Actual history of surrender/cease fire terms......

Rating: 6/10 (9 January 2018)

Are far more interesting and clouded. Did the British offer terms in exchange for Germans to pull up and let the British forces leave Dunkirk? You can get many different accounts from German Generals etc. but the consensus remains the Germans were just exhausted and low on materials. No doubt Churchill formed his war cabinet to leave the impression to Hitler that a deal could be struck. No doubt during the phony war (September 39' French Front up to May 40') plenty hack politicians of the Anglo French allies were looking to deal as well. So I found the intrigue a little naive in the film. There are hundred of operative narratives at so many levels of political and military channels going on at once but you only saw a single strand regarding Halifax and the Italian channel. I thought the dialog with FDR both accurate for the horses behind that he truly was. How he is protected as a great wartime leader instead of the hack appeaser who made the WW2 outcome many multiples worse to this day remains part of the American culture divide. Why is there never a film of the horrible defense/foreign policy decisions from 33-41' not to mention some horrible wartime incompetence (no battle class tank in France until spring of 45' for example, costing thousands of Allied/American lives)?
As for the film, it's worth seeing but in fact the "Darkest Hour" is linked to a famous speech and moment. The actual lowest moment would come during the Battle of Britian when all the focus was on the airfields but was then stupidly refocused on cities per Hitler's approval. Combined with Uboat results and blunders, poor coordination with Italian North Africa efforts the outcome might well have been different. It would have been a very different film of course if the timeline was far more extended. All of the Overlord blunders of Churchill are passed over as well in this timeline.
For the kids on the thread, there's a reference to Gallipoli that might be worth researching as well. Imagine your military cabinet recommendation, Churchill's plan, ended in mass casualties in the hundreds of thousands and you could still survive holding any office? It's not properly defined in the film only alluded to. I also don't think the appeasement policy is well understood. Halifax comes off really weak and sniveling but realize he had three boys of military age, one who would later die and another wounded. Almost everyone had lost relatives with in the 25 span of memory at this moment. I don't fault the appeasement policy other then the deliberate weakness of national defense to assure the policy result.