Entertaining Propaganda

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2020)

Darkest Hour follows the polarising figure for his first month in office, taking over from the recently ousted Neville Chamberlain (a figure I feel history will forever be unkind to), through the evacuation of Dunkirk. Much like many biopics of figures in positions of authority, Darkest Hour absolutely takes historic liberties in order to tell an engaging story worthy of a movie. Churchill is only ever painted as a likeable and sympathetic figure, full of rousing speeches, and moments of self-doubt in the most troubling of times, glossing over his more questionable ethics in regards to race, eugenics, and the British Empire. In fact the film flirts with pure fantasy in order to cover up these more detestable aspects of his character, at one point having him talk to a black man, something that he would never have done, nor would he have taken political advice from a number of women and children. So in many ways, Darkest Hour reads like revisionist propaganda, propping up a man already revered by the right-wing as a wartime hero.
Much of the movie is tightly written and directed, really only losing steam in its final act. The sheer desperation and darkness endured by Britain at that time is palpable as we get a privy look into the War Chamber. Churchill was against the odds in trying to bring back British soldiers from Dunkirk, not appear weak or appease the Germans, keep his position of leadership intact against his own party, and stay financially afloat without the aristocracy of his peers. There's one particularly telling moment when Churchill contacts Roosevelt hoping to get an assistance from our American allies, to the point of near begging, only be told the most that can be done is to retrieve planes by dragging them across the Canadian border by horseback. "Late in more ways than you can possibly know."
However the final act loses its way with Churchill going AWOL to talk to the British public on the London Tube. Churchill was known for going AWOL and gauging public opinion by talking directly to them on the streets of London, but this scene is entirely fictionalised and takes gross liberties with Churchill's character. But above all it ruins the film's pacing, slowing it down to a near halt for an overlong sequence full of cheesy dialogue and inspirational solidarity that plays off as pure propaganda. There were much better, cleaner ways of tying up this particular plot point, without resorting to something so painfully cringeworthy it almost ruins the entire movie.
Gary Oldman's performance as Churchill was really good though, there's no doubt about that. Between the extensive make-up work and the complete adoption of Churchill's mannerisms, Oldman gets lost in the role entirely. I'm not entirely convinced it was an award-winning performance, but there's no doubt that the dude has an unmatched talent in playing real-life figures. Kristin Scott Thomas was also really good as Churchill's wife, posing as the emotional backbone to their family dynamic, and emphasising how difficult he was to work with. Lily James was unfortunately misused as his secretary though. She lacks any kind of character or personality, and instead just acts as a walking receptor for Churchill's more sympathetic and brooding moments. Ben Mendelsohn was really good as King George VI, and it was great seeing him in the role of a good guy for once, proving that he has an untapped acting range, beyond always just being the slimy antagonist. The scenes he and Oldman share together are some of the film's greatest highlights.
On a more technical level, the film was also a success. The music by Dario Marianelli is unsurprisingly on point. It's a fairly typical orchestral score you'd expect to hear in a biopic, but it evokes the kind of music that works for these kinds of stories, ramping up the tension with beating drums, and the emotional stakes with sweeping strings, tied together with ever arpeggiating piano lines. The cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel was also fantastic as well, offering more creative camerawork than I'd expected. The washed-out House of Commons was a nice touch bringing the film close to its black-and-white era, while imaginative shots like a POV shot from a child looking through his fingers like a telescope, German bombing of French lands seamlessly transitioning into the face of a corpse, and Churchill traveling in his elevator surrounded by a void of black space to show his isolation in his own cabinet, were enough to set the film apart from its contemporaries.
Darkest Hour was the perfect choice for VE Day celebrations, but I have to question it's unrelentingly positive portrayal of Churchill. He's hailed as a British hero, and this film only exemplifies that by ignoring his more unsavoury characteristics. He was the perfect leader for wartime, but fairly diabolical as a democratic leader of a peacetime society. The film doesn't care about that, and honestly I can't blame it because that's not the point of the movie. This is about the beginning of his tenure and his successful evacuation of Dunkirk, no more, no less. The acting talent is great, but the whole thing is just a vehicle for Oldman to get his long-awaited Oscar, and the visuals were definitely a pleasant surprise. I give Darkest Hour a respectable 7/10. Just skip the god-awful Tube scene.