It takes courage to comment on a great man, just like you as a small hill telling the world how to climb Mount Everest, not standing at the same height, saying everything is like adding too much conjecture.
Performing a great man requires courage, just like you, as a small person, have to convince the world that you are him at this moment. Without the same life experience, everything seems to be a deliberate performance.
Fortunately, there is the existence of this "Darkest Hour".
At the node of historical change, at the moment of life and death, someone has to stand up, either forever, or forever.
At the beginning of the film, at the British parliament impeaching Chamberlain, only a hat was left on Churchill's seat, and his colleagues said that he must be where he was to protect himself and that he only cared about one thing, and that was himself.
Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and was succeeded by Churchill. Before going to meet George VI, his wife arranged his clothes for him. He asked, "What do I do?" His wife said, "Be yourself." Churchill replied, "Which one should I be." A wall full of hats. Human beings are complex and advanced animals. There is more than one face to the human heart. Great men have more facets. The director's ingenious handling skillfully illustrates this point, and humbly handed over the final commentary to the audience present.
On the way to Buckingham Palace, the driver looked at the hustle and bustle of the street and said, "Look, there is no war at all." Churchill said, "I haven't taken a bus. I never need to line up to get bread. I've seen it. When others boil eggs, they feel that they can cook them too." Regarding the pain caused by the war, "bystanders" and "heardsayers" have no conclusive position.
In his first inauguration speech, Churchill said: "I have nothing to offer, only blood, hard work, tears and sweat... If you ask what is our goal? I can answer with one word, it is victory. At all costs , To win victory; not to be afraid of all horrors, to win victory; no matter how long and hard the road ahead, to win victory. Because without victory, there is no survival!" In the huge parliament hall, the members exchanged glances. support.
Facing the raging Europe and the neighboring countries that began to surrender, Churchill was determined to encourage his old friends to stand up and resist. He flew from England to France. Through the porthole, he saw French people and a French boy. The lens cuts from the cabin to the ground. The teenager looked at Churchill’s plane like a telescope with his hand, and then slowly tightened his fingers. Finally, the plane disappeared from the lens of the “finger telescope”. Suddenly the picture turned and turned to Churchill and France. Government meeting. This shooting method just properly solves the problem of character conversion between space and time that is often involved in biographical movies.
Even if Churchill worked tirelessly to coordinate, due to the disparity in the strength of the enemy and the enemy and the war situation is not optimistic, his policy of "resolute resistance" was unsupported. In the words of his colleagues, "4 of Churchill's 100 ideas are good. 96 All of them are bad.”
At the same time, the cabinets headed by Chamberlain wanted to replace Churchill, and through the Italian Prime Minister Mussolini and Hitler negotiated a peace, to maintain Britain's apparent "peace."
In an environment of internal and external difficulties, the reporter asked Churchill in front of the Prime Minister's residence at No. 10 Downing Street about the situation in France, asking whether France has fallen. Churchill, who had been advancing in a hurry, turned around and made a "V" with his hand. Later, Churchill often beat "V" when taking pictures. He believed that as long as the seeds of victory were sown on the ground, they would eventually take root.
After coming out of the mansion, Churchill arrived at the broadcast room. There was still a few seconds left before the live broadcast. He was still revising his speech. The hands of the clock pointed to the hour, and the red light at the beginning of the live broadcast suddenly lit up and the screen was completely red. , Churchill's face was gloomy, and there was silence in the live broadcast room. Then his slow and firm voice filled the whole live broadcast room. He said: Unless we win, we must win, and we will win.
When he returned home, he said to his wife wearily: "In the past ten years, I was the only one who told the truth to the people until today. In fact, our army is retreating across the board." He was
forced to the coastline of Dunkirk . The British army is in danger of being wiped out. Churchill was determined to sacrifice 4,000 soldiers stationed in Calais and rescue 300,000 British soldiers trapped in Dunkirk home. The "negotiation" was mentioned again in the cabinet meeting, and Churchill was once again embarrassed on all sides, but he said: The only thing we have to do is to let Hitler know that he cannot conquer our motherland.
After leaving the cabinet meeting room, Churchill called US President Roosevelt for help in the prime minister’s private bathroom, but was refused one after another. Gary Oldman's three-stage performance can be called a textbook-like acting. The pauses, exchanges, and expressions of the sentences show Churchill's emotions from friendliness to compromise to anger incisively and vividly.
The status quo of isolation and helplessness did not allow Churchill to prepare for peace talks. He chose to fight alone. That night he called Colonel Ramsey to requisition all civilian ships for the Dunkirk rescue operation and set the plan as "Engine Operation".
During the regular cabinet meeting, the "main peace" faction found that Churchill had no intention of making peace. Chamberlain and his cronies, Halifax, continued to pressure and asked what Churchill insisted, "fight to the last drop of blood and fight to the end." When did "moment" mean, Churchill said angrily: "The knives are on your neck, and you go to negotiate terms with the butcher!" At
night, Churchill sent a telegram to the soldiers guarding Calais. He wrote in the telegram. : Every hour you live in the world is of great significance to the soldiers trapped in Dunkirk. Never retreat, never.
At this point in the film, Churchill’s secretary, Miss Layton, cried, and my eyes were wet again. She asked Churchill what the actual situation was like. Churchill took her to the map room. The map looked like a Go game, with a small flag representing the British army, and was heavily besieged in Dunkirk by a small flag representing the German army. Miss Layton asked Churchill how long Dunkirk’s troops would last if there was no rescue. Churchill replied: One day, maybe two days.
The camera switched to the troops stationed in Calais. After reading the telegram, Brigadier General Nelson said to the wounded soldiers lying on the bed: You are good. Then he walked out of the room and looked up at the sky. Rashed to the ground, the picture changed from a real shot to a map effect, and then to Miss Layton's eyes looking at the map, and a teardrop fell from the clear eyes. At this moment, the British people still don't know the sacrifice of the four thousand soldiers stationed in Calais, and the soldiers in Dunkirk don't know the situation of the Calais defenders, but history knows that history will remember all this. My chest was tight and my eyes were sore. I remembered a sentence: If you feel that life is easy, then someone must be carrying the weight for you.
The same as Churchill's "no reconciliation" heart, there is also the cabinet's idea that there is no choice but to consider peace talks.
Looking at Churchill, who resisted alone, his wife said, "Although you are not perfect, you are very strong, and you have doubts, so you are very wise." At the same time, she has never liked Churchill, but she is We should fight fascism to the end. In this country, King George VI, who respects Churchill’s ideas and persistence, said to Churchill: "You have my support. Whoever has the courage to know what to do is worthy of all of us. People’s trust. Let the people support you.”
The day the engine program was started, it rained heavily. On the way to attend the war cabinet meeting, Churchill saw people without umbrellas running in the rain, and children chasing and playing with Hitler-like masks...
He was about to smoke a cigar but could not find a match, and then he suddenly remembered something. Yes, open the car door, disappear in the rain, and go to the subway station. Next is a jump of two shots. On the one hand, Churchill’s seat was empty at the cabinet meeting, with his cigar and matches on the table; on the other hand, when the people in the subway car found Churchill, they could not recover from the shock for a long time.
Churchill borrowed matches from the passengers in the carriage, asked the name of the borrower, and then asked the name of a wife holding a baby. Everyone reported their names to the Prime Minister. As everyone stood up one by one, I seemed to be I saw the flames from the people gradually condensing in the carriage.
Churchill said that there is a question that has been bothering him recently: "If our motherland is trampled on, what will you do?"
"Fight!"
"What about peace talks?"
"Never!"
Hearing this answer, Churchill burst into tears in the carriage. The little girl in here asked him why he was crying, and he said that I often cry, and you will get used to it slowly.
At that moment, after he took off the Prime Minister's hat, he was an ordinary old man who would cry, stutter, forget his words, and be alone in a daze. This kind of him, cute and stalwart, just like the first time he appeared in the film: the bedroom is completely dark, he struck a match, lit a cigar, and a bloated figure was reflected in the light of the match. Man. After that, this bloated figure is always lonely, that kind of loneliness is the loneliness of'no matter how many people stand beside you, the only thing the same as you is yourself'.
Churchill quoted a passage in the subway: For all creatures in the world, death will come sooner or later. To protect the remains of the ancestors and the temple of faith, we must face powerful enemies and die by fighting.
This conversation strengthened his belief in the main battle. After getting off the subway at Westminster Station, Churchill first met with all members of the cabinet. He opened a matchbox with a pen that he wrote on it. With the names of the people in the subway cars, he passed on the wishes of the people to the members of the foreign cabinet and reached a consensus with the members of the foreign cabinet to fight to the end.
At the end of the film, Churchill delivered a speech at the House meeting. He said: "If necessary, we will fight for a long time. If necessary, we will fight alone. Anyway, this is what we are going to do. This is the British government and the government. The determination of everyone in the country. This is the will of Congress and the people of the whole country...Even if large tracts of land in Europe and many ancient civilizations have been or will be reduced to the hands of the Gestapo and all the abominable Nazi institutions, we will not be discouraged, nor will we To surrender, we must persevere to the end, we must fight on the French land, on the seas... We will never surrender at any time, even if the entire British Isles or most of the land is occupied, we are hungry and cold, and we are all owned by Britain Overseas empires armed and protected by the fleet will also continue to fight!"
This "War is not Won by Retreat" Churchill's speech in the House, I have heard it many times and can almost recite it.
"We shall never surrender!" No matter how long it takes, tears still fill my eyes after listening.
If necessary for years .If necessary alone. Such determination at all costs and willingness to bear the lonely heart, so that my emotions can not be calmed down for a long time, the film processing is very plain, and the historical reality that biopic films should have is carried out. Incorporating the inner activities of the characters, with excellent background music and extraordinary actor interpretation, the character image is more tense.
With all members of the parliament passed Churchill's resolution to fight to the end, Churchill walked out of the parliament hall alone in cheers. From no one's support to almost unanimous approval, Churchill has never given up on his proposition. As he said: People who don't know how to change their minds can't change anything.
Although "The Darkest Hour" only tells a short dark moment in the life of British Prime Minister Churchill, it is also the darkest moment when the whole world is affected by the war.
At the end of the movie, the pitch-black screen read this sentence: There is no ultimate success, and no fatal failure. What is valuable is the courage to move on. ——Churchill
——Do you know how light and light say hello?
——They said, see you in the darkest place.
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