Darkest Hour

Very good film with nice production design , notable performances and historical events about Man who took the power of leadership to unite the Nation . Dealing with Winston Churchill : Gary Oldman , First Lord of Admiralty, and his process to be appointed as Prime Minister , in fact he wasn't their first choice, but he became their last hope . As he must decide whether to negociante with Adolph Hitler , or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire. While the powerful Wehrmacht is destroying the European armies and rampaging across the continent to Dunkirk, and an impeding encroachment over England by Nazis is nearly . As Chamberlain : Ronald Pickup renounces his charge , and after the resignation is named a successor , Winston Churchill . As Churchill carries out Dynamo Operation to save the British army and French soldiers from Dunkirk siege and he will fight the Nazi enemy at whatever cost. Never , never surrender¡ Never give up. Never give in!

This is an exciting film based on facts with biographic elements about the turbulent life of the great Prime Minister Winston Churchill , a man who took a stand that changed history , as he has to explore a negotiated peace treaty with Nazi Germany or going on the war, while his own Conservative Party is plotting against him . There are several historical happenings well developed and well paced , but especiallty focusing on May 1940 when Neville Chamberlain is forced to resign due to the opposition Labour Party that accused being too weak in face the Nazi enemy , in fact he signed the useless Covenant of Munich in 1938 , then Churchill is appointed P.M. , along the way he manages to convince the different parlamentary forces , as well as he prepares Dynamo operation to rescue the European armies in Dunkirk .

The cast is frankly excellent as Gary Oldman giving an awesome acting who won deservedly Academy Award , Stephen Dillane as the coward Halifax , Ronald Pickup as the failed negotiator Chamberlain , Ben Mendelshon as the skeptical King George VI , Dame Kristin Scott Thomas as his beloved wife and Lily James as his personal secretary, and other secondaries in brief appearances as Samuel West , David Schofield , David Bamber , Nicholas Jones , and David Strathairn diving voice to President Franklyn D Roosevelt . The motion picture was competently made by Joe Wright . This professional filmmaker Joe Wright has directed good films such as : Pan, Anna Karenina, Hanna , The Soloist , Atonement and Pride and prejudice, among others. Rating 7.5/10 . Better than average.

Not many films nowadays touches people deep inside their hearts.

This one did. At least mine. I am not often generous with grading movies, but I proudly give this a 8/10.

And no Im not an englishman, im Swedish!

Gary Oldman is SUPERIOR in his acting. He is simply flawless in his acting. He even twitches his eyes from time to time making him look tired and old in his very eyes.

I dont know what else to say than bravo, and on to Victory!

At this point, "Darkest Hour" has an overall rating of 5.3. I do not understand this at all, but the film has not actually been released yet and has only been seen in film festivals. I assume the overall score will increase considerably--especially since the two reviews for it were quite positive.

Now I must point out that I am a retired history teacher and I consider Winston Churchill to be perhaps the greatest politician of the century. So, I clearly have a bias and predisposition towards liking the movie...especially if it's done well. Is it a crowd pleaser? Maybe not, as the average movie-goer (especially teens) might not enjoy this or care a lick about the film.

The story covers only a portion of the month of May, 1940...just before the fall of France during WWII. Prime Minster Chamberlain is about to be tossed out of office, as his appeasement strategy with Hitler has turned out to be completely stupid. In his place, some hope for Churchill to be the next Prime Minister...though some forces are working to depose him as soon as he comes to power. At the same time, the war is going as badly as it possibly can. Can Churchill survive this? Well, of course...duh, it's HISTORY!

The reasons to see this are two big ones....the film has achieved the look of 1940 beautifully and Gary Oldman provides an Oscar- winning performance in the lead. If he is not at least nominated for this top award, I will be completely shocked...and he really managed (along with ample prosthetics) to LOOK and SOUND like the great man. Great job all around...and a perfect film.

As a film this is quite good; it's not dull, the performances are good, the production design is excellent, the script is a professional piece of work and even Oldman's make-up is not too distracting.

However, something is not right. If most people get their history from movies, this is concerning. It's obvious that actual events occurred with real people and what they did and said but in a movie this gets pasteurized into what smart people believe will be more thrilling, more sympathetic, more emotional. That process necessarily alters things into something that is even anachronistically rendered and therefore not in the record.

This defect occurs frequently in this movie , so it's not history but myth making. A good example is Churchill's dive into the Underground to meet the common person to steel his resolve. Now Churchill had a mixed view of the average voter, and he was a patrician, but even that aside, he did not need to take a Tube train survey to gauge opinion.

This scene is poached from Shakespeare's Henry V where the king goes among his soldiers the night before battle to hear them and take courage from their strength. Steal from the best is a good policy, but it's not history. It's Shakespearean history and that trades effect for accuracy too.

The audience is given this scene to present Churchill as an instrument of democracy; he's acting for what the people want, therefore he's doing the right thing. It's called pandering.

Well, it is just a movie.

It's a one man show about one of the towering figures of the 20th Century and what a show it is. Gary Oldman has been able to be Sid Vicious in "Sid And Nancy" with the same outstanding commitment and extraordinary results. Joe Wright, the gifted director of "Atonement" presents us with an irresistible version of Churchill through the magic powers of Oldman but sometimes he doesn't seem to trust the power of what he has in his hand. Eccentric cuts in the middle of a famous speech for instance and other stylistic distractions arrive with irritating frequency but that doesn't spoil. too much, the joy and fun of seeing Gary Olman in action. Also interesting to notice, Dunkirk provides a very moving moment for the second time this year.