A great Churchill

Rating: 9/10 (18 February 2018)

I read an immense amount of history. I've also read just about everything that's been written about, or by Churchill. So I was reticent about this film going in, and not in the least in wondering how in the world Gary Oldman could possibly take on the role. Not that as an actor he would be incapable, but that he simply is so far from the physiognomy. I guess I'm really out of touch with what makeup artists are capable of these days. The result was immediately believable and the rest was pure story telling. As some have noted, there are moments the script strays. It's perfectly acceptable to have moments of humor and personal reflection, but they began too seem too punctual, as though we needed reminding of the humanity within the unfolding of terrible events ... somewhat like how calibrated novels repeat certain types of scenes every 50 pages. That said, this is a tremendously good movie, both enjoyable and while telescoping and using movie-making liberties (Churchill knew exactly what he was doing, when he flashed a reversed V sign), it is a faithful rendering of the knife-edge a danger the world was in, and how Churchill rode above the politics of the time, and showing why one man, alone, making the difficult choices others can't or won't make, makes the difference. And goes down in History. A movie about real heroism of another sort.