![]() ![]() The modern political era, certainly in the US, is bereft of statesmen and orators. Watching a flawed leader who is aware of his flaws yet deeply attuned to the gravity of his station made for a riveting narrative, but it also made me sad because it’s now tantamount to fantasy. It’s easy to imagine him going over a speech sentence by sentence, trying to find not just the words but the internal rhythms to ensure that it suited both the occasion and his formidable oratorical gifts. He knows that what he decides, and how that decision is delivered, both bear heavy consequences. ![]() Words had to do some heavy lifting back then.Ĭhurchill is portrayed (in riveting, Oscar-worthy fashion by Gary Oldman) as a man deeply conflicted, whose own resolve starts to weaken as those around him equivocate about the best response to the Nazi threat. Words that had to forge alliances, stand up to political winds, and most importantly, to galvanize and inspire the public to protect their homeland by any means necessary from an imminent and terrifying threat. ![]() I think the film takes these pains because, at that moment, words were all Churchill really had. His first speech to Parliament included the elegant turn of phrase, “It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime.” The film takes great pains to underscore the care with which Churchill selected his words, even showing him changing his first BBC wireless speech as PM seconds before it began. Halifax advocated for a peaceful resolution brokered by Mussolini (which must have sounded less preposterous at the time.) Halifax meant that, at that moment, Churchill had convinced Parliament to fight Hitler to the end, though Great Britain lacked almost every resource necessary to win except resolve. So says a rueful Viscount Halifax moments before the credits roll in Darkest Hour, an account of Winston Churchill’s installation as prime minister and the fraught initial weeks of his administration leading up to the events depicted in Dunkirk. “He just mobilized the English language and sent it to war.” ![]()
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