Monday, January 22, 2018

Darkest Hour 2017

Good Flick.  Gary Oldham plays Winston Churchill and plays him well.  Churchill was the key allied leader in WWII.   The movie shows Churchill  rallying the British rank and file, silencing the appeasers,  launching Operation Dynamo (the evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk).  This is a crucial period in WWII.  England was the only important European power that Hitler never conquered.  Had England crumped, Hitler and his Nazis would have owned Europe, pretty much forever.  The movie ends with Churchill giving his "fight them on the beaches, fight them on the landing grounds.  We shall never surrender." speech in Parliament.   Far as I can tell, the movie follows the real history of the time.   The real history is so dramatic that nobody can imagine a way to make things more dramatic. 
    I liked this movie better than Dunkirk.  We watch one key protagonist (Churchill)  leading his country to fight against the Nazis.  Dunkirk was more into battle field views of anonymous British soldiers.  
    Costumes and sets were excellent.  Sets were ingeniously lit with the brightest light centered on the important actors in the scene.  Most scenes were the famous smoke filled rooms, the air blue with tobacco smoke.  Lots of very fancy period bric a brac every where, on desks, bureaus, and whatever.
    I saw the movie at the Lincoln NH theater on a Sunday night.  Crowd was light.  In fact there was only one other person, aside from myself in the theater. 

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