Winston Churchill is a nightmare to cast. Honestly, how do you capture that specific mix of Victorian oratory, babyish mood swings, and the sheer, crushing weight of a collapsing empire? Gary Oldman somehow did it. In the 2017 film Darkest Hour, he isn't just wearing a mountain of prosthetic silicone; he’s vibrating with the anxiety of a man who knows he might be the last Prime Minister of a free Britain.
Most people watch this movie and think it’s a straightforward biopic. It isn't. It’s a claustrophobic political thriller that happens to take place in May 1940. If you’ve ever wondered why your history teacher was obsessed with this specific month, this film explains it better than a textbook ever could. But there’s a catch. Hollywood loves a good "moment of inspiration," and while Darkest Hour is emotionally true, it plays fast and loose with some pretty massive historical realities.
The Reality of May 1940
The movie opens with a literal explosion of noise in Parliament. Neville Chamberlain is being ousted. Churchill is the only man the opposition will accept, but his own party hates his guts. This is 100% accurate. In May 1940, Churchill was widely viewed as a "broken-down politician" with a track record of disasters like Gallipoli. He wasn't the beloved icon we see on five-pound notes; he was a desperate gamble.
The stakes were sickeningly high. France was falling. The British Expeditionary Force was trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. In the film, we see Churchill pacing the Cabinet War Rooms, debating whether to open peace negotiations with Hitler via Mussolini. This is the "darkest hour" the title refers to. It wasn't just about fighting; it was about the very real, terrifying possibility that Britain would have to become a client state of Nazi Germany to survive.
That Subway Scene: Pure Fiction?
Let’s talk about the scene everyone remembers. Churchill gets off his lime-green chauffeured car and hops on the London Underground (the District Line, specifically). He chats with everyday Londoners—a bricklayer, a young woman, a Black man—and asks them if they want to surrender. They all shout "Never!" and Churchill finds his resolve.
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It’s a beautiful piece of filmmaking. It’s also completely made up.
Historians like Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny, have pointed out that Churchill almost never took public transport. He certainly didn't base his foreign policy on a five-minute chat with commuters. However, the sentiment was real. Churchill was obsessed with the "morale of the people," and he spent a huge amount of time visiting bombed-out sites and talking to workers. The movie just condensed months of public sentiment into one catchy subway ride. It's a "truthy" moment, even if it’s not a "true" one.
Gary Oldman and the Art of the Grumble
Oldman’s performance is the engine of the film. He spent 200 hours in the makeup chair over the course of the shoot. But more importantly, he nailed the voice. Churchill had a slight speech impediment—a lateral lisp—and a very specific way of pausing for dramatic effect.
The movie focuses heavily on Churchill’s relationship with his secretary, Elizabeth Layton (played by Lily James). In reality, Elizabeth Layton didn't start working for him until 1941, well after the events of the movie. But the film uses her as a proxy for us, the audience. Through her eyes, we see the man behind the myth: the guy who drank scotch at 8:00 AM, dictated letters from his bathtub, and was often incredibly rude to his staff before offering a sudden, touching apology.
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The Conflict with Halifax and Chamberlain
The real villains of Darkest Hour aren't the Nazis—we barely see them. The antagonists are Viscount Halifax and Neville Chamberlain. The film portrays them as almost conspiratorial, trying to force Churchill out so they can sue for peace.
Is this fair? Sort of. Halifax was a realist. He looked at the map and saw that Britain was alone, outgunned, and facing annihilation. He genuinely believed that negotiating was the only way to save the British people from a massacre. Churchill, on the other hand, was a romantic and a strategist. He knew that once you start negotiating with a tyrant like Hitler, you’ve already lost your sovereignty. The film captures this intellectual tug-of-war perfectly, even if it simplifies the political maneuvering for the sake of time.
Why the Movie Still Matters Today
We live in an era of "great man" history being deconstructed, and rightly so. Churchill was a complicated figure with a checkered record on imperialism and famine. But Darkest Hour succeeds because it doesn't try to cover his whole life. It focuses on one choice: do you fight a losing battle because it’s the right thing to do, or do you take the "sensible" deal with the devil?
The cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel helps tell this story. Look at the lighting. Churchill is often isolated in a single beam of light, surrounded by total darkness. It visually represents his isolation within his own government. When he finally delivers the "We shall fight on the beaches" speech at the end, the light finally opens up.
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A Few Things You Might Have Missed
- The King’s Role: Ben Mendelsohn plays King George VI. Their relationship starts icy and ends in a sort of weary friendship. This is fairly accurate; the King was initially a supporter of Halifax and Chamberlain, but he grew to deeply admire Churchill’s "bulldog" spirit.
- The Visuals of the War Rooms: The set designers spent months recreating the Cabinet War Rooms. If you visit the real ones in London today, you’ll see the film got the claustrophobia exactly right. The ceilings were low, the air was stale, and the stress was constant.
- The Cigars: Oldman reportedly got nicotine poisoning from smoking so many of Churchill’s preferred Romeo y Julieta cigars during filming. That's commitment.
How to Watch Darkest Hour for the History
If you want to get the most out of Darkest Hour, watch it as a double feature with Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. They take place at the exact same time. While Dunkirk shows you the terror on the sand, Darkest Hour shows you the terror in the boardroom. Together, they provide a 360-degree view of the moment Western civilization almost blinked.
The film reminds us that history isn't inevitable. It’s made by people—messy, flawed, scotch-drinking people who have to make impossible decisions with limited information. Churchill wasn't a saint, but he was the right man for that specific, horrible second in time.
Actionable Takeaways for History Buffs
If this film sparked an interest in the era, don't just stop at the credits. There are ways to dig deeper into what actually happened in those bunkers.
- Visit the Churchill War Rooms: If you're ever in London, go. It’s an underground branch of the Imperial War Museum. You can see the actual map room where they tracked the convoys and the tiny bedroom where Churchill slept. It’s eerie how much it feels like the movie set.
- Read the Speeches: Don't just listen to the snippets in the film. Read the full text of the "Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat" speech. The sheer command of the English language is staggering. Churchill used words as weapons because, in 1940, words were almost all he had.
- Check Out "The Gathering Storm": This is Churchill’s own memoir of the lead-up to the war. Keep in mind, he wrote it to make himself look good, but it’s still a masterclass in narrative history.
- Compare with "The Crown": For a different take on an older, more cynical Churchill, watch John Lithgow’s portrayal in the first season of The Crown. It provides a fascinating "what happened next" perspective on the man’s legacy.
Churchill's legacy is always going to be a battleground of opinions. But Darkest Hour provides a vital look at the sheer pressure of leadership. It’s not just a "war movie"; it’s a study in how to stand your ground when the whole world is telling you to fold. If you can ignore the fictional subway ride, you're left with a deeply human portrait of a man who refused to give up, even when it seemed like the most logical thing to do.