There
is no greater embodiment of British steadfastness and defiance against Adolf
Hitler than Winston Churchill, the rotund cigar-chomping prime minister responsible
for steering England through her “darkest hour” in the early days of World War
II, a time when Germany’s war machine and blitzkrieg through Europe seemed well-nigh
unstoppable. British director Joe
Wright’s Churchill biopic ‘Darkest Hour,’ based on a screenplay by
Anthony McCarten, sought to capture the essence of the man as well as the
public and backroom politicking which took place at a time when negotiations
(“appeasement”) and the pursuit of peace at the cost of British honor would appear
to be the easy way out.
It
is widely accepted in Hollywood that one role can often define a career,
and this is surely the case for veteran actor Gary Oldman, who delivered the
performance of his lifetime as Winston Churchill. Oldman had always been a somewhat
underappreciated method actor whose previous roles failed to fully do justice to his abilities, but ‘Darkest Hour’ gave him the perfect vehicle to showcase
his talents, resulting in a bravura performance that will likely earn him an
Oscar nod (if not outright win) in the Best Actor category next February.
While
‘Darkest Hour’ will no doubt appear stuffy and slow to younger viewers who regard
history and biopics as a bit of a bore, I find it to be an excellent snapshot
of World War II history and a fascinating character study of one of Britain’s
greatest political figures. Even as a
WWII buff I found the movie to be enlightening, as I didn’t know just how close
even Churchill was to giving in to the political pressures from Halifax and Chamberlain to make peace with
Hitler during the Dunkirk disaster.
Grade: A
No comments:
Post a Comment