Film Review - Darkest Hour

“We shall never surrender!” said Winston Churchill in 78 years ago. As the most important political leader in the 20th century, Churchill's life-long legend was enough to be an epic biopic, but the Darkest Hour only chose Churchill's appointment as prime minister and the formation of the cabinet during the war, to be precise it is late May of 1940. This period was not only Europe but also Britain's darkest hour. The German Nazi aggressors in large scale, the Netherlands and Belgium declared surrender. Britain's neighbour France was also approaching the brink of surrender. The British army also retreated on the battlefield.

This is also Churchill's darkest hour. Before he took office as prime minister, he was politically isolated. He succeeded Chamberlain's prime minister because he was the only acceptable candidate for the Labor party at the time. The movie begins with a motion of no confidence in the Chamber of Deputies against Chamberlain. Labor leader Eddie pointed to Chamberlain. The Conservatives seated Churchill out of office, with only one hat representing Churchill's image. Churchill's first appearance had been unexpected. We first saw entering Churchill's room with a new entry secretary's point of view, named Layton, and we saw the famous Churchill hiding himself in a dark room in his pajamas and cigars.

The narrative of "Darkest Hour" has been steadily stabilizing and basically sticking to the structure of the three acts of drama. The scenes of four important speeches of Churchill run through the complete transformation of the whole film. Although the movie background is World War II, but there is not much battlefield scenes, instead a large number of indoor drama, drama collocation arranged in the cramped interior creates a tension outside the battlefield. In the film's underground headquarters, where Churchill's wartime cabinet was meeting, Churchill and tougher advocate were diametrically opposed to Viscount Halifax, the Nazi peace negotiator. Frontline battlefield Three hundred thousand British troops stranded on Dunkirk Beach. Churchill also plotted the "Dunkirk" here, calling on British coastal residents to use their dinghy to cross the Strait to rescue the besieged British troops.

Gary Oldman plays Churchill not only by the superb make-up techniques to restore a Churchill (the first time i saw the him and i am hardly recognized it was Gary Oldman !) but he really plays Churchill like in reality. At the opening he was like a grumpy old man, who would be furious about his new secretary's mistakes, he would be so in his cabinet meeting (Churchill: Would you stop interrupting me while I am interrupting you?) Yet on the other hand he would often be humorous to his wife and family, occasionally self-deprecating, and of course, his wine habits. He succeeded the Prime Minister, and his wife said that he finally fulfilled his aspirations, but Churchill said that this is his young age aspirations. He could not succeed when he was young until he is old, and can not be as energetic as before. All he can make good use of, is wisdom.