Of course (see title above), if you're not a history buff, then 160 minutes of meetings between ambassadors, foreign secretaries, heads of state, as well as cabinet meetings and military conferences, may prove less riveting. "37 Days" is a docudrama that covers the miscalculations that the European powers made in the 37 days between the assassination of the Austrian Archduke and Great Britain's declaration of war on the German Empire that culminates in the start of World War I, an event of enormous geopolitical significance for the 20th century. (It might be noted that JFK required his advisers to read Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August", a book on these same miscalculations, to avoid the kind of "accidental" war represented by the start of WW I.)
"37 Days" is told from the British government's viewpoint, and the central figure is Britain's Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, who grasps the enormity of the consequences of a general war, works for a settlement, but in the end recommends going to war to honor a treaty that protects Belgium's neutrality. But the whole sequence of events is covered from Austria's desired revenge on Serbia to Russia's protection of the fellow Slavs in Serbia, to Germany's protection of Austria from Russia, to France's alignment with Russia, to then Germany's planned invasion of France, through Belgium, which prompts Britain (and her Dominions) into the conflagration. All in a matter of days! What was very interesting to me in this series were the British Cabinet debates and the articulate speeches both for peace and for honoring treaties given by ruling Liberal Party members who were fearful that if their government fell, the "Tories would go all out for war."
Since Britain's statesmen got the lion's share of the minutes, her characters have been fleshed out a bit more than her adversaries (and allies) as some reviewers have noted. But I don't think the Kaiser was caricatured; he was, indeed, quite histrionic. The Czar was a weak ruler and the Franz Joseph, the Austrian emperor, was doddering, as depicted in "37 Days." If you ignore trivial matters like uniforms and the like, this film captures the historical validity of a complicated series of events, and in an engrossing manner like only the BBC can do. We see Germany's "blank check" to Austria (to teach Serbia a lesson), we see Russia's premature general mobilization, we see the social democratic parties of Europe morph into nationalist parties, and as in Germany, vote the war credits necessary for waging war, and we see Britain opting for war against Germany to protect Belgium more so than to assist its ally France. The irony is that very few of the statesmen depicted in this film wanted a general European war, but that is what they got. There were, however, some members of the German High Command, e.g., von Moltke, who wanted to eliminate the Russian threat while the power balance was in her favor, which prompts the German Chancellor's (Bethmann Hollweg) comment at the end of the film: "I wanted to build a great state with an army attached to it, instead I have the reverse."
"37 Days" is told from the British government's viewpoint, and the central figure is Britain's Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, who grasps the enormity of the consequences of a general war, works for a settlement, but in the end recommends going to war to honor a treaty that protects Belgium's neutrality. But the whole sequence of events is covered from Austria's desired revenge on Serbia to Russia's protection of the fellow Slavs in Serbia, to Germany's protection of Austria from Russia, to France's alignment with Russia, to then Germany's planned invasion of France, through Belgium, which prompts Britain (and her Dominions) into the conflagration. All in a matter of days! What was very interesting to me in this series were the British Cabinet debates and the articulate speeches both for peace and for honoring treaties given by ruling Liberal Party members who were fearful that if their government fell, the "Tories would go all out for war."
Since Britain's statesmen got the lion's share of the minutes, her characters have been fleshed out a bit more than her adversaries (and allies) as some reviewers have noted. But I don't think the Kaiser was caricatured; he was, indeed, quite histrionic. The Czar was a weak ruler and the Franz Joseph, the Austrian emperor, was doddering, as depicted in "37 Days." If you ignore trivial matters like uniforms and the like, this film captures the historical validity of a complicated series of events, and in an engrossing manner like only the BBC can do. We see Germany's "blank check" to Austria (to teach Serbia a lesson), we see Russia's premature general mobilization, we see the social democratic parties of Europe morph into nationalist parties, and as in Germany, vote the war credits necessary for waging war, and we see Britain opting for war against Germany to protect Belgium more so than to assist its ally France. The irony is that very few of the statesmen depicted in this film wanted a general European war, but that is what they got. There were, however, some members of the German High Command, e.g., von Moltke, who wanted to eliminate the Russian threat while the power balance was in her favor, which prompts the German Chancellor's (Bethmann Hollweg) comment at the end of the film: "I wanted to build a great state with an army attached to it, instead I have the reverse."