Movie review: Oldman’s Churchill wins the war

Film: Darkest Hour

Director: Joe Wright

Featuring: Gary Oldman, Lily James, Kristen Scott Thomas and Stephen Dillane

Stars: 4/5

Three-quarters of a century after the event, the against-all-odds World War 2 rescue at Dunkirk is getting a revival – Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk studies the rescue from land, sea and air, while Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour hunkers down in the underground cabinet war rooms of London with Winston Churchill as he takes over the reins of government and tries to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Darkest Hour is a largely historically correct account of Churchill taking over the role of prime minister in Britain in May 1940 and grappling with bringing the coalition government together, while facing the very real threat of invasion as European countries fall like dominoes to Adolf Hitler. While some in his war cabinet were for peace talks, Churchill’s Blood, toil, tears, and sweat speech delivered on May 13, pretty much summed up his belief that fighting to the end was the only way to deal with a madman.

One of the film’s pivotal scenes though – where he boards an underground train to get the opinions of regular Londoners on the war – is a flight of fancy, but it plays its part in exploring the sentiment of the day. The film runs from when Neville Chamberlain is removed through a vote of no confidence on May 9 and Churchill replaces him, until Churchill delivers his We Will Fight Them on The Beaches speech on June 3. A speech that set the tone for the rest of the war effort.

If you didn’t know it was Oldman in the make-up, you’d never guess. It is a masterful job and he is most likely to beat out his rivals to take home the Oscar this month. The two women in Churchill’s world are his devoted wife Clemmie (Kristen Scott Thomas) and his secretary Elizabeth Leyton, played by Lily James. Infamous for his eccentric work style – of working till all hours of the morning and working in all manner of strange places – Leyton wrote a book about her eventful time as his private secretary.

Leyton has a strong South African connection too. After leaving Churchill’s employ she married a South African soldier, settled in Port Elizabeth and died there in 2007.

What makes Darkest Hour a compelling film is that it captures the state of mind of a man who looms large as an icon of global history. It extrapolates what it must have been like to be accountable and responsible for ordering soldiers to take a stand, and then telling them they will not be rescued. To be where the buck stops when deciding to tear up the terms for peace and drive people to fight to the bitter end when the end looks very close.

The film has some wonderful moments, such as Churchill’s conversation with Franklin D Roosevelt, long before the Americans had any intention of helping with the war; and Churchill’s interactions with King George VI, himself only three and half years into a job he never expected to have thanks to his brother’s scandalous relationship with Wallis Simpson and the Nazis.

It also showcases how a wily politician gets his rivals onside or ensures they end up outside.

Molly’s Game, Aaron Sorkin’s latest glorious dialogue fest:

The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s instant classic monster movie

Steven Spielberg’s masterclass The Post

And our very own controversial drama Inxeba