McDaniel
“One Life” depicts the true efforts of heroic London broker Nicholas “Nicky” Winton and others, who were able to get 669 refugee children out of Czechoslovakia and into Great Britain before Hitler rolled in and eradicated the Jewish population.
In 1938, thousands of families were on the run in the capital city Prague and barely surviving. Winton read about it in the news and traveled from England to see it with his own eyes. He witnessed families with young children homeless and starving in horrendous conditions, and decided to try and do something about it.
Director James Hawes’s film alternates back and forth between 1938-39 and 1987-88, because it was 50 years before the story received the attention it deserved, when a scrapbook detailing each child Winton helped escape was finally shared with the media.
Most dramatic was its reveal on television, where a show called “That’s Life!“ invited Winton to a live production in 1988, only to shock him with the revelation that every other person in the studio audience was alive and there because of his rescue efforts.
You don’t really get to know any of the people in the story beyond surface details. While I’d like to know more about our hero and what makes him unique, on some level it feels okay not to because for many of the children, he was a mysterious savior until 1988. It doesn’t delve into political or religious motivations, the script seems to be simply saying that you don’t need to be anyone special to be a hero.
Sir Anthony Hopkins delivers as a humble Winton, with no desire for fame from his past actions, but to use the story to educate people decades later about the plight of refugees. Johnny Flynn (“Emma”) portrays the younger Winton, consumed with doing the only thing that feels right when innocent human beings are at risk.
The slow pace and brightness of 1988, showing Winton swimming in his pool and casually cleaning out years of records from his study, are contrasted with the dark tones of the chaotic rush before the inevitable swarm of Nazis in 1939.
A sort of British “Schindler’s List” — the film is a heartwarming look at the good that man is capable of when facing the worst of man. And like the “That’s Life!” broadcast in ’88, “One Life” is a refreshing nudge to remind us that while we may see so much ugly hatred in the world, in the shadows there are forces of good putting their hearts into making it all a little bit better.
Not to be a hero, but because it’s the right thing to do.
4/5
Scott McDaniel is an assistant professor of journalism at Franklin College. He lives in Bargersville with his wife and three kids.
