UKC

Darkest Hour

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 Babika 23 Jan 2018

Just come back from seeing this - I was totally absorbed and didn't want it to end.

Gary Oldman is superb and the shooting virtually in black and white, just the odd red telephone box and live BBC radio light adds to the bleakness of the subject and the starkness of the decision. 

All the time I kept thinking "how would I have behaved?". Impossible to imagine the courage, fortitude and unassailable conviction required to make monumental life or death decisions, particularly when everyone around seems help bent on undermining you.

I took my Mum to see it. Very frail now but she lived in central London in the Blitz, was bombed 4 times and travelled to work on the trains while doodlebugs droned overhead. Very humbling to hear the first hand view of someone who, like the group on the train in the film, would rather have laid down and died than countenance "negotiation". 

 

 richprideaux 23 Jan 2018
In reply to Babika:

Makes a good double-feature with Dunkirk apparently

 Blue Straggler 23 Jan 2018
In reply to Babika:

Glad you liked it. Oldman and Dillane (the actor playing Halifax) were great but aside from that, I didn't buy into it at all. I gave it 5/10. I thought the Tube train ride was a terrible piece of writing and direction. But there is no denying the conviction of Oldman's performance. 

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In reply to Babika:

It wasn't the best film I've ever seen but it wasn't the worst  but I'm no great film buff   But it would've helped if it had been in sharp and focus I suspect the projectionist was not on his game 

 Part of the reason for going to see it was that it was  showing in the old town hall in Oldham    Now a converted building containing an Odeon   The Building sports a blue plaque outside commemorating that  these are the steps  on which Churchill made his acceptance speech on first becoming a member of the house  facing the steps on the other side of the road is the Cenotaph from the first  

  No one else was at screening just  our group 

 So much for history 

Post edited at 09:18
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 The New NickB 24 Jan 2018
In reply to Blue Straggler:

I heard an email review from a member of the public on R4 yesterday. The review wondered how the director have made such an interesting story so pedestrian and dull, whilst still having having praise for Oldman and Dillane’s performances. Jason Solomons, the critic on the programme, did not seem to agree.

I’ve not seen it, so can’t comment, I did wonder if it was you emailing. If not, it appears that at least one person agrees with you.

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 Robert Durran 24 Jan 2018
In reply to Babika:

I thought it was  fantastic; gripping and beautifully filmed. Only criticism is that the Tube scene seemed too far fetched.

 Blue Straggler 24 Jan 2018
In reply to The New NickB:

> I heard an email review from a member of the public on R4 yesterday. The review wondered how the director have made such an interesting story so pedestrian and dull, whilst still having having praise for Oldman and Dillane’s performances. Jason Solomons, the critic on the programme, did not seem to agree.

> I’ve not seen it, so can’t comment, I did wonder if it was you emailing. If not, it appears that at least one person agrees with you.

It wasn't me but I think there are more than two of us sharing this view - my Dad said he'd seen more than one review that agreed with me (mind you he mostly reads The Telegraph and The Spectator both of which like to attack anything that tries to be 'serious')

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 mypyrex 24 Jan 2018
In reply to Babika:

I saw it a few nights ago and, as I said elsewhere, I came out wondering how Chamberlain, Halifax and others in favour of appeasement would have reacted had they had their way. What would have been in their minds as the horrors of nazism took hold right across Europe and beyond.

Whatever people now say about Churchill - all politicians have their faults - it must have taken a special sort of courage to stand up to, not least to those in his own party, the appeasement lobby as Churchill did and to do so when the likelihood of military defeat seemed so overwhelming.

The acting was brilliant and I do hope Oldman gets an Oscar. Good performances from others including Ronald Pickup and David Schofield.

I do agree, however, that the London Underground scene was too far fetched. Otherwise a film not to be missed

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 DaveHK 24 Jan 2018
In reply to Babika:

I walked out. Seemed to me like they didn't write enough dialogue for it and tried to spin out what they had for twice as long as it actually needed.

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 Blue Straggler 24 Jan 2018
In reply to DaveHK:

Join the “lazy dislikes” club !

 DaveHK 24 Jan 2018
In reply to Blue Straggler:

> Join the “lazy dislikes” club !

I think I can live with that.

 The New NickB 24 Jan 2018
In reply to Blue Straggler:

> Join the “lazy dislikes” club !

Maybe Joe Wright is a climber!

In reply to Babika:

I suspect I'll be in a minority of one with this but with almost the first shot - a close-up, side-on headshot of the young woman who would be Churchill's secretary - I feared for the rest of the film. The reason? She had a pierced ear-lobe. Nothing major, just what so many people have in order to wear ear rings or similar, but it left me fearing for the rest of the film.

Without reason, happily. An enjoyable couple of hours at the flicks.

T.

 Blue Straggler 25 Jan 2018
In reply to The New NickB:

> Maybe Joe Wright is a climber!

With multiple UKC identities for the sake of posting more than one dislike on a given post

He DID get Stanage closed down for a few shots of Keira poncing around in Pride and Prejudice....

 Blue Straggler 25 Jan 2018
In reply to Babika:

 

> Gary Oldman is superb and the shooting virtually in black and white, just the odd red telephone box and live BBC radio light adds to the bleakness of the subject and the starkness of the decision. 

Did anyone else notice this "shooting virtually in black and white"? I didn't. Certainly a dour muted colour palette but there were colours there for sure, and I never thought "this looks virtually black and white". 

cf Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a colour film that really does look rather b&w (because the director WANTED to do it b&w but the studio wouldn't let him, so he did his best to make it kind of monochrome)

With respect I think the OP's comment there has a bit of an air of "you see what you want to see". In this case, what she wanted to see was a bit of a Schindler's List feel (b&w but with some red in it)

OP Babika 25 Jan 2018
In reply to Blue Straggler:

Quite accurate! When I came out I thought "similar effect to Schindler's".

Of course it wasn't black and white - but even in the House of Commons scenes you can hardly discern green benches if you compare, say, today's televised PMQ's so I think there must have been some deliberate cinematography going on. 

Or maybe its just me

 


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