I consider Winston Churchill one of the great men of all-time, so the following may not be entirely objective. Last night, courtesy of Netflix, I watched
Darkest Hour (2017), which covers events of May 1940, immediately after Neville Chamberlain's resignation as Prime Minister of England. The Nazis, at the height of their power, seemed unstoppable, gobbling up large swaths of Europe. 300,000 British troops have been pushed to the English Channel and face annihilation. Churchill must decide whether to negotiate with Hitler or fight, the latter a huge risk given Germany's superior forces and armaments. That awesome responsibility is the major crux of the film. He agonizes, fighting doubt. The arguments pro and con are intense. Those men were living history, not seeing it from the 20-20 hindsight of the viewer. Gary Oldman disappears into the part of Churchill, his performance the pinnacle of his spectacular career. Kudos to screenwriter Anthony McCarten for his even-handed rendering, showing the leader's foibles as well as strengths, and for leavening the narrative with bits of humor, almost all of it dry. Character development is intelligently built along the way. The brief scene with Churchill's four adult children reveals so much despite the sparse exchange. Three are clearly resentful, one is doting. And the depiction of Chamberlain, to whom history has not been kind, is humanized, not a caricature. He was simply wrong, naive, not a dolt. He is played wonderfully by the prolific Ronald Pickup, who has also brought to life Einstein, Nietzsche, Verdi and Lord Randolph Churchill, Winston's father. Kristen Scott Thomas brings her usual brilliance to the pivotal role of Clemmie Churchill, the great man's rock. Lily James is quite affecting as the secretary, and Australia's Ben Mendelsohn is solid as King George. As for the film's historical accuracy - liberties were taken. They are noted in an article at politifact.com. Only one aspect disappointed me, although I suspected it was poetic license and not fact. Nonetheless, it is a great sequence. Most of the other errors involve dates. For instance, the famous rousing speech to parliament and the country occurred on June 4th, not in May. The narrative also implies the 4000 troops Churchill sent to lure the enemy away from the evacuation at Dunkirk were wiped out. Most survived and were taken prisoner. In the end, the film belongs to Oldman. I got misty during the speech, which is often boiled down to: "...We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender..." Oldman received an Oscar for his performance. Joe Wright directed. He was also at the helm of these fine adaptations:
Pride and Prejudice (2005),
Atonement (2007) and
Anna Karenina (2012). 108,000+ users at IMDb have rated
Darkest Hour, forging to a consensus of 7.4 on a scale of ten, way too low in my opinion. It runs a tad more than two hours and consists almost entirely of dialogue. Here's a still from the film:
The humidity persists. My thanks to the young woman who purchased
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation In Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and to the middle age man who bought a book in Russian.
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