Never surrender

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2018)

Darkest Hour is about one of the toughest crossroads the British Commonwealth and Winston Churchill went through: the former having to choose whether to negotiate with a rising dictator to let them keep their independence and in exchange support Hitler as he rules all over Europe, or to be the lone resistance against the tyrant where many of its other comrades has easily fallen to; the latter alone in wanting to fight the Germans until the very end, in a sea of voices favoring negotiated peace talks. The build-up and tension are palpable and there were crucial moments where you can really feel that the end is near such as the Royal Family being asked to escape to Canada and rule in exile and whether it was better to sacrifice 4,000 men in the Siege of Calais in order to save 300,000 in Dunkirk (whose adaptation is in contention for Best Picture this year.)
Gary Oldman's nomination for Best Actor for portraying Churchill is well-deserved. I have seen a couple of Churchills before (most recently John Lithgow in The Crown) and Gary's showed the most resemblance. You can barely make out his face except for his eyes which is still an enigma as when he played Sirius Black in the HP movies. Other notable performances include Kristin Scott Thomas as Clemmie (my aesthetic if I ever decide to grow old), Ben Mendelsohn as the embattled but still calm King George VI, and Stephen Dillane who you may miss as Stannis in GOT.
On a side note, I am fortunate to have come across and fell in love (okay somewhat obsessed) with Netflix's 'The Crown' that it felt like a reunion of sorts when I saw Clemmie, Eden and Bertie, which helped as I am usually averse towards war-themed movies. Also, was it too much to ask for to have shown a little Elizabeth running around Windsor Castle? Missed out on a golden opportunity there.
Lastly, this movie has stirred up a debate as to whether Churchill is deserving of such commemoration, owing to his views on superiority of Whites over other races (which some say was very common back in the day) and how he handled the Indian independence among others. It's true he was great in some aspects and the worst in others, but it does hold true of one of the many attributable quotes to Churchill: History is written by the victors.
Favorite quote (there's too many but this one sums up the movie):
"He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle."