Drama

History

Darkest Hour

Working Title Films

Perfect World Pictures

Focus Features

United Kingdom

United States of America

English

Gary Oldman

Stephen Dillane

Lily James

Ronald Pickup

Ben Mendelsohn

Kristin Scott Thomas

Nicholas Jones

Samuel West

David Schofield

Richard Lumsden

Malcolm Storry

Hilton McRae

Benjamin Whitrow

Joe Armstrong

Adrian Rawlins

David Bamber

Paul Leonard

David Strathairn

Eric MacLennan

Philip Martin Brown

Demetri Goritsas

Jordan Waller

Alex Clatworthy

Mary Antony

Bethany Muir

Anna Burnett

Jeremy Child

Brian Pettifer

Michael Gould

Paul Ridley

Robin Pearce

Michael Bott

Olivier Broche

Mario Hacquard

Pip Torrens

Edmund Wiseman

Hannah Steele

Nia Gwynne

Ade Dee Haastrup

James Eeles

Flora Nicholson

Bronte Carmichael

Roisin O'Neill

John Locke

Jo Neary

Richard Glover

Tom Ashley

Joshua Higgott

Imogen King

Miles Gallant

Faye Marsay

John Atterbury

James Harkness

Joshua James

Charley Palmer Rothwell

Patsy Ferran

Sarah Flind

Steffan Donnelly

Kieran Buckeridge

Johnny Otto

Nick Howden-Steenstra

Zak Brogan

Peter 'PJ' Newman

Charlie Summerville

Sarah Mooney

Thomas Moriarty

Matthew Bailey

Joel Christopher

Rebecca Cronshey

Tiffany Tiesiera

Tom Edmondson

Mark Jones

Jamie Davies-Evans

Dale Walters

Geo Pavlov

Matt Adams

Netty Chapman

Thomas Napper

Elliot Wood

Terence Harrington

Jenny-Jayne Webb

Tanya Mellotte

Katy Lawrence

Aaron Hartley

Simon Hutchings

Charlotte Llewelyn

Emma MacDevitt

Giles Dumper

Vanessa Baker

Paul Gunner

Dean Morris

Chris Brough

Alice O'Donoghue

Gavin Hosler

Karl Koroscik

Maikel Popic

Grant Cort

John Usher

Ian Creed

Rachel Desmarest

Adam Penny

Cherri Arpino

Samuel Harman

Carl Alsop

Bonnie Radcliffe

Hayley Clair Stewart

Charlie Rotheram

Tom Hingston

Sanjay Sharma

Daniel Budd

Oskar von Unge

Keith Partridge

Mark Appleby

Shailendra Kumar Pandey

Tiago Barbosa

George Spensley-Corfield

Johnathan Rush

Barnaby Smyth

Jeff Gomillion

Chris Robins

Neal Champion

Marc-Olivier Rouleau

Mark Kozlowski

Oliver Stotter

Ane Stubberud

Emma Woodvine

Angela Moneke

Phoebe Fraser

Jacqueline Rathore

Yuliia Kondratova

Shenouda Isaac Nazer

Miguel Algora

Yan Caspar Hirschbuehl

Stuart Hurley

Filippo Giansante

Justin Hebert

Peter Marsden

Gabriele Filippelli

Michael Frattasio

Oliver Cockerham

Maxime Moreira

Stephane Naze

Hugo Williams-Ellis

Sasha Gibson

Josh Milne

Tommy Finch

Heather Manson

David Cormack

Declan McGuire

Nicholas Bennett

Carl St-Pierre

Nicolas Chavigny

Mike King

Duncan Steven

Abby Vickers

Samuel Rousseau

Perry Cullen

Lawrence Mason

Jo Nielsen

Joshua Jason

I have no idea why people are raving about this film, it's a bit crap, it's probably Oldman weakest performance to date, and the cinematography is terrible. Churchill with Brian Cox in the lead role is a FAR superior film on the subject.

Gimly

As with many of the biopics I've seen recently, _Darkest Hour_ is more focussed on delivering you the facts than getting you involved with the characters. It is an interesting idea to have the majority of the story revolve around the of whether or not to sue for peace. That as a core concept in so much as the question of "Do I take the guarantee of saving my country or do I take the risk of saving the world?" and beyond that "Is there even a right answer to that question? And who am I to decide something this big?" is a great philosophical centre for a movie. But I never felt like I knew why any of these people had the answers that they gave. I get that in a historical context, these aren't characters they are real life people, so they answers they had are the answers we see, but again, we are only given the _what_, not the _why_.

Except you can throw all of that away because here comes Gary Oldman in his Oscar nominated transformation to make this movie 100% worth watching.

_Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go._

It's 1940, and Hitler is attempting to take over Europe.  The film takes an interesting look at Winston Churchill's first five weeks as Prime Minister.  The acting in this movie is quite accomplished; good actors bring insight and depth to the characters.  Overall, it's a well-done, engrossing film.  Gary Oldman's performance as Winston Churchill was very good indeed, and his delivery of Churchill's speeches alone make watching the movie worthwhile!

I saw this film at TIFF on the big screen and loved it. There's not a weak member of the cast. I really loved the way the photography reflected the sense of gloom that would have been felt by the people facing a new war. Big thumbs up, gives a strong sense of the time and place.

Peter McGinn

I thought I might have seen this a couple pf years ago, but I still enjoyed it. There have been a few movies about Churchill’s rise to power at the outset of World War II. This one seems to cover the least amount of ground, focusing on his thought processes, the political climate and his personal life leading only up to the beginning of the Dunkirk evacuation.

I thought there were two things the film did well with its strong writing and actor portrayal: the first was to present Churchill, a larger than life character, as just a life-size person, with the foibles and weaknesses he carried around with him. The other strength was in building depth into some of the secondary characters. His new aide typist, for example, is ready to quit after Churchill yells at her unfairly. It would have been easy to rehabilitate him for that temper tantrum by having him soften towards her and convince her to stay on. Instead she leaves the building, is handed an important communication from the king, and decides for herself to stay on and do the job. Churchill is the focal point pf the film, but again and again he shares the limelight onscreen with others like this, such as the extended scene in the subway.

So within it’s narrow focus, I think the movie does a great job telling the story of this interlude from history.

CinemaSerf

A tour de force from Gary Oldman as he portrays Winston Churchill in his first few months of office at the start of WWII. Oddly enough though, aside from a few brief appearances from Kristin Scott-Thomas, the rest of the cast in this historical biopic are really quite unremarkable. The speeches are delivered magnificently; but there are too many speculative machinations going on - not least those involving King George VI - that do bring the credibility of this into question. There was plenty of accurately documented reportage from this time to enable Anthony McCarten to pen an entertaining script based more on the facts of this unsteady period of Churchill's premiership; Dunkirk; his relationship with Halifax & Roosevelt etc. rather than invent storylines. The attention to detail is superb and Oldman well deserved his second Oscar.

Churchill's "Never Surrender" Speech to Parliament

Winston Churchill and King George VI Consider a Peace Deal

Churchill's Rousing Speech

Churchill's New Typist - Extended Preview

Winston Churchill Takes the Tube

Churchill's Triumphant Speech: "We Shall Never Surrender!"

Darkest Hour Cast On Portraying Historical Characters

Makeup Featurette

Gary Oldman on playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour | Film4 Interview Special

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Darkest Hour

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Cast

Gary Oldman

Stephen Dillane

Lily James

Ronald Pickup

Ben Mendelsohn

Kristin Scott Thomas

Nicholas Jones

Samuel West

David Schofield

Richard Lumsden

Box office

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