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I’ve been trying to think when there was a historical drama I found as electrifying as Joe Wright ’s “Darkest Hour.” It may have been Steven Spielberg ’s “ Munich ,” which topped my 10-best list a dozen years ago. They are very different films, of course, and it could be that Wright’s boasts stellar accomplishments in more departments. While Gary Oldman ’s phenomenal work as Winston Churchill had been heralded in advance, it is astonishingly equaled by the film’s achievements in direction, screenwriting, score and cinematography.

It’s a strange irony that the same patch of British history—a few days in the spring of 1940—has been treated in two big, Oscar-aimed 2017 movies (and even plays a role in a third film from earlier this year, “ Their Finest ”). In various ways, Wright’s film and Christopher Nolan ’s “ Dunkirk ” are instructive companion pieces, with different aims that effectively orient them toward different audiences. “Dunkirk” imagines the evacuation of British troops under the onslaught of Nazi forces in a way that puts sensation over sense; it says nothing of the event’s historical context or import. Indeed, it could have been made with all action and no words, where “Darkest Hour” is all about words, words-as-action and this seminal event’s meaning to our world. It asks you to engage intellectually, not just viscerally.

But if it’s a history lesson, it’s one that plays like a tightly wound, pulse-pounding thriller. And why not: the decisions it depicts may have determined the fate of the world. The action takes place from May 8 to June 4, 1940 (the film regularly slams the dates at us in big block letters), and is framed by two important addresses in the House of Commons, the “Norway Debate” and Churchill’s rousing, epochal “We shall fight them on the beaches” speech. In between, Churchill becomes Prime Minister, because he’s the only member of his party acceptable to the opposition, and then rallies the country to fight Hitler when other politicians want to strike a deal with him.

Understanding the importance of this story’s events is not terribly easy now because it’s difficult to look at the world of 1940 as people did then. The Germans may have subjugated several European countries, but the coming slaughter of the continent’s Jews was still unsuspected, and Hitler was widely seen as a very effective authoritarian ruler (a quality that some non-Germans beset with dithering democrats frankly admired) rather than a murderous madman. Churchill’s virtue in this moment was to see the truth more clearly than others did, and to understand both the absolute necessity and the arduous difficulty of fighting the Nazi regime to the death.

The film’s title is entirely accurate. With the Germans threatening to obliterate Britain’s army prior to the Dunkirk evacuation (which is alluded to rather than shown here), and Churchill soon to hear Franklin Roosevelt decline to help the Brits due to the anti-interventionist sentiment in Congress, the United Kingdom was at a very dark and lonely place indeed. It’s no wonder that Churchill’s main opponents in this drama, Neville Chamberlain ( Ronald Pickup ) and Lord Halifax ( Stephen Dillane ), encouraged having Mussolini negotiate a deal with Hitler that might have spared Britain from invasion and potential mass slaughter. Even King George VI ( Ben Mendelsohn ), before being won over to Churchill’s viewpoint, was amenable to dealing with the devil.

The Winston Churchill we see here is no cartoon hero or plaster saint. As the recent, wretched “ Churchill ” (which was as roundly denounced by historians and Churchill experts as “Darkest Hour” has been praised) did, Wright’s film notes the dark stain on the leader’s public career that the battle of Gallipoli in World War I represented, but doesn’t make it a psychological millstone. “Darkest Hour” likewise frequently shows us its protagonist from the viewpoints of his acerbic though supportive wife, Clemmie (the brilliant Kristin Scott Thomas ), and his young, endlessly put-upon secretary, Elizabeth ( Lily James ). Yet the freshness of this film’s portrayal begins with the dramatic sharpness and historical intelligence of Anthony McCarten ’s script, which gives us a Churchill who is drawn into dynamic action by the looming shadow of Hitler’s evil.

After charting the perilous political waters, he must navigate to gain the support of his war cabinet, the film climaxes with a sublime invention: a scene in which Churchill, on the way to Parliament, bounds out of his traffic-bound limousine, hops on the Underground and listens to a car full of average Londoners voice their support for his war aims. As corny as this may sound, it’s an entirely appropriate way of registering the kind of popular backing, even affection, that Churchill enjoyed during wartime (he was voted out of office as soon as the war ended), and it works in part due to the spunky charm and thoroughgoing excellence of Gary Oldman’s performance, which deserves every award it will inevitably win.

A kindred excellence characterizes the striking collaboration between Joe Wright and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel , who together give the film a very nuanced and engaging balance of light and shadow, eloquent movement and meditative stasis. For my money, Delbonnel’s work surpasses even “Dunkirk” to emerge as the best cinematography of the year so far. Wright’s team also benefits from the understated lyricism of Dario Marianelli ’s score.

The events leading up to the charged drama we see in “Darkest Hour” have not been totally forgotten, of course. The name of Neville Chamberlain, Churchill’s predecessor, will forever be associated with the term “appeasement,” which these days hardliners use at every opportunity to denounce attempts to negotiate with objectionable regimes and rulers. But Wright’s film indirectly makes the point that not every tinpot dictator is a Hitler nor is every posturing, hawkish politician a Churchill. Certain times and men are indeed exceptional, which is why a movie like “Darkest Hour” itself stands apart from more routine historical dramas.

Godfrey Cheshire

Godfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. He has written for The New York Times, Variety, Film Comment, The Village Voice, Interview, Cineaste and other publications.

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Darkest Hour (2017)

114 minutes

Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill

Lily James as Elizabeth Layton

Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI

Kristin Scott Thomas as Clementine Churchill

Richard Lumsden as General Ismay

Stephen Dillane as Viscount Halifax

Samuel West as Sir Anthony Eden

Jordan Waller as Randolph Churchill

Ronald Pickup as Neville Chamberlain

• Anthony McCarten
• Dario Marianelli

Cinematography

• Bruno Delbonnel
• Valerio Bonelli

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Film Review: ‘Darkest Hour’

Hidden behind fake jowls and a receding hairline, Gary Oldman delivers one of the great performances of his career as Winston Churchill.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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With all due respect to Christopher Nolan, no filmmaker has captured the evacuation of Dunkirk better than Joe Wright , who evoked the sheer scale of England’s finest hour via a five-minute tracking shot in “Atonement.” Now, with “Darkest Hour,” Wright returns to show the other side of the operation. Set during the crucial early days of Winston Churchill’s first term as prime minister, this talky yet stunningly cinematic history lesson balances the great orator’s public triumphs with more vulnerable private moments of self-doubt, elevating the inner workings of British government into a compelling piece of populist entertainment.

Whereas Nolan’s “Dunkirk” so thrillingly illustrated the military rescue at Dunkirk, all but banishing Churchill to a newspaper article read aloud at the end of the film, “Darkest Hour” spends nearly every scene at the prime minister’s side — except for the first couple, during which Churchill is dramatically absent, represented only by the bowler hat left behind in his empty seat in the House of Commons.

Wright introduces Churchill a few minutes later, sitting in the dark of his own bedroom, illuminated only by the match he strikes to light his signature cigar. The face that appears belongs to Gary Oldman , all but unrecognizable beneath Kazuhiro Tsuji’s jowly prosthetic makeup and thinning white hair. Upon closer examination, the eyes are unmistakably Oldman’s: alert, intense and aggressively intelligent. The resulting performance is unlike anything Oldman has previously delivered, in part because this time, the character is one we presume to know so well from archival footage, photographs and radio recordings. And yet, the master actor rejects mere mimicry, constructing from the ground up a full-bodied and impressively nuanced version of the historical figure.

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Beginning on May 9, 1940, and ticking away the days to Operation Dynamo in bold block letters, “Darkest Hour” begins as France and Belgium are on the brink of surrendering to Hitler. Parliament has lost confidence in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup), who has terminal cancer and tenders his resignation directly to King George (Ben Mendelsohn). Churchill wasn’t his party’s first choice, but he was the only conservative of whom the opposition approved, in part because he had flip-flopped between both parties over the previous decade.

That flexibility was one of his greatest assets — or so believes his wife Clementine (Kristin Scott Thomas, a strong force in a few small but impactful scenes) — and the reason he was able to build a coalition government in this time of crisis. And yet, Churchill was also a man of conviction, and the movie paints him as the lone politician willing to defy Hitler and to declare war “at any cost” if necessary, when so many wanted to seek peace — or were otherwise unwilling to repeat the bloodshed of the Great War that had cost the U.K. so dearly just two decades earlier.

Arriving at a moment when screens are virtually saturated with Churchill portrayals — ranging from John Lithgow’s turn on “The Crown” to theatrical offerings starring Brian Cox and Michael Gambon — “Darkest Hour” is by far the most cinematic, this despite Anthony McCarten’s script , so eloquently theatrical that it conceivably could have been performed on a blank stage. Wright is both a virtuoso filmmaker and a natural showman, interpreting the screenplay as no other director could have possibly imagined it. Since his very first feature, 2005’s “Pride & Prejudice,” he has been reinventing the rules of how period pieces ought to be shot, and “Darkest Hour” is no different.

Dialing things back from his relatively garish adaptations of “Anna Karenina” and “Pan,” this more elegant film’s style brilliantly marries the classical with the cutting-edge, relying on regular composer Dario Marianelli and his swirling, march-like motifs for much of its energy. Working for the first time with DP Bruno Delbonnel, Wright frames the House of Commons from angles that suggest 18th-century painting, and pushes the contrast to such an extreme that the look — with its deep shadows and near-blinding highlights — recalls black-and-white films of the era. At the same time, he innovates, breaking from the walk-and-talk political-drama template introduced by “The West Wing” (from which “House of Cards” and so many others still borrow) in favor of a more dynamic, omniscient camera, with which he navigates the halls of power.

Apart from a few high-concept overhead views of the front itself (including one especially stunning shot in which bombs erupt on a stretch of terrain that seamlessly fades into the corpse of a fallen soldier), “Darkest Hour” takes place in an entirely different sphere of action, its locations ranging from the bunker-like cabinet war rooms beneath Westminster Palace to Churchill’s own private residence — all impressively recreated without drawing undue attention to the production design. The idea here is that the audience has complete, unrestricted access to Churchill during these critical days, at one point even following him into a private room from which he calls U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose hands are tied by recent neutrality agreements.

Churchill may be prime minister, but his power is blocked by the leaders of both parties, who are scheming to undermine him, lest he agree to talk peace with Italy’s Benito Mussolini. Meanwhile, Churchill has self-confidence issues of his own — and in these he is supported by the young typist (Lily James) to whom he dictates his various letters and speeches.

Unfortunately, this particular chapter in history has been so thoroughly dramatized in recent years that many of the finest moments in “Darkest Hours” echo elements from other films. For example, “Churchill” (released earlier this summer) offers the wife and secretary characters meatier roles, and a key scene in which the prime minster goes on the radio to address the nation too closely resembles “The King’s Speech” (although it should be said that Mendelson’s portrayal of George VI improves upon Colin Firth’s in some ways).

Even so, familiarity does nothing to diminish the power of Churchill’s well-known speeches — to the extent that some audience members may find themselves mouthing the words in unison, as James’ character does from the sidelines. And McCarten creates an entirely original, if borderline-corny sequence set in the London Underground, during which Churchill interfaces directly with his constituents, regardless of race or class. His actual policies were far less progressive, but for the sake of this stirring bit of political revisionism, it swells the heart to see Churchill bonding with the black man who finishes his Shakespearean quotation. In actuality, Churchill wrote his own history, and here, Wright and McCarten have re-drafted it even more emphatically in his favor. But Oldman makes him human, and his performance gives us ample room to reevaluate the iconic figure.

Reviewed at Telluride Film Festival, Sept. 1, 2017. (Also in Toronto Film Festival — Gala Presentation.) MPAA Rating: TK. Running time: 125 MIN.

• Production: (U.K.) A Focus Features release, presented in association with Perfect World Pictures, of a Working Title production. Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski. Executive producers: James Biddle, Lucas Webb, Liza Chasin.
• Crew: Director: Joe Wright. Screenplay: Anthony McCarten. Camera (color): Bruno Delbonnel. Editor: Valerio Bonelli. Music: Dario Marianelli.
• With: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn, Lily James, Ronald Pickup, Stephen Dillane, Nicholas Jones, Samuel West, David Schofield, Richard Lumsden, Malcolm Storry. (English, French dialogue)

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'Darkest Hour' Review: Gary Oldman Gives The Best Performance Of His Career [TIFF]

It's been a surprisingly big year for Dunkirk. Earlier this year, Lone Scherfig's Their Finest and Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk both told stories about the evacuation of British troops from the beach at Dunkirk during World War II. Now Joe Wright , who also chronicled the events of Dunkirk in Atonement , tells yet another version of this story with Darkest Hour . Darkest Hour is the behind-the-scenes look at not so much the evacuation itself, but the events leading up the evacuation. The film's main focus is British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Like Steven Spielberg's Lincoln , Darkest Hour isn't so much a biopic of a famous politician but rather a week-in-the-life type tale. As the film opens, parliament has lost faith in Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain ( Ronald Pickup ) for underestimating the nazi threat. Chamberlain is forced to resign, and the only man the parties seem to be willing to back is Churchill. But while he may have party support, Churchill will soon find his new position is even more challenging than he could've imagined. Gary Oldman plays Churchill, and he is indeed as magnificent as you've likely already heard. This likely won't come as much of a surprise, since Oldman is one of our great living actors, ut this may be his finest performance to date. Buried in makeup that's never distracting, Oldman becomes Churchill. There's plenty of opportunities here for the actor to go over-the-top, yet he finds just the right balance between Churchill's fiery continence and his quiet self-doubt. Darkest Hour runs the risk of falling into standard historical drama territory, but Wright and screenwriter Anthony McCarten work hard to avoid that stigma. McCarten's script is so meticulously structured that it would've fit right in on the stage, but Wright avoids stuffy staging through his cinematic direction, pointing his camera into smoky chambers where powerful words echo off hallowed walls. Chamberlain and Lord Halifax ( Stephen Dillane ) want Churchill to consider entering peace talks with Hitler before the Germans invade England. With France close to surrender and the British soldiers beaten back towards the sea at Dunkirk, things seem hopeless, and Chamberlain and Halifax are willing to hear Hitler's terms. Churchill, in turn, wants none of it – he knows Hitler is a monster, and hearing Hitler out would be tantamount to surrender.

Darkest Hour brings us into Churchill's world through his new secretary Elizabeth Nel, played by Lily James . On first introduction, Elizabeth seems like a character who will simply fade into the background and be mostly neglected the way Churchill's wife (played by Kristin Scott Thomas ) does. But Darkest Hour keeps Elizabeth in focus, and some of the best moments of the film are the quiet scenes that Churchill and Elizabeth share together. When Darkest Hour began production, no one could've guessed how prescient the story would be. But scenes like the one where Churchill talks to passengers on the London Ground to get the mood of the country, where the crowd cries they refuse to give into fascists and would rather fight them off at every turn, come off as even more meaningful now in 2017 then they would have a year ago. Overall though, the power in Darkest Hour rests on Gary Oldman and how he uses Churchill's words. There's plenty to dislike about Churchill's politics, but the man was a great orator, and Darkest Hour stresses the power of Churchill's words, and words in general, through several key moments. But anyone can go in front of a crowd and deliver words – it's whether or not the speaker believes the words that gives them their power. Oldman understands that, and brings it to his performance. Most of all though, Darkest Hour makes Churchill human. It removes him from the black and white photos of history and shows the conflicted man underneath. It may at times border on hagiography, yet it's hard to deny the power on display here. Darkest Hour may not be one the best movies of 2017, but it is one of the most powerful. When Churchill cries "Never surrender!" during one of his final speeches, it's a message worth embracing. /Film Rating: 7 out of 10

‘Darkest Hour’ Review: Gary Oldman Gives Us a Fearsome, Oscar-Worthy Churchill

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Gary Oldman is one of the greatest actors on the planet – and he proves it again as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, director Joe Wright’s rip-roaring take on the celebrated Prime Minister’s first tumultuous month in office in May, 1940, when France and Belgium are a whisper away from surrendering to Hitler and Great Britain may be next. (How I’d love to see Oldman’s take on the Fuhrer). 

The British actor, 59, has played real people before, from Sid Vicious ( Sid and Nancy ) to Lee Harvey Oswald ( JFK ). But his Churchill is something different. At first, the slender chameleon is barely recognizable in his fat suit and buried under layers of artful, award-caliber makeup, courtesy of Japanese craftsman Kazuhiro Tsuji. But then something magical happens, like it does when the gods of cinema align. Those flashing eyes, brimming with mischief, are unmistakenly Oldman’s, and his vocal technique rises to the challenge of capturing one of the most eloquent, inspiring voices in history without indulging in mere mimicry. In his 35-year-film career, Oldman has only received one nomination from the Academy, for playing master spy George Smiley in 2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. This will surely end that oversight. Get busy engraving Oldman’s name on an Oscar right bloody now.

And those fearing that Darkest Hour is nothing but a dull tableau of blowhard stuffed shirts will be relieved to know that they’re in for a lively, provocative historical drama that runs on its own nonstop creative fire. Wright introduces us to the great man lighting a cigar in bed – but from then on, the hard-drinking Churchill is on his feet and demanding attention like the brawling infant he resembles. Whether he’s terrorizing a timid, young typist (Lily James) or grumbling at criticism doled out by his loyal, impatient wife, Clementine (a sublimely tart Kristin Scott Thomas), Churchill, at 66, is a lion who’s definitely not ready for winter.

Working from a scrappy, dialogue-heavy script by Anthony McCarten ( The Theory of Everything ), Wright brings a cinematic dynamism to every scene, even when confined to Churchill’s chambers, underground war rooms and the halls of Parliament. That’s where Churchill squeaks by as a compromise candidate, one who’s hated only slightly less than his Hitler-appeasing predecessor Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup). Though the evacuation of British soldiers on the beaches of Dunkirk will change the course of the war, no one knew that for sure … especially Churchill, who often hid his uncertainty in alcohol and a haze of cigar smoke. We see almost nothing of the Operation Dynamo action, which makes Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dunkirk the perfect companion piece to Wright’s interior drama. (Oldman recently joked that Nolan’s epic was “the most expensive second unit” in film history. Ironically, both films will be vying against each other for awards this season.)

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Wright has been much praised for bringing a modern energy to period pieces ( Pride & Prejudice, Atonement), a nd he animates the hothouse atmosphere of Churchill’s gilded cage with thoughtful debate and vigorous visuals. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel ( Amelie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ) keeps his camera in a constant whirl, marching in time to a thrilling score by Dario Marianelli. The Prime Minsiter’s instinct to refuse peace talks with Germany brokered by Mussolini doesn’t sit well at first with King George (Ben Mendelsohn, in the same role that won Colin Firth an Oscar in The King’s Speech ). But the unthinkable idea of an English regent in exile in Canada brings the two men closer together. The film falters slightly during an imagined scene in which Churchill sneaks off for a ride on the London underground and talks policy with a melting pot of commoners. But this distillation of London pride, of the king’s subjects shouting “Never!” to the possibility of seeing a Nazi flag flying over Buckingham Palace, is essential to Churchill’s insistence on war.

Oldman delivers Churchill’s famous radio speech (“We shall fight them on the beaches”) with all the rhetorical thunder it requires. But this consummate actor is arguably at his very best when he shows us the politician at his most vulnerable, backed against the wall and thwarted by those outside and inside his own inner circle. John Lithgow won an Emmy for playing Churchill in The Crown;  the formidable Brian Cox and Michael Gambon joined the recent run of interpretations of the PM. Still, it’s Oldman, whose performance as Churchill feels definitive, revealing a fearsome, sometimes fearful man racked by self doubts and still able to find the conviction to rally his nation, and countless nations to come, to fight against living under the heel of tyranny. The victory of Darkest Hour as a film is not just to hear those word repeated, but to discover the flawed human being who carved those words out of the dark night of his own soul.

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Darkest Hour (2017)

Had churchill really supported the king's brother edward viii's decision to abdicate the throne to marry divorcee wallis simpson.

Churchill had supported King Edward VIII during the Abdication Crisis, a decision that indeed hurt his reputation in the government. However, the Darkest Hour true story reveals that he did not want to see the King abdicate. Instead, he pushed for more time so that Parliament and the people could be consulted, even suggesting that if given more time, the King might fall out of love with the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. Churchill believed that the Ministry was putting unconstitutional pressure on the King to make a rushed decision and feared that it would result in him unnecessarily giving up the throne. Despite the working class and veterans showing overwhelming support for the King, Churchill's position left his reputation damaged. The Abdication and its royal and political aftermath are addressed more closely in the Netflix series The Crown , which we've also researched. Actor Gary Oldman (left) portrays Winston Churchill in The Darkest Hour movie. Winston Churchill (right) pictured while on a trip to the United States in 1941.

Why exactly did Neville Chamberlain resign as British Prime Minister?

Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill's predecessor, resigned due to a loss of confidence in his foreign policy after the Allies were forced to retreat from Norway, which resulted in the occupation of Norway by Germany. Chamberlain had been leading Britain in what had become known as the Phoney War. Despite Britain and France signing military assistance treaties with Poland, neither country had launched significant offensive operations after Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Winston Churchill wanted to take the war into a more active phase, unlike Chamberlain, who was better suited to be a peacetime leader. He had left the country ill-prepared for war. In addition, the Labour and Liberal parties refused to join the government while Chamberlain was in charge. While researching to answer the question, "How accurate is the Darkest Hour ?" we learned that Neville Chamberlain did have cancer (colon cancer) and he died from it later that year. He had been in almost constant pain by the summer of 1940, so the scene where he's taking morphine makes sense. Winston Churchill delivered the eulogy at his funeral.

In the spring of 1940, was confidence in Churchill really as low as it is portrayed to be in the movie?

Yes. With his success in WWII, it is easy to assume Winston Churchill always had universal support. However, the Darkest Hour true story confirms that confidence in Churchill was indeed extremely shaky when he first took office. He had been Lord of the Admiralty under Chamberlain and was viewed as being largely responsible for the strategic failures in Norway. In addition, many had not forgotten his role in the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign during World War I, which resulted in him being demoted before resigning from the government for a short time. A lot of his counterparts in the Conservative Party thought he was an opportunist, and like in the movie, they preferred Lord Halifax instead. Churchill also faced staunch resistance from his rivals in Cabinet and in the opposition parties in general. Listen to his first speech as Prime Minister to the House of Commons , during which he promises that he has nothing to offer but "blood, toil, tears and sweat." Winston Churchill (right) flashes the victory sign. Gary Oldman (left) mimics the gesture in the movie.

Was Churchill often mean to his staff?

Yes. In the Darkest Hour movie , Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) scolds his personal secretary Elizabeth Layton (Lily James) for hearing him wrong and dictating the incorrect word. It's her first day working for him and his harshness scares her off. It was indeed hard to understand Churchill until you got used to how he spoke, and even harder over the sound of the typewriter. As in the film, he did not like changes in staff, nor did he like noisy typewriters. The real Elizabeth Layton did accidentally have the typewriter set to single-spacing, for which he called her a "a fool, a mug, an idiot" and told her to leave his presence. In real life, she did not try again for a few days. His demeanor with his staff is accurately depicted and his wife Clementine did get after him for it, even writing him a letter telling him to treat them better. The real Elizabeth Layton confirmed Churchill's coarse ways in her 1958 memoir Mr. Churchill's Secretary , writing, "[T]hat great man - who could at any time be impatient, kind, irritable, crushing, generous, inspiring, difficult, alarming, amusing, unpredictable, considerate, seemingly impossible to please, charming, demanding, inconsiderate, quick to anger and quick to forgive - was unforgettable. One loved him with a deep devotion. Difficult to work for - yes, mostly; loveable - always; amusing - without fail." The real Elizabeth Layton (pictured on the right during the war years) really did get scolded by Churchill on her first day for accidentally typing the dictation single-spaced. Lily James (left) portrays Layton in the movie.

Was Churchill's personal secretary, Elizabeth Layton, at his side during the events depicted in the film?

No, her role in the film is fictional. According to her obituary, she didn't become Winston Churchill's personal secretary until May 5, 1941, at the height of the Blitz. This was a year after the events in the movie. However, it's not hard to see why they included her in the film. She was his personal secretary and a close companion throughout most of the war, and indeed spent long hours with him in the subterranean Cabinet War Rooms. She detailed much of her experience in her 1958 book of memoirs, Mr. Churchill's Secretary , later re-titled Winston Churchill by his Personal Secretary . While fact-checking the Darkest Hour , we learned that, like in the movie, the real Elizabeth Layton took notes by his bedside and accompanied him in his official car as she juggled a pen, paper, matches, his cigars, and the ministerial black box. It didn't take long for her to realize that he had "a loving heart," despite how difficult he could be. She was indeed fascinated by Churchill's ability as a writer and orator, commenting, "Sometimes his voice would become thick with emotion, and occasionally a tear would run down his cheek. As inspiration came to him, he would gesture with his hands, just as one knew he would be doing when he delivered his speech, and the sentences would roll out with so much feeling that one died with the soldiers, toiled with the workers, hated the enemy, strained for victory." It's true that Elizabeth Layton was unmarried during the war. She met her husband, Frans Nel, during the victory celebrations in Whitehall in 1945. Her final wartime task was to take dictation for Churchill's historic VE-Day speech that he delivered on May 8, 1945. Mr. Churchill's Secretary (re-titled Winston Churchill by his Personal Secretary) was written by the real-life Elizabeth Nel (formerly Layton) and offers an inside look at Churchill from the woman who worked by his side during the war years of 1941-1945.

Why didn't Viscount Halifax want to be Prime Minister?

In researching the Darkest Hour true story, we confirmed that there was indeed widespread support for Halifax (portrayed by Stephen Dillane) to step in as Prime Minister upon the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on May 10, 1940, but Halifax declined the position. His role in the House of Lords was given as the official reason. In reality, he lacked enough support from the Labour Party and also felt that Churchill would be a more suitable leader during wartime. He believed that he would largely lose his voice should he step into the role himself, especially since Churchill would still be First Lord of the Admiralty and orchestrating the conduct of the war anyway. In his memoirs, Halifax stated: I had no doubt at all in my own mind that for me to succeed him would create a quite impossible situation. Apart altogether from Churchill's qualities as compared with my own at this particular juncture, what would in fact be my position? Churchill would be running Defence, and in this connexion one could not but remember the relationship between Asquith and Lloyd George had broken down in the first war... I should speedily become a more or less honorary Prime Minister, living in a kind of twilight just outside the things that really mattered.

Was Churchill's wife Clementine really as central of a figure in his life?

Yes. Their loving relationship is accurately depicted in the movie. He affectionately called her "Cat" and her pet name for him was "Pig" (or occasionally "Pug"). It's also true that their relationship and family in general took a backseat to his life in politics. In the movie, Clementine accurately describes the toll it took on the family when she is at home toasting his appointment as PM. -The Telegraph Despite Winston Churchill's wife Clementine coming in second to politics, she remained an unwavering constant who always stood by him.

Churchill's wife says they're broke. Was that true?

In answering the question, "How accurate is the Darkest Hour ?" we discovered that Churchill's expensive tastes indeed put a strain on the family's finances. In the movie, Clementine (Kristin Scott Thomas) tells him they're broke. His penchant for cigars and fine liquor did not come cheap. He also was paying to maintain their country home in Chartwell. Churchill had earned well as a journalist, but it wasn't until the publication of his memoirs of the Second World War that he found true financial independence. The memoirs were the main reason he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. -TIME The Gathering Storm is the first volume of Winston Churchill's bestselling memoirs about the Second World War.

Did they really meet in the underground War Rooms?

Not exactly. The real underground bunker known as the War Rooms were located near Parliament and functioned as part map room and part air-raid shelter. However, the movie's use of them by Churchill in May of 1940 is fictional. "There's a slight inaccuracy because the war rooms, although they were opened at the end of August 1939, were not used by Churchill after he became Prime Minister until September 1940 because there were no bombing raids," says Phil Reed, the Darkest Hour 's historical adviser and director emeritus of the Churchill War Rooms, which are now a museum. "It was meant to be a place he could meet in safety during a bombing raid—although they most certainly weren't safe." -TIME The movie does do a good job at getting some of the smaller details right. During the heated discussions in the film, Churchill can be seen tapping his signet ring on the arm of his chair. If you visit the War Rooms today, Churchill's chair is behind glass. A closer examination reveals that on the arm of the chair are scratches from where he tapped his ring, albeit at a later point in time than depicted in the movie. -The Telegraph

Did Churchill get into heated discussions with Halifax during meetings of the War Cabinet?

Yes, but the movie seems to dramatize the emotions a bit, which erupt into all-out shouting matches in the film. Fact-checking The Darkest Hour confirmed that voices did emerge in corners of the War Cabinet suggesting coming to terms with Germany, and the biggest voice in favor was indeed that of Churchill's Foreign Secretary, Viscount Halifax. He even threatened to resign should there be no attempt made to negotiate peace terms with Germany. Like in the film, Viscount Halifax and Neville Chamberlain wanted Britain to enter into peace negotiations through Mussolini's intermediaries. In attempting to stand his ground, Churchill bore an enormous weight on his shoulders during the month of May 1940 and this is conveyed rather effectively in the movie. "Until the time that Lord Halifax and Chamberlain decided that there was to be no parlay with the Italians, I just can't conceive of what he was carrying on his shoulders. I can't conceive it," says Churchill's grandson, Nicholas Soames. The battles between Prime Minister Churchill and Foreign Secretary Halifax are referred to collectively as the May 1940 War Cabinet Crisis. -The Telegraph The heated arguments between Viscount Halifax and Churchill during the War Cabinet meetings in the movie weren't quite as volatile in real life. Stephen Dillane (left) portrays Halifax in the movie and the real Halifax is on the right.

Did Churchill really become increasingly indecisive about standing his ground against entering into peace negotiations with Germany?

No. Though Churchill admitted guardedly and behind closed doors that he would consider terms presented by Germany, the Darkest Hour true story reveals that he wasn't on the verge of seeking them. Instead, he was likely trying to buy time until British forces were successfully evacuated from Dunkirk. There wasn't a nail-biting decision to stand his ground like in the movie, and he was far more decisive than he is depicted. Churchill by then knew that Hitler could not be trusted, and if Britain was to fight a resistance campaign against German occupation, capitulation would be both a moral surrender and a crushing blow to any attempt at unifying the country. On May 28, 1940, Churchill instructed his War Cabinet "that every man of you would rise up and tear me down from my place if I were for one moment to contemplate parley or surrender. If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each one of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground." -National Review The real Winston Churchill (right) was more decisive than the movie portrays. Gary Oldman (left) as Churchill in the Darkest Hour movie.

Did Churchill really make a late-night phone call to President Roosevelt, pleading for help?

It's true that at that point in the spring of 1940, most Americans wanted no part of Europe's war. However, it's unlikely the late-night call ever happened, specifically because that direct scrambled phone line didn't exist until 1943 ( Slate.com ). In the Darkest Hour movie, Churchill asks Roosevelt for the ships Britain bought, "We paid for them . . . with the money that we borrowed from you." Roosevelt reminds him that by law the United States cannot come to Britain's rescue. The scene ends with Churchill slamming the phone down in frustration. It certainly captures the desperation Britain felt as Hitler's grasp was tightening around its neck. -National Review Above: Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt pictured at the White House in 1941. The phone call basically verbalizes the real May 15, 1940 letter that Prime Minister Churchill wrote to President Roosevelt, in which he asks for "the loan of forty or fifty of your older destroyers", "several hundred of the latest types of aircraft", "anti-aircraft equipment and ammunition", and "steel". In the letter, he emphasizes the dire situation in Europe and the need for the United States to help. "But I trust you realize, Mr. President, that the voice and force of the United States may count for nothing if they are withheld too long." Read the full text of Churchill's May 15 Letter to Roosevelt . Churchill had been writing Roosevelt ever since he had become First Lord of the Admiralty on September 3, 1939. Four days after penning the letter to Roosevelt, Churchill also stressed the need for more airplanes, tanks and guns in his "Be Ye Men of Valour" radio address , which is heard in the movie.

Did Elizabeth Layton's brother really die while fighting in France?

No. In the movie, Churchill (Gary Oldman) learns that the brother of personal secretary Elizabeth Layton (Lily James) has died fighting in France. It's a moving moment in the film, as Churchill is visibly filled with emotion but at the same time amazed at the bravery in Layton's face as she carries on. Nowhere in her memoir, titled Winston Churchill by his Personal Secretary , does Layton mention her brother dying. Instead, she mentions Churchill arranging for her to spend time at her brother's home in Canada later while they were on a mid-war trip to the United States. Layton also had a sister who migrated to South Africa to join her after the war (Layton married South African Lieutenant Frans Nel in 1945).

Did a late-night meeting result in Churchill and King George VI becoming friends?

No. In fact-checking The Darkest Hour , we discovered that while it's true that King George VI was not always a fan of Churchill, their friendship took much longer to develop in real life. The process is sped up for the movie. The king's consoling visit makes sense artistically, but given that it took the length of the war for them to develop a mutual respect and fondness for one another in real life, the scene doesn't make sense chronologically. It is true that the two had a great deal in common. For instance, when Churchill tells the king about his parents, it's believable that this could have arose in their Monday meetings. They were both brought up by glamorous mothers and bad-tempered fathers. Both exhibited bravery when they served in the Great War. At the end of WWII, King George wrote Churchill a touching letter telling him that he was banned from joining the troops on D-Day, since the risk to his life was too great. -The Telegraph The King's late-night visit with Churchill never happened in real-life, nor did the immediate friendship that was created because of it.

Did Winston Churchill ride the London Underground to get a sense of the mood of ordinary Brits in relation to the war?

No. In the movie, after King George (Ben Mendelsohn) pays Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) a late-night visit and suggests that he go to the people, Churchill decides to take a ride on the London Underground to discover how ordinary Brits feel about potentially entering into peace negotiations with Germany. Despite this being one of the more moving moments in the movie, it's also one of the more far-fetched ones, as there is little evidence to support that anything similar happened. -The Telegraph Director Joe Wright called the scene a "fictionalization of an emotional truth," reasoning that Churchill was known to go AWOL at times. "They didn't know where he went," said Wright. "And he was also known to go and visit the people of London and seek their counsel, and have a little cry with them sometimes." In admitting the scene is fiction, Wright says that he made sure to be most factual when it came to the characters themselves, who could not defend themselves against historical inaccuracies. In real life, the only time Churchill had reportedly ever ridden on the Underground was during the general strike of 1926. -CinemaBlend.com Implying that Londoners Churchill met gave him the words he would use in his most defining speech misrepresents him as a leader. He was not the people's puppet. He felt that God had placed him on Earth to lead the British people. He would later write, "At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial. . . . I was sure I should not fail." -National Review Unlike the Darkest Hour movie, the real Winston Churchill never rode the London Underground to get advice from the citizens.

Did Gary Oldman gain weight to look more like Winston Churchill?

No. Instead, Gary Oldman recruited legendary makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji, who had retired from doing makeup for movies. Tsuji had previously worked on well-known films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Planet of the Apes (2001) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). Oldman, who is almost 60, said that at his age he knew it would be especially unhealthy to put on 50 or 60 pounds for the role. For 48 days of consecutive shooting, the fat suit, clothes and makeup took just under four hours to put on and almost an hour to take off. Oldman told Graham Norton that he got nicotine poisoning on the set from smoking roughly twelve cigars a day in order to portray Winston Churchill. "I went through $30,000 of cigars on the set," said Oldman. "I basically had a bad stomach for the three months I was on [the set]." By Christmas, his stomach problems had persisted for so long that he found himself having a colonoscopy done. Oldman says it's a price to pay but it was worth it. It took four hours for makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji to make Gary Oldman look like Winston Churchill. Oldman is pictured without makeup (inset).

Broaden your understanding of the Darkest Hour true story by listening to Winston Churchill's real speeches below, which Gary Oldman recreated in the movie.

• Churchill's May 15, 1940 Letter to President Roosevelt Asking for Help
• Darkest Hour Official Movie Website

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Darkest hour, common sense media reviewers.

Mild but talky look at Churchill's early days in power.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The story of this part of Churchill's career is al

Many noted political figures appear; each is given

The film is set in wartime, but no violence is sho

At least one use of "s--t," plus "goddamn," "bugge

Churchill was a drinker, which is shown, but he's

Parents need to know that Darkest Hour is set during an extremely stressful time in British history: when the Nazis were at their most powerful, rolling through Europe and threatening the United Kingdom's very existence. It focuses on Winston Churchill's (Gary Oldman) role in that military reality and the…

Positive Messages

The story of this part of Churchill's career is all about courage -- specifically, the courage to stand by your core beliefs against all odds. The British faced a dreadful choice: Give in to the Nazis in order to survive, or refuse to surrender and possibly lose many, many lives as a result. Churchill led them down the latter path.

Positive Role Models

Many noted political figures appear; each is given reasonable motivation for his choices, whether to fight or surrender. Even the king (George VI) is portrayed positively, as wise and patient. But Churchill is the hero here; he's shown wrestling with doubts and political strife before taking his famous "We shall fight" stand. No notable female characters or diversity.

Violence & Scariness

The film is set in wartime, but no violence is shown. It takes place almost entirely in England before the Blitz. British troops are shown holed up in a French church moments before an attack (via bomb, in an explosion viewers don't see). A little bit of blood on wounded soldiers.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

At least one use of "s--t," plus "goddamn," "bugger," "good God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Churchill was a drinker, which is shown, but he's never shown drunk. Lots of smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Darkest Hour is set during an extremely stressful time in British history: when the Nazis were at their most powerful, rolling through Europe and threatening the United Kingdom's very existence. It focuses on Winston Churchill's ( Gary Oldman ) role in that military reality and the courage he found to stand by his core beliefs against all odds. Although it's set during wartime, no violence is shown beyond a bit of blood on injured soldiers (a bomb falls on soldiers, but we don't see it on-screen). In fact, rather than action and battle, the film offers lots of talk and political maneuvering, so younger viewers might have trouble sticking with it. There's also some drinking and quite a bit of smoking, which is accurate for the era. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (10)
• Kids say (21)

Based on 10 parent reviews

Absorbing atmospheric slice of history

Wwii era gives glimpse into daily life of winston churchill, what's the story.

As the Nazis rampage through Europe in DARKEST HOUR, England's political turmoil pushes the controversial, iconoclastic Winston Churchill ( Gary Oldman ) to the nation's top political post. His reign as prime minister is dominated by an existential dilemma: Should the vastly outgunned UK fight it out or surrender to the Germans -- saving lives and hoping for the best? His position hanging by a thread, the new leader must make perhaps the most momentous decision in British history, with the clock to invasion ticking down.

Is It Any Good?

Joe Wright 's drama features a transformative turn by the excellent Gary Oldman as Churchill; unfortunately, the limited-scope biopic doesn't have much more in its arsenal than that. The cast of Darkest Hour is excellent, but the inner workings and relationships of the people they play are unexplored, giving the actors little chance to shine. The film recounts a key moment in British, European, and world history: Churchill's choice to resist the superior Axis forces to the end, rather than surrender (expressed in his famous "We shall fight" speech). But instead of filling the film with tension and desperation, Wright and screenwriter Anthony McCarten ( The Theory of Everything ) focus on destructive political struggles. Keeping the focus on the back-and-forth in Parliament and the king's slowly won approval distances viewers from the actual stakes. It feels as if the movie is about Churchill's political life, rather than the survival of the British civilization and its people. For instance, the desperate, Hail Mary evacuation of Dunkirk is a key plot point ... but it's represented in the film by gentlemanly politicians civilly (mostly) debating the options. It's perhaps an unfair comparison, but Christopher Nolan 's Dunkirk showed just how gripping that story could be. Not that Darkest Hour should have been a war film, but the audience does need to feel the weight that's bowing Churchill's back, not just be told about it.

The film commits the familiar sin of relating history almost exclusively through the mouths of the powerful. There's Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup), upon whom history hasn't smiled; lesser-known Viscount Halifax (the always-great Stephen Dillane ); and King George VI himself (Emmy winner Ben Mendelsohn ). There's a nice secretary ( Lily James ), but her story isn't explored, and the way her relationship with Churchill is portrayed here pales in comparison to a parallel arc between another secretary and Churchill in Netflix's The Crown . It's only toward the end of Darkest Hour that we're reminded there are actual people among the "British people." In what will surely become the movie's signature scene, Churchill unexpectedly consults/manipulates average citizens on the dire question facing the nation. It's only then that we're reminded what stands to be lost, destroyed, killed. As for Oldman, he's dependably watchable. (Read: He's less fun to watch than you'd expect.) The script simply doesn't help him; Churchill's famed wit is barely present. Bottom line? Darkest Hour is a patriotic, if too genteel, representation of the events leading to one of the most famous speeches of the 20th century.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what kind of movie Darkest Hour is: a war movie, a biopic, a historical document, a personal drama? Who do you think it's intended to appeal to?

Is this how you imagined Winston Churchill? How does he exhibit courage ? Why is that an important character strength ?

How did the film affect your view of Churchill? Facing the same odds, in that same situation, what choice do you think you'd have made?

How does the film depict drinking and smoking ? Does the era a movie is set in affect how you view these things?

How accurate do you think the movie is? Why might filmmakers choose to alter the facts in a story that's based on true events?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 22, 2017
• On DVD or streaming : February 27, 2018
• Cast : Gary Oldman , Lily James , Ben Mendelsohn
• Director : Joe Wright
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Focus Features
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : History
• Character Strengths : Courage
• Run time : 114 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : some thematic material
• Awards : Academy Award , Golden Globe
• Last updated : June 1, 2023

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Darkest Hour review – the woman behind a very great man

Kristin Scott Thomas as Clemmie Churchill brings welcome light to Joe Wright’s biopic of our feted wartime leader

I n this handsomely mounted but somewhat disingenuous war film from Joe Wright, words, rather than guns, are the main weapons. And wielded by Winston Churchill ( Gary Oldman , peering beadily from behind a fortification of quivering prosthetics and a battery of smouldering cigars), words can be every bit as persuasive as bullets.

The film, which covers Churchill’s uncertain first few weeks in the role of prime minister of a country poised on the brink of war, works best as a celebration of the art of stirring oratory. Playing out in airless, oak-panelled Westminster boardrooms and the crepuscular tunnels of the Cabinet War Rooms, it is unapologetically wordy. And at its best, this showcase for Churchill’s ornate verbal flourishes is rousing and satisfying.

But make no mistake, this is also a movie that is packed to the dusty rafters with blustering old blokes, harrumphing and politely stabbing each other in the back. Wright is clearly well aware of the potential for the kind of stuffiness that hampered last year’s Brian Cox -starring Churchill , and he deploys every tool at his disposal to sidestep dramatic inertia. The frame is sliced and carved with bayonets of piercing light; the ever-restless camera is hurled skywards to give a Spitfire’s eye view of the action below, before plummeting to earth again.

Like Wright’s direction, Oldman’s Golden Globe-winning performance is forceful, showy and somewhat belligerent. Kristin Scott Thomas , playing Clemmie Churchill, is a crisp and crucial antidote to all the pugnacious growling.

Less successful is the seeding of the film with cosy British signifiers. A scene that combines a shot of a full English breakfast and a reference to spotted dick in just a few seconds starts to feel like parody. But the most jarring misjudgment is an excruciating folly in which Churchill lumbers out of his car and on to the London underground, holding a mini-referendum among the commuters on whether to plead for peace or go to battle. It’s patronising, contrived and emits such a stench of artificiality that it makes your sinuses sting.

• Darkest Hour
• The Observer
• Gary Oldman
• Kristin Scott Thomas
• Winston Churchill

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The Darkest Hour

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Watch The Darkest Hour with a subscription on Prime Video, rent on Fandango at Home, or buy on Fandango at Home.

What to Know

Devoid of believable characters or convincing visual effects, this may be The Darkest Hour for the careers of all involved.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Chris Gorak

Emile Hirsch

Max Minghella

Olivia Thirlby

Rachael Taylor

Joel Kinnaman

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The Darkest Hour

In Moscow, five young people lead the charge against an alien race who have attacked Earth via our power supply. In Moscow, five young people lead the charge against an alien race who have attacked Earth via our power supply. In Moscow, five young people lead the charge against an alien race who have attacked Earth via our power supply.

• Chris Gorak
• Jon Spaihts
• Leslie Bohem
• Emile Hirsch
• Olivia Thirlby
• Max Minghella
• 303 User reviews
• 196 Critic reviews
• 18 Metascore
• 1 nomination

• (as Nikolai Efremov)

• (as Georgy Gromov)

• (as Arthur Smoljaninov)
• (as Anna Roudakova)

• Anton Batkin
• (as Petr Fedorov)

• Bartender No. 1
• Bartender No. 2
• (as Alexsandr Chernyh)

• First Policeman
• (as Oleg Poddubny)
• Second Policeman
• (as Vasja Fursenko)
• Drunk Russian No. 1
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The involvement of Timur Bekmambetov as producer afforded the production the opportunity of using Russia as a backdrop instead of the usual USA locations. Bekmambetov owns a film production company in Moscow called Bazelevs where most of the movie was made.
• Goofs When the characters have to jump off the boat into the river, Sean and Natalie both jump in together holding hands. All the characters except Natalie emerge together and climb aboard the submarine. Somehow Natalie has managed to end up in the city, clearly more than a few kilometers away. She probably swam there, and it wasn't as far as a few kilometers.

Skyler : How'd you come up with that?

Sean : I don't know. Shark Week.

• Crazy credits All the opening credits briefly appear in Russian before translated into English.
• Connections Edited into The Darkest Hour: Deleted and Extended Scenes (2012)
• Soundtracks MOCKBA (Moscow) Written by Igor Pustelnik Performed by Marselle

User reviews 303

• Oct 8, 2013
• How long is The Darkest Hour? Powered by Alexa
• December 25, 2011 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Official site (Japan)
• The Darkest Hour 3D
• Red Square, Kitai-gorod, Tverskoy District, Moscow, Russia
• Summit Entertainment
• New Regency Productions
• Bazelevs Production
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $30,000,000 (estimated)
• $21,443,494
• Dec 25, 2011
• $64,626,786

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 29 minutes
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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‘Darkest Hour’ Review: Gary Oldman Makes Joe Wright’s Biopic as Rousing and Ferocious as Winston Churchill Was Himself

David ehrlich.

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An electric chamber piece that couldn’t more perfectly complement “Dunkirk” if Christopher Nolan wrote it, “Darkest Hour” is as rousing and ferocious as Winston Churchill was himself. It’s also a hell of a lot more controlled. Unfolding with the clockwork precision of a Broadway play — director Joe Wright has always been at his best when he’s at his most theatrical — this tightly coiled retelling of Churchill’s first days in office is more than (yet another) passionate appeal to our collective goodness; it’s a deliciously unsubtle testament to the power of words and their infinite capacity to inspire.

That the film arrives at a time when words seem to have lost all their value only makes it that much more persuasive.

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Hardly the first time that Wright has fetishized the sway of language and its ability to shape history (“Atonement” was so lost in letters that Dario Marianelli wove the clatter of a typewriter directly into his score), “Darkest Hour” is a symphony of pencil scratches and carriage returns. And words — so many words, nearly all of them screamed. It starts by spelling out its title across the full length of the screen. The date is May 9, 1940, and Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) has officially lost the confidence of his government. He’s a timid man, and a dying one, and you have to speak very loudly in order to be heard in Parliament. If only there were some barking old bulldog waiting in the wings.

We first meet the future Prime Minister through the eyes of Elizabeth Layton ( Lily James ), a timid young typist who’s being sent into the slaughterhouse when she steps into Churchill’s bedroom in order to dictate his thoughts. Churchill is still tucked under the sheets with his pajamas on, looking every one of his 66 years. And yet, his speech — always delivered at a full bellow, even with a wet cigar dangling between his lips — is enough to make Elizabeth tremble and run from the room.

Screenwriter Anthony McCarten accurately remembers Churchill as a man in love with the sound of his own voice, and that quality alone is enough to make Gary Oldman the perfect choice to play him. One of the few actors whose performances are regularly big enough to be seen from space, Oldman has met his match. Here, for the first time, the star has found a character who’s larger than life itself; no matter how much hot air Oldman breathes into this balloon, it’s never going to pop. His Churchill might be the first lead performance in film history that’s delivered entirely in shouts, but it works.

Barely recognizable underneath 100 pounds of jowls, Oldman disappears into the role, and that’s all to its benefit. If Wright’s film is an intricate timepiece, then Oldman is the machinery just under its face: “Darkest Hour” doesn’t work without him, but it’s best that he remains invisible. Besides, how exciting could it possibly be to watch another British screen legend wind up their Winnie? Hell, with John Lithgow doing such a fine job of it on “The Crown,” even the American greats have gotten it down. No, this movie isn’t remarkable for what Oldman does, but rather for what Wright does with him.

McCarten’s script is limited to the month of May, and the majority of its action is confined to parliamentary halls and underground war rooms. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel shoots the former like he’s Janusz Kaminski, thick blades of of blinding sunlight beaming in from every window (all the better to capture the cigar smoke). He shoots the latter like Britain’s nerve center is an immaculate diorama, the camera gliding with purpose between rooms, down hallways, and across the blank spaces between sets like an episode of “The West Wing” as directed by Wes Anderson.

The restless fluidity of Wright’s style makes literal the idea of government as a machine in constant motion, and it restores a keen sense of urgency to one of the most famous global panics of the 20th century. The camerawork is never so dynamic that it makes Churchill’s success feel preordained, nor does it approach the snow-globe artificiality of Wright’s sublime “Anna Karenina,” but it rivetingly conveys the idea that brains and bluster were really the only tools at Churchill’s disposal. He certainly didn’t have any plans . Or hopes , for that matter.

Every day that ticks off the calendar is another day closer to surrender (or “peace talks”). Every day that passes is another day closer to the German Army routing the mass of British troops stationed at Dunkirk and Calais. The free world is on the brink of taking its last stand, and Churchill is sitting on a toilet and pleading with President Roosevelt to send him some ships.

To that point, “Darkest Hour” only wavers when Churchill does, it only slows down and lets some air out of the bag when Churchill begins to succumb to his doubts (this decline bottoming out in a fanciful scene where the Prime Minister comes face-to-face with his public). James, so damn winning on her own, isn’t given enough material to pick up the slack and meaningfully serve as Churchill’s conscience. Fortunately, Kristin Scott Thomas is aces as Winnie’s long-suffering wife, while Ben Mendelsohn outdoes Colin Firth as the stuttering King George VI, whose difficulties with words allowed him to recognize the power that Churchill could wield with them.

But the MVP here, the one person who’s able to hold the movie together despite all the dodgy bits in its latter half, is composer Dario Marianelli. Wright’s go-to guy has delivered some stunning work for the director in the past, but his score for “Darkest Hour” is a rare thing of beauty. Throbbing with vigor one moment, tumbling pianos towards despair the next, and then eventually entwining those disparate modes together into the cathartic bombast that accompanies Churchill’s famous speech (“We shall fight on the beaches…”), Marianelli’s music holds the film together, and the people of Britain along with it. At least until Churchill can find his rhythm and take things from there. By the time we cut (briefly) to the evacuation at Dunkirk, we’re all feeling the spirit — each and every viewer might as well be Mark Rylance loading up his pleasure boat and gallantly sailing into harm’s way.

This is a movie about the power of words, and those words have to rouse you into action. The movie wouldn’t work if you didn’t feel like Churchill mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. But you do — you do even before that perfect final image. Despots and tyrants have always been able to harness the power of words, but if certain current leaders prove anything, it’s that they only know how to use that power to incite. Winston Churchill could wield it to inspire . He could open his mouth and make a nation believe in themselves and in the nobility of their cause. And for that reason alone, our darkest hour was ultimately followed by the dawn.

“Darkest Hour” premiered at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival . It will open in theaters on November 22.

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Review: ‘The Hours’ Returns to the Met Opera With Its Stars

Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara and Joyce DiDonato reprised their roles in Kevin Puts’s adaptation of the award-winning novel and film.

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By Oussama Zahr

Kevin Puts’s “ The Hours ,” which had its stage premiere at the Metropolitan Opera last season and returned for its first revival on Sunday, is even prettier than I remember.

In the often exquisite score, the strings throb and the woodwinds flutter. When Puts reaches for percussion instruments, he chooses the sweeter ones — glockenspiel, crotales, chimes, vibraphone — and combines them luxuriously. Woodwinds at the top of Act II are practically Wagnerian in their extravagant stateliness. Tender piano chords toll lonesomely. Musical surges are thick with nostalgia. The luscious vocal lines revel in love, and understanding, of the human voice.

But it’s easy to miss the score’s manifold beauties when the stage is full of distractions. Extraneous dancers and supernumeraries flood Phelim McDermott’s production at the Met. In one moment, the choreographer Annie-B Parson has them twirl around holding pillows while a character considers killing herself in a hotel room. Adding to the busyness, Puts heavily features the chorus as a collective, omniscient narrator and the characters’ inner voices. As a device, it doesn’t work; while the story intimately intertwines the emotional lives of three women, the chorus infringes upon their connection with the audience.

It’s almost as though Puts and McDermott are afraid to take a sustained look at their heroines, or that they don’t trust the audience’s attention span. This is especially perplexing considering they have three leads on the order of Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara and Joyce DiDonato, who reprised their roles on Sunday. When the stage was free of clutter, their star wattage was dazzling.

As Virginia Woolf, DiDonato was a haunted, magisterial presence. Her voice, dark, fulsome and cutting, communicated Woolf’s intellectual depth and her personal demons; there was the insight and occlusion of a novelist at the height of her powers hiding her suicidal ideations from others. As Laura, O’Hara sang with a voice of fine crystal, and while her timbre was a little cloudier than it used to be, she embodied Laura’s fragile nerves and anxious self-loathing. The overall shape of Fleming’s voice remained improbably youthful in its creamy roundness. Her Clarissa was patrician yet superficial, though partial blame rests with the libretto, in which every other word of hers is “flowers” or “party.”

“The Hours” is based on Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, and on Stephen Daldry’s 2002 film adaptation . But the opera may be too loyal to its sources (and too awed by Woolf’s genius). Passing moments in the book are given undue importance here. The scene in the flower shop, with its tacky coloratura writing and pandering allusions to Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte,” the role of the Man Under the Arch, the omniscient chorus — all of it could easily be cut. While we’re at it, the staging could lose the dancers, too.

When Puts and Greg Pierce, the librettist, move away from literalism and embrace opera’s specific advantages as a medium, the work soars. The weaving of Laura’s and Virginia’s private agonies in a duet across time and space, a simultaneity more easily achieved here than in books or movies, creates an empathy that the audience feels even if the two of them cannot. Here, as elsewhere on Sunday, the orchestra played with wonderful fluidity, shape and character under the baton of Kensho Watanabe.

It is obvious that Puts tailored the lead roles to each of the three women. In the plainest moments of sung dialogue, their voices retained a lovely succulence. Still, at the high end of their ranges, O’Hara’s voice strained and DiDonato’s shuddered uncomfortably, and Fleming was hard to hear unless the orchestration was thinned out.

Despite the attention lavished on the women, it’s really the poet Richard, dying of AIDS and fed up with his life, who gives the piece its tragedy. The bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen sang with a darkly handsome tone and acted with wry, rending despair.

In the opera’s final moments, the women come together after Richard’s death. “Here is the world and you live in it,” they sing with compassionate simplicity. There’s a kindness to the moral, to the idea that we are enough. If only this gorgeous piece took its own advice to heart.

Through May 31 at the Metropolitan Opera, Manhattan; metopera.org .

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When the drake vs. kendrick lamar rap beef burns out “this can’t end well”.

Rap beefs are an essential part of hip-hop culture, but the recent battle between two of the genre's top performers has turned dark and ugly: "How far are we willing to go to win a rap battle?"

By Mesfin Fekadu

Mesfin Fekadu

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When USC professor and hip-hop scholar Todd Boyd remembers hearing Tupac Shakur ’s scathing diss track “Hit ‘Em Up,” he knew one thing: “This is not going to end well.”

The West Coast anthem was released in June 1996 and Shakur viciously took aim at his East Coast rivals, including the Notorious B.I.G. with claims — through strikingly chosen words — that he slept with Biggie’s wife, R&B singer Faith Evans.

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Drake and Kendrick Lamar ’s current rap beef has Boyd reflecting on the past. 

“This can’t end well. It can’t. The possibility of it going wrong is very high,” the author of Rapper’s Deluxe: How Hip Hop Made the World tells The Hollywood Reporter . “To accuse someone of being guilty of domestic violence [or] accuse someone of being a pedophile — the culture we live in now, this is not a good look. If you’re just saying it for a rhyme? That’s reckless. You can easily get off track in the interest of trying to spit a cool bar.”

“At a certain point, somebody’s going to say something and it’s not going to be treated as a line of battle rap — it’s going to be taken personally,” Boyd continues. “We’ve already seen it: Even though we don’t know what the circumstances were, [there’s] Drake’s security guard being shot at Drake’s house. It’s hard not to think that this doesn’t have something to do with it.”

Rap beefs are an essential part of hip-hop culture, friendly competition if you will. But the recent battle between two of the genre’s top performers has turned dark and ugly, and Boyd wonders: “How far are we willing to go to win a rap battle?”

The feud resurfaced this March when Lamar targeted Drake and J. Cole on “Like That,” a response to Cole after he said on last October’s “First Person Shooter” that the rappers were the “big three” in hip-hop. Cole replied but later deleted his diss track and issued a public apology to Lamar. But Drake didn’t hold back, releasing “Push Ups” — where he mentioned Lamar’s longtime partner and fiancée Whitney Alford — as well as “Taylor Made Freestyle” in April. Lamar quickly replied with “Euphoria” on and “6:16 in LA.” 

But Drake rebutted with “Family Matters” and made things extremely personal. He accused Lamar of abusing Alford and claimed the father of one of their children was in fact Dave Free, Lamar’s close friend and creative partner. Less than an hour later, Lamar hit back with “Meet the Grahams” and accused Drake of being a sexual predator, sex trafficking and fathering a secret child. Lamar didn’t end there: the next day he dropped “Not Like Us” and called Drake a pedophile and accused him of appropriating Black culture. The upbeat DJ Mustard-produced track set streaming records and spectators crowned Lamar the winner of the battle as a result.

“It’s like watching a train wreck,” Tigger continues. “The evolution of this is more akin to reality TV. Everyone lives to bring up the receipts. They want to expose someone. That’s exactly what this is all about.” Questlove shared Tigger’s sentiment in an Instagram post : “Nobody won the war. This wasn’t about skill. This was a wrestling match level mudslinging and takedown by any means necessary — women & children (& actual facts) be damned. Same audience wanting blood will soon put up ‘rip’ posts like they weren’t part of the problem. Hip Hop Is Truly Dead.” 

Joycelyn Wilson, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech who teaches a course on Lamar’s music , explained that the beef “went too far because Drake took it too far. He brought up the mother of [Kendrick’s] children and then questioned whether or not those were his children — from a person who keeps his children and the mothers of them in the dark.”

The hurled accusations have split fans and the accusations are heavy. But Aaron Smith, an assistant professor of Africology and African American studies at Temple University, notes that Lamar got ahead of his own story, unlike Drake.

Smith adds: “The only person accusing Kendrick Lamar is Drake. The whole world’s been accusing Drake for years.”

Despite being one of the top-charting artists since releasing mixtapes in the late 2010s, Drake’s behavior with young women has been questioned over the years, and Lamar’s lyrical assessment has brought more attention to the Canadian performer’s conduct. 

In 2010, a 23-year-old Drake danced and kissed the neck of a female fan onstage. After he asks her age — she reveals she’s 17 — he says, “I can’t go to jail yet, man. Seventeen, why do you look like that? You thick. Look at this.” The rapper’s friendships with Billie Eilish and Millie Bobby Brown, before they were both 18, have also been scrutinized. And Drake, who is biracial, has been called out as a performer who wears his Blackness as a costume and steals styles and sounds from his peers. As Wilson puts in: “Drake gave Kendrick Lamar the hammer to hit him over the head with and Kendrick clobbered him with it.”

“We don’t really know who Drake is, besides the son of a Jewish mother and an African-American father that lives in Memphis. We don’t know much about how he came up. We don’t know what traumas he’s experienced, and not at the level that Kendrick does. We don’t know how authentic his stories are because of how he’s always critiqued for having ghostwriters,” she says.

Wilson calls it the “Vanilla Ice-ing of Drake along cultural politics.”

Rap beefs have ended on good terms in the past: just look at Nas and Jay-Z . But when those titans traded words through song form, social media didn’t exist. Jay-Z released “Takeover” in Sept. 2001 and Nas responded three months later with “Ether,” one of the most regarded diss tracks of all-time.

That couldn’t happen today, and social media has severely influenced this current hip-hop war. 

“We live in an era of viral moments. I think with this situation, the quality of some of the music being dropped probably wasn’t as thorough as it could have been had more time been taken. I don’t know that having to come out so quickly is good,” Boyd says. When he thinks of past tracks like “Ether,” he explains: “In some ways they’re great because you had to wait and take your time and compose it in such a way it wasn’t immediate.”

It’s why Boyd says “when I talk about the great rap battles of the past, I don’t include ‘Hit ‘Em Up’ in that, and the reason is the way that ended.”

“I can’t look at that as just a song. I can’t look at that song as just a cool song because it had real life implications,” he says. “There are rules to the game. Talking shit, that’s part of the culture. By no means am I dismissing that. It doesn’t have to be something that ends in violence, but it can.”

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