter tried to support the English struggle against Hitler without actually committing American lives. The last two episodes consider Churchill and Roosevelt's divergent attitudes toward Stalin following Hitler's invasion of Russia: Churchill is portrayed as far more suspicious of the Soviet leader's demands and postwar intentions, while Roosevelt was anxious to use his influence to temper Stalin's objectives, even joining him in opposition to the prime minister (of course, Stalin was working to deceive them both). Berthon's interpretation can be challenged in some particulars, and his “advantage, so-and-so” conclusions seem a little pat. But the smart scripts add welcome complexity to the standard analysis of these wartime alliances—especially between Churchill and Roosevelt—and will be of particular interest to World War II buffs. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)