Darkest Hour (film)
Darkest Hour is a 2017 British war drama biographical film about Winston Churchill, played by Gary Oldman, in his early days as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War and the May 1940 war cabinet crisis, depicting his refusal to seek a peace treaty with Nazi Germany amid their advance into Western Europe. The film is directed by Joe Wright and written by Anthony McCarten. Along with Oldman, the cast includes Kristin Scott Thomas as Clementine Churchill, Lily James as Elizabeth Layton, Stephen Dillane as Viscount Halifax, Ronald Pickup as Neville Chamberlain, and Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI. The title of the film refers to a phrase describing the early days of the war, which has been widely attributed to Churchill.
This article is about the 2017 war drama film. For the 2011 science fiction film, see The Darkest Hour (film).Darkest Hour
- Tim Bevan
- Lisa Bruce
- Eric Fellner
- Anthony McCarten
- Douglas Urbanski
Valerio Bonelli
- Focus Features (United States)
- Universal Pictures[1] (International)
- 1 September 2017 (Telluride)
- 22 November 2017 (United States)
- 12 January 2018 (United Kingdom)
125 minutes[2]
- United Kingdom[3]
English
$30 million[4]
$150.8 million[5]
The film had its world premiere at the 44th Telluride Film Festival on 1 September 2017,[6] and it was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.[7] It began a limited release in the United States on 22 November 2017, followed by general release on 22 December, and was released on 12 January 2018 in the United Kingdom.[8] The film grossed $150 million worldwide and received positive reviews from critics, who particularly lauded Oldman's performance and deemed it one of the best of his career. Darkest Hour received several accolades, including Best Actor for Oldman at the Academy Awards. Oldman also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.[9][10]
Plot[edit]
In May 1940, the opposition Labour Party in Parliament demand the resignation of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for being too weak in the face of the Nazi onslaught. Conservative Party colleagues want Lord Halifax as his successor, but Halifax does not feel it is his time. Chamberlain chooses the only man whom the opposition parties will accept as the leader of a national government: Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who correctly predicted the danger from Adolf Hitler before the war but has a poor reputation in Parliament because of his role in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, his views on India, the Russian Civil War, The Gold Standard, his record in the Admiralty and his past defection from the Liberal Party. As Germany invades the Low Countries, Churchill is brusque with his new secretary Elizabeth Layton for mishearing him, which earns him a rebuke from his wife Clementine. King George VI, who is skeptical of Churchill due to his actions during the abdication crisis, reluctantly invites him to form a government. Churchill includes Chamberlain (as Lord President of the Council) and Halifax (as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs).
Parliament reacts coolly to Churchill's first speech promising "Blood, toil, tears, and sweat". Chamberlain and Halifax are appalled by Churchill's refusal to negotiate for peace and plan to resign from the government to force a vote of no confidence, creating a situation in which Halifax would likely become Prime Minister. Churchill visits French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, who thinks Churchill delusional for not admitting that the Allies are losing the Battle of France, while Churchill is furious that the French do not have a plan to counterattack. Although US President Franklin Roosevelt is sympathetic to Churchill's plight, his actions are limited by an isolationist Congress and the Neutrality Acts. Churchill draws ire from his cabinet and advisers for delivering a radio address in which he falsely implies the Allies to be advancing in France, earning him a rebuke from the king. Halifax and Chamberlain continue to push to use Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Bastianini as an intermediary with Germany.
The British Expeditionary Force is trapped at Dunkirk and Calais, and Britain begins preparing for a German invasion. Against the advice of the War Cabinet, Churchill orders Brigadier Nicholson in Calais to lead the 30th Infantry Brigade to distract the enemy and buy time for the evacuation of soldiers from Dunkirk. The debacle in France causes the War Cabinet to support negotiating with Germany. Under heavy pressure, Churchill agrees to consider a negotiated peace, but chokes on the words as he tries to dictate a letter requesting talks.
George VI unexpectedly visits Churchill, explaining that he has come to support Churchill to continue the war. Churchill's idea to have "civilian boats" evacuate troops from Dunkirk, Operation Dynamo, is initiated. Still uncertain, Churchill impulsively rides the London Underground (for the first time in his life) and asks startled passengers their opinions; they all want to continue to fight Hitler. Churchill addresses the Outer Cabinet and other members of parliament and finds they, too, have little or no desire to surrender. As Churchill prepares to address Parliament, Halifax asks Chamberlain to continue with their plan to resign, but Chamberlain decides first to listen to the address. Finishing his speech, Churchill proclaims "we shall fight on the beaches" should the Germans invade, to resounding support from the Opposition, while the Tory MPs behind him sit silently, until Chamberlain mops his brow with his handkerchief, a prearranged signal that they should support the PM. Churchill exits the Chamber to cheers and enthusiastic waving of Order Papers.
Production[edit]
Development and casting[edit]
On 5 February 2015, it was announced that Working Title Films had acquired Darkest Hour, a speculative screenplay by The Theory of Everything screenwriter Anthony McCarten, about Winston Churchill in the early days of the Second World War.[11]
On 29 March 2016, it was reported that Joe Wright was in talks to direct the film.[12] In April 2016, Gary Oldman was reported to be in talks to play Churchill.[13] On 6 September 2016, it was announced that Focus Features would release the film in the United States on 24 November 2017, while Ben Mendelsohn was set to play King George VI and Kristin Scott Thomas was cast as Clementine Churchill.[8] On 8 November 2016, Stephen Dillane joined the cast.[14] John Hurt was initially cast as Neville Chamberlain, but dropped the role in pre-production as he was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer; Hurt died in January 2017.[15][16] Ronald Pickup assumed the role of Chamberlain instead.[17]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Darkest Hour grossed $56.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $93.8 million in other countries (including $33.4 million in the UK), for a worldwide total of $150.2 million.[5]
In the United States and Canada, the film began a limited release on 22 November 2017. In its first five days, it grossed $246,761 from four theatres (an average of $61,690), finishing 21st at the box office over the weekend.[23][24] The film had its wide release on 22 December 2017, alongside the openings of Downsizing, Pitch Perfect 3, and Father Figures, and the wide release of The Shape of Water, and grossed $3.9 million from 804 theatres over that weekend, and $5.5 million over the four-day Christmas frame.[25] 85% of its audience was over the age of 25, with 30% being 50 or older.[26] The following weekend, the film made $5.5 million, and a total of $7 million over the four-day New Years frame.[27] The weekend of 27 January 2018, following the announcement of the film's six Oscar nominations, it made $2.1 million.[28]
Historical accuracy[edit]
Writing in Slate, historian and academic John Broich called Darkest Hour "a piece of historical fiction that undertakes a serious historical task", presenting the British decision to fight Hitler as a choice rather than an inevitability. The situation in 1940 was as dire as depicted, but liberties were taken with the facts. The shouting matches over possible peace negotiations were fictional. Churchill's journey on the London Underground was also fictional, and there is evidence that many British people were not immediately inspired by his speeches.[39]
There is no conclusive evidence that Chamberlain and Viscount Halifax were planning an imminent vote of no confidence, though that threat existed until the mid-war victories in North Africa. It is a fact that Churchill was an object of suspicion for his fellow Tories.[39] The Labour Party confirmed that they would serve in a national government under a leader other than Chamberlain, but did not name Churchill.[40]
In The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik wrote: "in late May of 1940, when the Conservative grandee Lord Halifax challenged Churchill, insisting that it was still possible to negotiate a deal with Hitler, through the good offices of Mussolini, it was the steadfast anti-Nazism of Attlee and his Labour colleagues that saved the day – a vital truth badly underdramatized in the current Churchill-centric film, Darkest Hour".[41] This criticism was echoed by Adrian Smith, emeritus professor of modern history at the University of Southampton, who wrote in the New Statesman that the film was "yet again overlooking Labour's key role at the most dangerous moment in this country's history ... in May 1940 its leaders gave Churchill the unequivocal support he needed when refusing to surrender. Ignoring Attlee's vital role is just one more failing in a deeply flawed film".[42]
Referring to Charles Moore's comment that the film was "superb Brexit propaganda", Afua Hirsch wrote in The Guardian: "I would call the film propaganda, more generally – and a great example of the kind of myth we like to promote in modern Britain. Churchill has been re-branded as a tube-travelling, minority-adoring genius, in line with a general understanding of him as 'the greatest Briton of all time'."[43] Hirsch also criticised the film for "perpetuating the idea that Winston Churchill stood alone at the Darkest Hour, as Nazi fascism encroached, with Britain a small and vulnerable nation isolated in the north Atlantic. In reality, the United Kingdom was at that moment an imperial power with the collective might of Indian, African, Canadian and Australian manpower, resources and wealth at its disposal."[44]
The film gives the impression that both Clementine Churchill and the King listened to Churchill's 'beaches' speech on the radio as Churchill delivered it. In reality, radio broadcasts from Parliament did not start until the 1970s. Churchill recorded the speech for posterity in 1949. Nor did he, like he did with some other speeches, repeat that speech on the radio shortly after giving it in Parliament. The 'beaches' speech was first delivered on 4 June 1940 – after the Dunkirk evacuation – not on 28 May 1940, as suggested by the film.[45][46]
Elizabeth Layton did not become Churchill's secretary until a year after the events of the film. She also tells Churchill that her brother was killed during the retreat to Dunkirk, which is a fictional detail.[47]
Possible sequel[edit]
Oldman stated in February 2018 that there was talk of making a sequel to Darkest Hour that might include Franklin D. Roosevelt and take place in 1945 during the Yalta Conference.[48]
