https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkest_Hour_(film)
Darkest Hour is a 2017 war drama film directed by Joe Wright and written by Anthony McCarten.Set in May 1940, it stars Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill and is an account of his early days as Prime Minister during World War II and the May 1940 War Cabinet Crisis, while Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht swept across Western Europe and threatened to defeat the United Kingdom.
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Hagiographic backgrounder to 2 or 3 of the very well known speeches of WW2.
ReplyDeleteWell directed, imaginative use of CGI gives a sense of scale and dread.
Great acting from Gary Oldman (won an Oscar BTW).
Lovely turns from Kristin Scott Thomas as the very posh Clemmie and Lily James as Elizabeth Layton.
Ronald Pickup as Chamberlain is good.
Stephen Dillane as Halifax is even better.
Ben Mendelsohn is amazingly believable as 'Bertie'.
Highlight of the film is the scene in the underground carriage. The dramatic narrative purpose of this is plain (to give direction to the character and to 'solve' the dilemma faced by the protagonist character). It is a good example of how this movie works. There are no car chases and few real locations or action shots (though there are *some* stunts...) but the relatable situation is the revelation that the everyday person's suspicion that those in charge are hiding the truth is probably thoroughly justifiable, then and now.
Apart from some historical exigencies sacrificed to drama this is a great addition to a growing number of recent mid century UK historical epics (I'm thinking of Dunkirk and Imitation Game in particular.)
The very limited scope in this (5 May to 29 May 1940) leaves open the possibility of several sequels. (The Few, Singapore, D-Day, the bomb, Yalta, Attlee, The Coronation...)
ABM Rating 2.5/3 (Though this movie is generally reasonable and even in tone both historically and politically, the hagiography loses it a half point.)