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Articles
“Then Out Spake Brave Horatius”: A Review of “Darkest Hour”
- By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
- | March 5, 2018
- Category: Churchill in Film and Video Explore
The Prime Minister at work, with secretary Elizabeth Layton, who actually did not join Churchill until 1941, but she is nicely played by Lily James. (Focus Features)
Lightest and Darkest
Darkest Hour, a film by Focus Features, directed by Joe Wright, script by Anthony McCarten, starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, and Kristin Scott Thomas as Clementine Churchill, 2hrs 5 min, December 2017.
Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods…”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay
I finally saw Darkest Hour on February 16th. The delay had not stopped me from cheekily pontificating to The Australian, weeks earlier when they asked about certain scenarios. I have no changes to make, but an important elaboration. Unexpectedly, I found the fictitious scene of Churchill in the London Underground tremendously moving.
Star of the show is Gary Oldman, who deserves every accolade. Heretofore I thought Robert Hardy unmatchable as a Churchill actor. I believe now there is a tie. Robert himself was confident, before he died, that Oldman would make a superb WSC. He was right. Equal praise to the ingenious make-up artist Kazuhiro Tsuji, who came out of retirement to bring Churchill back to life. And Kristin Scott Thomas plays an excellent Clementine.
The script adds depth to the character by weaving in quips. (“All babies look like me” … “stop interrupting me when I am interrupting” … “I can boil an egg. I’ve seen it done”). The rest of the cast is fine. I feel sure Lord Halifax, “The Holy Fox,” was not the lowlife portrayed by talented Stephen Dillane. The scenes of wartime London are convincing (though by 1940 vehicles had blinkered headlights).
The late Elizabeth Layton, a faithful wartime secretary, would love her portrayal by Lily James. A minor clanger: Elizabeth was not present in May 1940. She did not join Churchill’s staff until May 1941. I feel sure she was spotlighted because of her vivid impressions of WSC, repeated in the movie, from her book, Winston Churchill by His Personal Secretary.
Grand climacteric
In Darkest Hour the action builds like a symphony. As the situation grows ever more desperate, the Prime Minister falls into lassitude (as in fact he did), thinking he may have to seek peace with “That Man.” King George VI tells him to ask the people, and take his cue accordingly. So he does—abandoning his limousine and darting into the London Underground!
In reality, of course, while Churchill had respect for the people, he needed no prompting. If he had led a government of one, he would have gone down fighting. Nevertheless, Darkest Hour takes us into the Underground. The result is electric. Tears come to the eye. Churchill would call it “a grand climacteric.”
In a rushing subway car, the Prime Minister confronts his public. One of them, “Marcus Peters” (Ade Haastrup), might be from the Caribbean. Churchill begins to recite Macaulay (top of this article). He hesitates, and Peters completes the stanza: “…For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his gods…”
What stunned me was the thought of Churchill’s Macaulay being known to and memorized by a man from the distant reaches of the Empire—a shared heritage, from an education British subjects of all stations once received. It’s akin to Churchill’s broadcast reply to Roosevelt in 1941, quoting a poet he didn’t have to name, since every English schoolchild knew: “Westward Look, the Land is Bright.”
Cynics have a different take. “It was just political correctness, since there are no other minorities in the film…. Dunkirk was criticized for its lack of minorities or women. Darkest Hour is avoiding that mistake.” Well, if that was Darkest Hour’s intent, it is all right. The tube scene is marvelous fiction. It perfectly symbolizes the courage of Londoners, as Churchill described them later…. “ Their will was resolute and remorseless and, as it proved, unconquerable…. It was a nation and race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar. ”
“Genius exacts its high price”
My impression continued through the theatrical but effective way Churchill scribbles the tube people’s names on a matchbook, and blends them into his May 28th speech to the outer cabinet . That oration clinched his support to fight on, come what may. It was not recorded; nobody knows exactly what he said. It leads us to Darkest Hour’s final scene, in the House of Commons six days later—the greatest speech of his life, until then…. “Fight on the beaches…fight in the fields, and in the streets…Never surrender.”
In an introduction to a volume of Churchill’s 1931 speeches on India, the scholar Manfred Weidhorn captured the message Darkest Hour in its own way conveys:
If Churchill had been amenable to prudence in 1931, he would have spared everyone embarrassment, but that same prudence would have dictated in 1940 negotiations with Hitler. Only the pugnacious mule of 1931 could see his way through the impossibilities of 1940. A more civilized, common-sensical soul like Halifax did negotiate with Gandhi. And, had Halifax rather than Churchill been made prime minister on 10 May 1940, he would have certainly negotiated with Hitler. Genius exacts its high price. If we like the way 1940 turned out, we have to comprehend 1931.
After more than our share of historical clangers recently, Churchill admirers can welcome all this movie offers. Unlike any recent production, it genuinely honors the heroic memory. And that’s a special thing these days. Give Gary Oldman, the cast and producers a tip of the hat.
To watch a video review of Darkest Hour by Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn, click here.
Your commentary Richard is well taken. Enjoyed it very much and agree with your total take of the movie. I want to see the movie for the second time. And that has never happened before. I do feel that the character of Ms.Layton also deserves a strong compliment. She gives a strong performance with the right drama, emotion and respect that she had indeed for the great man. I know you have talked to her. I have her book ” Mr.Churchill’s Secretary ” and the movie part does justice to her story. Her final words, in the book were, ” I mostly admired his courage “. And yes, I to was full of emotion through the movie.
A very fair review but I think Albert Finney is their equal
Excellent review of a mostly wonderful movie. I agree Gary Oldman is the best Churchill since the late great Robert Hardy. Another legendary British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, once quipped “Consensus is the negation of leadership.” I could not help but remember this when watching the bogus scene of Churchill interacting with riders in the London Underground. Celebrated by others, for me the scene was little more than a politically correct, Clintonesque focus group, begging the question what would have happened if this diverse assemblage of subway citizens had advised the old warrior to work for further appeasement and peace at any price?
Indeed, I tip my hat to the cast and crew.
Wonderful movie. I read the book first which uses the true sequence of events so I knew when the film took liberties. Nevertheless, the book was a history lesson, the movie was living during those frightful and dangerous days while looking over Churchill’s shoulder. Roosevelt and Churchill got their reputation from the final results of the depression and the war. That is true but their finest hours were during the really hard times and what they did then. For Roosevelt, it was to lift up his nation during the dark days of the depression and pulling the nation together while setting up the war effort after Pearl Harbor. Churchill, with all of his flaws and failures, rose to keep his nation and commonwealth together during the dark days depicted in the movie and to come up with the civilian boat rescue of Dunkirk.
I was already a huge admirer of Churchill, this movie just proved to me how great he really was.
A spectacular and very inspirational film. Little wonder the U.S. Navy named a fighting ship, a destroyer, after Sir Winston.
Loved the movie. WSC came along at the perfect time for Britain.
A movie for our time,too, sadly.
I too thought the fictitious underground scene clever and illuminating. I also saw in the movie how Dunkirk motivated ordinary people.
Uncanny how God works in mysterious ways as scripture alludes to, finding Winston Churchill at just the right time. My jaw dropped at Churchill’s phone call to FDR pleading for help, then getting stonewalled at that point in time. Great movie. Oldham killed it.