Another Terrific British Historical Drama

Rating: 7/10 (20 March 2018)

The British make different kinds of movies than us Americans do. Americans, always in love with making the most amount of money in the shortest period of time, tend toward the blockbuster spectacles. We invest millions of dollars in special effects computers and, all-too-frequently, measure the success by how quickly the investors see the return.
British films, however, seem to focus more on characters and history. Perhaps because they have a richer history to draw on, I'm not sure, but instead of dazzling displays of technical skill, their films develop their characters and nurture their language. Dialog is much more important and they pay careful attention to their use of language. (Granted, the English accents are sometimes difficult to understand - so much so that sometimes I turn on the English captions in order to comprehend the speech.). As a result, they also tend to develop tremendous character actors. Judy Dench is one of them and we have already seen, and reviewed, her movie this Oscar season, Victoria & Abdul, where she does a terrific job portraying Queen Victoria at the end of the 1800s. The movie, like a lot of British films, does not have a huge range of action, but instead focuses on the conversations and interactions of the characters - something the truly demands high-performance actors if it is to succeed. It certainly does with Dench.
It also does with Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour. Oldman, another English actor, has received multiple accolades for his performances in three Batman movies and his role as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies, but his only other Oscar nomination was for his leading role in Tinker Sailor Soldier Spy. His performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour finally brought him a Best Acting Oscar and it is powerfully deserved. He delivers a commanding performance and is clearly responsible for this movie's success. Oldman's performance seems to allow you inside the heartfelt mind behind Churchill's agonizing decision making in May, 1940. Britain had to make critical choices about its future direction as Hitler's assault on Europe reached nearly definitive and final control. Although Churchill seemed at one point to waiver seriously in favor of Chamberlain's strategy of appeasal, he ended up expressing the long-awaited courage that Britain needed at that time, its Darkest Hour. (Roosevelt, on the otherhand, comes across as a cowardly weasel!)
In addition to being Goldman's vehicle for his first Oscar, this movie also won the Oscar for Makeup and Hairstyling. I suspect the acknowledgement goes mostly for the superb job they did on Oldman. The prosthetic nose and jowls they gave him are seamless and I, for one, had to look very closely to recognize Oldman. Although Victoria & Abdul were also nominated in the Makeup category, primarily for the work they did in aging Judi Dench (although they didn't need to age her much), the better work was here in Darkest Hour.
The movie also received nominations for Production Design, Costumes, and Cinematography. I can say that the sets and decorations seemed mostly accurate, although others have identified flaws with certain objects in scenes that didn't belong there. The clothing seemed 1940ish, but since I'm not quite that old, I can't say for sure how accurate it was. Was it of higher quality work than in Phantom Thread (the winner)? - I can't say. But it was certainly more than adequate to represent the scene. And the cinematography was certainly in tune with the title, as nearly all scenes were very dark, reflecting the deep pessimism of the times I suppose, but also requiring some imagination at times to visually understand what was going on!
Lily James and Kristin Scott Thomas are the only two females with more than a few lines in the movie. Thomas plays his supportive wife, and James is his secretary. Although the movie has her helping Churchill in major ways with his speech writing, that appears to be a movie license as she did not join his team until later. Another key supporting role comes from Ben Mendelssohn who plays King George VI. In this movie, at least, the king plays a pivotal role in giving Churchill the courage to stand his ground against a withering sea of opposition organized by Chamberlain and Halifax. Whether that is true or not, I don't know.
The movie does take other liberties with the known facts. There is a very important scene that takes place in a London Underground where Churchill meets with London commoners just before giving his major, "Darkest Hour" speech. Apparently there is no historical basis for that scene, although it clearly helps give Churchill the fortitude to fight Hitler and take an entire nation with him.
So the movie may not be totally accurate to history. As long as we acknowledge that, then it is acceptable because a movie isn't required to be 100% accurate as long as it portrays the essence of what happened. And it seem to me that is what British film makers have a special ability to do. The director, Joe Wright, has never been nominated for an Oscar but did direct such great period pieces as Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, Hanna, and Anna Karenina. The writer, Anthony McCarten, received a writing nomination for the Theory of Everything, another British biopic about Stephen Hawking. (It is interesting that a lot of the technical crew for Darkest Hour also worked on the Theory of Everything.)
McCarten was not nominated for the Screenplay Oscar for this movie and for a very good reason. The real writing in this movie was done, not in the screenplay, but by Churchill himself as he composed his blistering speeches. Darkest Hour seems to recognize that fact by emphasizing the man and his words as the main vehicles for moving Britain through the dark days of May, 1940. After possibly the most important speech Churchill gave to Parliament, a legislator turns to Lord Halifax and asks 'What just happened?'. To which Halifax replies "He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." That is indeed what happened and it changed the course of history.
And that is what British movies seem to do. They aren't about action and superheroes - Americans do that well. Instead they reflect on history, tradition, language, and character. And that would be the reason to see the Darkest Hour.
For Oldman's performance and a tour through an important piece of history, I give Darkest Hour 4 stars (out of 5). (Also be sure to see Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, dealing with the same time period with a very different artistic perspective.)