Darkest Hour - Film Review

This blog will always reflect the honest opinion of the author. The political position of "The Shunam Shindig" is to research multiple perspectives and be open-minded, yet skeptic. Our mission is to demonstrate an endless curiosity in pursuit of knowledge.


This past Thursday I watched the movie Darkest Hour in Cinema City in Jerusalem.  I love learning about history,  so that is why I enjoy historical dramas.  I find such movies to be a palatable and digestible way to approach these often heavy and fact filled topics.  To be honest, I was slightly disappointed because I had watched "The King's Speech" when it had first come out, several years ago, and I was perhaps making g unfair comparisons.  If I decide to watch another historical drama in a cinema instead of just at home I will keep in mind as well to not get distracted by the Hebrew subtitles.  This movie was in the queens English,  aka the accent spoke  in England,  and as an American it sometimes seemed like the sub titles could help me along.  This is especially so when some words were mumbled or spoken very fast.  Churchill had a lisp and he was eccentric, oftentimes talking to himself, other times talking to others and forgetting he needed to change his volume and tenor so he can be heard. The movie did capture this aspect of his personality very well, but perhaps this is partly why there was the additional language challenge. However adding a second language with a third accent and having to focus on the written vs. the spoken,  sometimes it was challenging to follow along.  What I have also found is that sometimes a historical drama can be even more entertaining when you are unfamiliar with the subject and it is exciting to have that world opened up in such an easy way.  In this case additional background would have helped me follow the plot line and understand the goal of the screenwriters and what they were trying to convey.  This movie has definitely inspired me to learn more about Winston Churchill and I would advise others to learn even just a little bit about this chapter of history before engaging with this film.  An additional point I would add is that although this story took place during war time the plot is not fast paced and if you were looking for an action film,  this movie is not that. Only understanding the historical context allows you to understand the thrill of the plot; to think what would have happened had Churchill succumbed to the pressure, so subtly and "politely" applied by his adversaries and given into Hitlers demands. What I definitely must see now is the movie Dunkirk to understand the other side of what happened in those crucial first few months of the war. Churchill fought the ideological and political battle on the home-front, whereas those brave soldeirs carried out his vision and were the ones truly and most directly in harms way. My favorite part of the movie was when the King asked Churchill how he was able to drink whiskey during the day: "with lots of practice."

My friend visiting from abroad follows Joel Rosenberg on twitter. A prolific author and historian, hi recommendation carries great value. It was an excellent tip, and for reference sake I included his tweet in this article.


For New Year’s Eve, I took my wife, sons & parents to see the premiere of in Israel. Such an extraordinary film. Go see it! We visited the Churchill war rooms in London several years ago. This film made the riveting history of that period come alive.




Ben Shapiro reviewed the movie. I was curious, and he clarified that the movie was not 100% historically accurate. Once Churchill took over there was no discussion of negotiation with Hitler, and according to Shapiro the train-car scene was a Hollywood fabrication. What I did not know was that although Churchill was brilliant writer and orator, he was also an eccentric fellow with lifetime aspirations of power. The museum was referenced in this review, and my friend from Ireland also told me about the bunkers in parliament in London. She had visited them and they do give a great ability to understand and picture what it had been like to be in the negotiations at such a pivotal time in history. This kind of movie does not replace historical research for someone who wants to increase knowledge, but it does bring it to light in an engaging way, even if the story portrayed needs to be taken with a grain of salt, or maybe Churchill would say, with a shot of whiskey.






Comments

  1. I enjoyed your review so much, Avishag! I also read other reviews after seeing the film and they agreed that Churchill was far more decisive than how he was portrayed in this film! However, I too will now go to my bookshelf and dig out a huge biography I never read on Churchill! The film really whet my appetite to learn more! Thanks for this great post!

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