Rent Darkest Hour (2017)

A very good historical drama - Darkest Hour review by Philip in Paradiso

This is a very good film if one looks at the acting (particularly that of G Oldman, superb and impressive) and the interesting re-creation of the political tensions/ debates/ divisions within the British political class and the Establishment as the country was entering WWII. It shows there was no consensus around what to do (a bit like Brexit!) and many were interested in doing some sort of deal with Hitler (led by Lord Halifax).

Where the film is a bit weak from a strictly historical perspective, is that it gives all the credit to W Churchill for wanting to stand up to the Nazis, whereas he was helped and supported by Labour in the coalition government -- something that is virtually ignored in the movie. This has been mentioned by historians and specialists.

Having said this, it is a very good film that you will enjoy and it does re-create the atmosphere at the time pretty well, I believe -- and even if the scene in the Tube is of course a pure creation of fiction!

Excellent Performance from Gary Oldman - Darkest Hour review by KW

Like a previous reviewer the Albert Finney Gathering Storm was a far better film than this one, but where this film is about how Churchill became the PM and held on, the earlier Finney gave you so much more in-depth reasoning for the need for Churchill to replace Chamberlain as PM. If there is to be a follow on film then the role Lord Halifax played as our Ambassador to Washington from 1941 to 1946 must be a front runner!

Great acting but went horribly wrong - Darkest Hour review by MT

This started well, the acting is very good and the plot was interesting. However the fictional scene on the underground was so clunky and ridiculous it actually made me cringe. That really for me ruined the whole rest of the film such a shame.

disappointing - Darkest Hour review by JM

The historical inaccuracies mentioned in other reviews were somewhat annoying. More so was the indistinct dialogue and difficulty in catching much of what was being said. I don't know whether this was a problem with the disc or with the film itself.

Gritty Political Drama with a Little Sentiment Added - Darkest Hour review by CV

Gary Oldman brilliantly demonstrates how a real character can be convincingly played despite not being an exact likeness in appearance. The characterisation is compelling in both his idiosyncrasies and his relationship with other characters. However one or two scenes bordered on sentimentality, particularly the underground scene where the train seems to take a very long time to travel one stop in the centre of London! I suspected this scene was taken from Shakespeare's Henry V where the king visits his his troops (incognito) to gauge public opinion on his strategy before battle with the French, especially as the Laurence Olivier film was also made as a parallel to the contemporary war situation of the same time.

I liked the lighting effects, brilliant shafts of white light spilling into subdued darkened areas, and one is not aware of the sequence of almost exclusively interior scenes.

CAUCASIAN HYPOCRISY - Darkest Hour review by Frank Talker™

A typically-White film which tries to turn the monstrous personality of Winston CHURCHILL into a hero of anti-tyranny despite the British Empire being one of the worst and longest-lasting tyrannies in all of human history. It even fails to note the irony that HITLER was democratically-elected in 1933 while CHURCHILL was not in 1940.

Not only does this movie avoid historical facts it invents them to make both CHURCHILL and the United Kingdom appear all alone in their fight against Nazi Germany despite the existence of the British - the largest empire of them all. It briefly mentions CHURCHILL's many political failures and his great political oratory but fails to dramatically-explore the essentially opportunist nature of the man - and of White culture itself - despite his appearing in nearly every scene.

Where it scores is on CHURCHILL's insistence that Hitler should not be negotiated with because such negotiations would be pointless because they would indicate the weakness that would eventually have led to war - in the long run. This psychological reality is the film's only real reason for being made and is designed for White people to continue to fight a war in their own minds which has already been won by the democracies - almost as if they know that this is just more propaganda for the modern, paranoid-schizophrenic White-British sense of identity. This living in the past without the necessary personal reflection to escape and face the future is neither good for the individual nor for the world of movies.

This entertainment is little more than BrExit propaganda based on the false assertion that Winston CHURCHILL was the greatest White Briton of all time.

Uncanny - Darkest Hour review by JT

Gary Oldman's portrayal of Churchill was outstanding, magnificent and quite uncanny. He looked like him, sounded like him and moved like him. The photography and atmosphere of the film took me right back to the time - it was dark, it was shadowy and Europe was being steadily swallowed by a monster that no-one or nothing could stop. Until Winston Churchill was placed in the driving seat. Hitler - your days are numbered. As soon as the film was over I wanted to run out into the street waving a Union Jack and singing the national anthem - and believe you me that doesn't happen often these days ...