"He Has Mobilized the English Language and Sent It Into Battle"

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2020)

I'm not a historical literalist when it comes to films based on historical events or characters so long as imagined scenes and events carry the drama forward and are not completely unfathomable or unfairly distort the record of historical characters (e.g., see LBJ in "Selma"). If you want a good historical account of Churchill's first weeks as PM, read John Lukacs' "Five Days in London: May 1940" but if you want a vivid and visually dramatic portrayal of Churchill during this crucial time, then watch "Darkest Hour." I was totally absorbed in this film knowing that a British negotiated peace in May 1940 totally alters the arc of world history going forward.
Gary Oldman is, of course, brilliant in his portrayal of Churchill, cigars and all, and the filmmakers did a great job recreating the House of Commons since they weren't allowed to use the real House, or at least its benches. Oldman's Churchill stammers a bit in this film which surprised me as I believed Churchill's verbal fluency was such that American diplomats marveled at his effortless eloquence at Tehran and Yalta. As for the much-maligned underground (subway) scene where the aristocrat PM solicits the opinions of common Brits on whether to fight on or not, it worked for me. In the midst of a peace movement within his war cabinet, he had to solicit the fighting mood of everyday Brits; this was an effective dramatic scene. Would you rather have the filmmakers have him reading poll results at 10 Downing Street?
Another thing that makes "Darkest Hour" work for me is that the "peace" group within the war cabinet, the "antagonists" so to speak (specifically Chamberlain and Halifax) were given compelling arguments to counter Churchill's belligerence. They wanted to see what kind of negotiated terms Britain might get from Hitler. After all, we don't know definitively to this day why Hitler held up his panzers before Dunkirk for several days: was he getting anxious about the speed of the German advance or did he admire the British Empire so much that he could live, for a time, with its preservation?