Darkest hour 1.03 downgrade pc11/8/2022 It’s the sort of debate that’s infinitely easier to think about in hindsight, and Wright’s showpersonship is certainly intended to make the film’s foregone conclusion (since we all know how World War II ends, and heck, we probably just saw Dunkirk) seem as nerve-racking as humanly possible. Darkest Hour depicts Churchill’s first month as Prime Minister as an intense tug-of-war between politicians who would compromise with the Nazis to save the lives of their countrymen, and Churchill, who would rather risk the lives of his countrymen to avoid compromising with Nazis. He’s not acting melodramatically, but rather playing a melodramatic person, and he’s nailing it every step of the way. Oldman disappears into the Prime Minister’s iconic mannerisms and finds moments of subtlety in Churchill’s notoriously boisterous vocal patterns. Gary Oldman stars as Winston Churchill and gives a bravura performance, because Gary Oldman is a bravura actor and Winston Churchill is a bravura character. He’s not showing off he’s telling a story about people talking in rooms with all the cinematic dynamism he needs to sell just how important the words really are. In Darkest Hour, Wright sculpts scenes out of darkness and smoke, and seemingly knows the right moments to rotate his camera for dramatic effect. Joe Wright, the director of Atonement and Anna Karenina, never resists the urge to spruce up an old-fashioned character piece with bombastic filmmaking. And yet Darkest Hour is a gripping World War II drama in its own right. Unlike Christopher Nolan’s recent historical drama Dunkirk, which was a 70mm epic filled with battles and dogfights and collapsing naval vessels, Darkest Hour takes place in smokey rooms and bunkers, and puts a lot of emphasis on giving dictation. The film kicks off the day before he’s appointed Prime Minister and only gets as far as the evacuation of Dunkirk, approximately one month later. But there’s no particular reason to complain about World War II movies, at least if they’re as good as the riveting, albeit one-sided Darkest Hour.ĭarkest Hour tells the story of Winston Churchill, the Prime Minster of the United Kingdom during World War II, a celebrated orator and an outsized personality. There’s not a whole lot we can do about death, and taxes will probably be a point of contention until the day the sun explodes. There are only three constants in this topsy-turvy world of ours: death, taxes and World War II movies.
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