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The Darkest Hour


"Success is not final.  Failure is not fatal.  What matters is the courage to carry on”.

‘The Darkest Hour' is a film by Joe Wright a Brit, with Gary Oldman starring in the role of Winston Churchill, Britain's Prime Minister during the second war.  The film actually lasted 90 minutes.  Oldman won the leading man Oscar for his role.  

It is a biopic of the PM during the critical period of the war when Britain faces an almost impossible future and tries to capture the essence of the man that was an unlikely or perhaps accidental candidate to become PM, following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain.

It was by all accounts suicidal to take on that role at that dark moment in history when Hitler had had his run of Europe and strangled the Allied forces.  Churchill's courage and denial to enter into a peace with a fascist was coupled with his King's support as he led England into war.

King George VI's shy nature is in contrast with and offset by Churchill’s willingness to cast himself as the nation’s savior in this cinematic depiction of the relationship between the two.  Another alliance of sorts the film focused on is Churchill and his secretary, Elizabeth Lawton.  When they first meet she is afraid of Churchill's temper and eruptions.  She eventually gets comfortable with him and is able to point out in a moment of levity in the film that he is hard to understand (in part due to his lisp and pronounced habit of chomping on a cigar) and that he mumbles a lot.

Some other light moments attributed to Churchill in the film -

When asked by the King how he can manage to drink all day long and function - Churchill replied "Practice".

When asked after his appointment as PM whether they can meet at 4 pm - Churchill replied that it was his nap time.  King is bewildered and asks if that is permissible.  Churchill promptly responds that it is not but is essential.  Then almost apologetically adds that he stays late working.

 PS:  Churchill's oratory and language skill cannot be doubted when he famously also said that history will be kind to me, because I intend to write it.  And that he did.  

 As a dark and perhaps hypocritical side of this personality his policies toward the crown jewel of India (which was governed by Imperial Britain at the time) post WWII and his treatment of Indians during a period of famine besmirch his otherwise audacious desire (with the Russians coming to his aid) to destroy Hitler.

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