Brilliant performance

Rating: 10/10 (16 April 2018)

Gary Oldman plays Winston Churchill so well that I forgot about the actor and thought I was watching Churchill himself resurrected from the dead. This film is that good.
I have not finished it yet but the 3/4 I did see concentrated on the miserable circumstances of the battle of Dunkirk in 1940 and Churchill's heart wrenching decision whether to seek a diplomatic solution with a psychologically sick unreliable (to say the least) Hitler or press on refusing to surrender. The losses of the Brits and French at Dunkirk were many and the German military the most superior on earth in the 1940's. Brits were stuck in this French town and surrounded by superior German forces in land, sea and air honed through their many victories in Europe. One by one western Europe was falling as Belgium fell, eastern Europe was in Nazi hands and Nazi victory seemed inevitable. Nothing less than Western civilization was at stake. Churchill desperately needed American strength but Roosevelt while empathetic to their plight in 1940 could do nothing as there was no legislature support nor popular appetite to get stuck in another war in Europe.
From the history I have read the evacuation by boat of the 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops was miraculous. They were saved from an untenable situation and total decimation of their army at Dunkirk. They were miraculously helped by the Halt Order of Hitler the rationale of that Order still debated today. It was a spiritual victory for the Allies and set the table for Allied victory with American much needed help finally culminating in the 1944 D-Day Allied invasion by sea of Europe.
The film shows perfectly the resolve by Churchill, his strong and quirky personality with a monumental task laid in his hands and no prediction of victory. He was a force of nature.
If one is interested in WWII history shaping our own history to present day this film is highly recommended.