Darkest Hour (film)

In May 1940, the opposition Labour Party in Parliament demands the resignation of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for being too weak in the face of the Nazi onslaught. Chamberlain tells Conservative Party colleagues he wants Lord Halifax as his successor, but Halifax does not feel the time is right. Chamberlain is forced to choose the only man whom the opposition parties will accept: Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who correctly predicted the danger from Adolf Hitler before the war.

Churchill tries to dismiss his new secretary Elizabeth Layton for mishearing him, which earns him a rebuke from his wife Clementine. King George VI, who strongly distrusts Churchill due to his support for his brother Edward VIII 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). That day, Germany invades Belgium and the Netherlands.

Churchill has a poor reputation in Parliament because of his record in the Admiralty, his role in the Gallipoli Campaign in the First World War, his views on India, Russian civil war and his past defection to the Liberal Party. 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 become the 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 becomes 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 - as a refugee column is heavily bombed - 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. Against the advice of the War Cabinet, Churchill orders Brigadier Nicholson in Calais to lead the 30th Infantry Brigade in a rearguard action to distract the enemy and buy time for the soldiers at Dunkirk to evacuate. Layton's brother is killed during the retreat.

The debacle in France causes the War Cabinet to support negotiating with Germany. Under heavy pressure, Churchill agrees to consider a negotiated peace but cannot dictate a letter requesting talks. George VI unexpectedly visits Churchill; the King explains that he has come to like Churchill and encourages him to continue the war. Still uncertain, Churchill impulsively rides the London Underground (for the first time in his life) and asks startled passengers their opinion: the civilians all want to continue to fight. Churchill meets with the Outer Cabinet[11] and other Members of Parliament and receives their support. The evacuation of troops from Dunkirk, Operation Dynamo, is successful.

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. Towards the end of his speech, Churchill proclaims that "we shall fight on the beaches" should the Germans invade, to resounding support from the Opposition. Chamberlain mops his brow with his handkerchief, a prearranged signal that the Tories should support the PM. Churchill exits the chamber to cheers and waving of order papers.

American actor David Strathairn provided the voice of President Roosevelt, heard on a phone call with Churchill. Samuel West is credited as playing "Sir" Anthony Eden, though Eden did not become a knight until 1954, when he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. This was the final film role for Benjamin Whitrow, who died, aged 80, a few weeks after the September premiere of the film.

Filming took place at the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England as well as the Town Hall.

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.[12]

On 29 March 2016, it was reported that Joe Wright was in talks to direct the film.[13] In April 2016, Gary Oldman was reported to be in talks to play Churchill.[14] 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.[15]

By November 2016, Darkest Hour had begun principal photography,[16] and it was reported that Dario Marianelli would score the film.[17] For his role as Churchill, Oldman spent over 200 hours having make-up applied, and smoked over 400 cigars (worth about $20,000) during filming.[18][4] Filming took place in Manchester, England at both the Town Hall and John Rylands Library, both doubling for the Houses of Parliament and feature heavily in the film.[19]

John Hurt was initially cast as British prime minister Neville Chamberlain.[20] Ronald Pickup assumed the role of Chamberlain instead. Hurt died from cancer in January 2017.[21]

For locations, the exterior of Chartwell House in Sevenoaks, Kent was used for the telegram sequence that sees Churchill's secretary Elizabeth Layton receive a telegram from Buckingham Palace. Fort Amherst in Kent featured as the location for both General Ramsay's Operations HQ and the Calais Garrison. For the interior of Buckingham Palace, Wentworth Woodhouse in Wentworth, South Yorkshire, was used.[22]

Darkest Hour was released on digital streaming platforms on 6 February 2018[35] and on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K UHD Blu-ray on 12 June 2018.[36]

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 as inevitable. The situation in 1940 was as dire as depicted but liberties were taken with the facts.[37] The shouting matches over possible peace negotiations were fictional. The journey on the London Underground was also fictional and there is evidence that most British people were not immediately inspired by Churchill's speeches. George Orwell believed that ordinary people already felt subjugated and might not object to a "new order".[37]

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.[37] The Labour Party confirmed that they would serve in a national government under a leader other than Chamberlain but did not name Churchill.[38]

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".[39] 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".[40]

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'."[41] 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." [42]

The film gives the impression that both Clemmie and the King were able to listen to the 'beaches' speech live from Parliament. This was impossible because radio broadcasts from Parliament did not start until the 1970s. Whilst Churchill did record the speech for posterity, he did not make the recording until 1949. Nor did he, unlike some other speeches, repeat that speech on the radio shortly after giving it in Parliament.[43] The 'beaches' speech was first delivered on 4 June 1940 - after the Dunkirk evacuations, not on 28 May as suggested by the film.

Elizabeth Layton did not start working as Churchill's private secretary until May 1941, a year after the events depicted in the film. Similarly the death of her brother during the retreat to Dunkirk, as alluded to in the film, is entirely fictional.

Chamberlain is referred to as 'Chairman' of the Conservative Party, but in fact even after leaving Number 10 and becoming Lord President of the Council, he retained the far more important post of Leader of the Conservative Party.

Gary Oldman stated, in February 2018, that there was talk of a sequel to Darkest Hour that could also include President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who had been voiced by David Strathairn in Darkest Hour) and take place during the Yalta Conference in 1945.[44]

• Churchill – Also released in 2017, starring Brian Cox as Churchill
• Dunkirk - Released before 2018, focusing on Operation Dynamo

• Official website
• Darkest Hour at IMDb 
• Darkest Hour at AllMovie
• Darkest Hour at History vs. Hollywood