Darkest Hour is a true story during WW2 as, within days of Churchill becoming PM of Great Britain he faces a difficult time. He must choose whether to negotiate a peace treaty with Nazi Germany, or stand to fight for the ideals of liberty and freedom of a nation. The Nazi's forces cross Western Europe the threat of invasion is imminent and with an unprepared public as they haven't been told the truth, a King who doesn’t know whether to trust Churchill and his own party plotting to get rid of him; Churchill must stay strong and try to rally a nation to believe in him and thus make his mark on history.
This film uses a high star cast with the likes of Gary Oldman as Churchill and Lily James as Miss Layton. The acting in this film was fantastic, you really felt for the characters and understood how difficult this time must have been for all the characters. This was a difficult for the character of Winston Churchill as he had lots of pressure on him and literally the people's lives were in his hands as every decision he made would effect someone in some way. For example, in the film there is a moment in the after Churchill has made a decision about Dunkirk and he then talks to Elizabeth Layton as he sees a picture on her desk and we find out that her brother was at Dunkirk and he didn’t make it back. There are many moments in this film but especially near the end we see the impact it has on Churchill and its sad yet in the same way it reminds us he is human and does feel bad and he wants to save lives not lose them. Also Churchill's wife Clementine Churchill saw how the weight of the nation was effecting her husband and she tries her best to life his spirits. In what really is a dark film she brings moments of joy and optimism which is nice break thus these moments are really sweet. When we think of Churchill we don’t really think of his wife we think of all the tough decisions he had to make yet this film shows how strong his wife and even his daughters were for him and how they in a way kept him going even in the darkest of times.
What I really enjoyed about this film was the sounds, nothing was quite or subtle everything was big and loud. Footsteps were heightened so when people were walking it had more of an impact as every step was leading to making another important decision. Doors slammed this showed the secrecy of everything as mentioned in the film not everyone knows what is happening in every department of the war rooms and the public for most of the film don’t know what is happening thus slamming of doors, that booming sound symbolises the shutting out of the knowledge and bring protect.
Darkest Hour is a dark film and the colours symbolise this. We don’t see any bright colours as this is a dark time for the nation and this film is showing the pressure building up and the suspense of invasion from the Nazis. Also the dark colours as the sounds could signify the secrecy of what is happening thus the dark colours show we can see something but not well as it isn't bright enough to see it all.
For me I found this film very inspiring, especially the speech at the end was moving but not in an emotional way just uplifting and inspiring to do something and have courage to do it and kept trying if you face problems. At the bottom of this page is the quote that is shown at the end of the film. For me this quote means something as I find it relatable and true as we don’t always have success or failure but the courage to try and keep going is what is important. If we don’t have that courage we might not try new things and have experiences which we can learn from or achieve the goals we set out for ourselves.
