An enriching and emotionally intense ride throughout, ‘The Darkest Hour’ will provide you with a greater clarification on the former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who led Britain to victory in World War 2.
An enriching and emotionally intense ride throughout, ‘The Darkest Hour’ will provide you with a greater clarification on Winston Churchill. The film acknowledges that he wasn’t only just our Prime Minister, but a man, some would even agree a great man. Nonetheless, you will see the quirkiness of his personality but also, his deep-seated wish to never give up. For many, we only knew him as the leader who saw our country through WWll and eventually winning it, but you never knew this man’s imposing and rich character. The writers conveyed him to be a man of great resilience, intelligence and integrity. What was even better, however, is they didn’t diminish his flaws but provided layers to them.
As an actor, Gary Oldman portrayed Churchill with real intuitive prowess. You could see he fit the role perfectly and acted with the grace of a creative truly knowing the persona he would be. His portrayal was tweaked to be the very essence of this revered man. His mannerisms provided key insights to this remarkable yet flawed individual.
The editing and script writing was poised and consistent. There was never a moment that was cut too short or elongated to the issue of boredom. The story flowed with a real sense of purpose and fluidity. It had its story to tell and it did exactly that. Yet, it must be said that some scenes were exaggerated or completely fabricated for dramatics but that can easily be overlooked.
This story is one of a man and his egregious ordeals. So with that comes an almost discolouring to the depth of his side characters. They provided the needed engagement so that Churchill could have his great mutterings but they were sometimes lacking in richness or enthusiasm. But they did have moments where they shone in emotiveness and thus had relevance.
This biopic will reiterate how difficult decisions were forced upon Churchill without any support from his counterparts. He stood alone. He made sacrifices that not many could live with. He was not a well-liked man during this time but he provided the necessary evil to bring good to his people.
You will finish this movie with a feeling of sympathy for him. He did not have an easy task, to say the least. Overall this film provides a great depiction of humanity, the willingness to fight against the dark cloud of real oppression and all the self-sacrifices that must be made in order to win.