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Writer: Anthony McCarten
Cast: Gary Oldman, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Very disappointing for me. Maybe I expected to much. Or maybe it's Churchill burnout...I mean we've had 3 Winston Churchill features: Darkest Hour (2017), Churchill (2017) and The Crown (2016)...I've watched all of those and a kettle full of other Churchill documentaries and in my mind Gary Oldman didn't quite invibe the character of Churchill. He didn't really look much like him either. So he didn't work for me. Maybe if I hadn't seen John Lithgow knock it out of the ballpark with his performance of Churchill in The Crown, I might have like Oldman better in this.
But even if Lithgow had reprised his role in this movie, the script itself isn't that interesting and Churchill is made to seem like a old fuddy duddy. Which I guess is popular as that's the way he was portrayed in Churchill (2017). I sort of hated the way the director choose to spoon feed us emotions by cutting to close ups of what he wanted us to focus on. I'm thinking of the handkerchief scene for one example. Ahhh...that just smacked of formulated film making.
The cinematographer was kinda lameo too. It was too self conscious and tried way to hard to impress with a bunch of fancy stuff that smacked of style over substances. I take that back, the cinematography wasn't overly stylish, it was more of the flavor of the week variety.
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Darkest Hour (2017)
Director: Joe WrightWriter: Anthony McCarten
Cast: Gary Oldman, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
"During the early days of World War II, the fate of Western Europe hangs on the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on against incredible odds. "
Very disappointing for me. Maybe I expected to much. Or maybe it's Churchill burnout...I mean we've had 3 Winston Churchill features: Darkest Hour (2017), Churchill (2017) and The Crown (2016)...I've watched all of those and a kettle full of other Churchill documentaries and in my mind Gary Oldman didn't quite invibe the character of Churchill. He didn't really look much like him either. So he didn't work for me. Maybe if I hadn't seen John Lithgow knock it out of the ballpark with his performance of Churchill in The Crown, I might have like Oldman better in this.
But even if Lithgow had reprised his role in this movie, the script itself isn't that interesting and Churchill is made to seem like a old fuddy duddy. Which I guess is popular as that's the way he was portrayed in Churchill (2017). I sort of hated the way the director choose to spoon feed us emotions by cutting to close ups of what he wanted us to focus on. I'm thinking of the handkerchief scene for one example. Ahhh...that just smacked of formulated film making.
The cinematographer was kinda lameo too. It was too self conscious and tried way to hard to impress with a bunch of fancy stuff that smacked of style over substances. I take that back, the cinematography wasn't overly stylish, it was more of the flavor of the week variety.
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