Darkest Hour
All team (197)
Short description
Darkest Hour is set in May 1940, when Winston Churchill becomes Britain's prime minister amid the German advance across Western Europe. With the British army trapped at Dunkirk and an invasion appearing likely, Churchill faces pressure from within his own party and from a sceptical King George VI to seek a peace deal with Adolf Hitler. He must decide whether to negotiate or to keep fighting, a choice that will shape the fate of Britain and its empire.
Joe Wright directed the film, the seventh of nine features he has made, following Pan and preceding The Woman in the Window and Cyrano. Anthony McCarten wrote the screenplay, and Gary Oldman plays Churchill, with Ben Mendelsohn as King George VI, Kristin Scott Thomas as Clementine Churchill, Stephen Dillane as Viscount Halifax, Ronald Pickup as Neville Chamberlain and Lily James as Elizabeth Layton.
Produced by Working Title Films, Focus Features and Perfect World Pictures, Darkest Hour cost about 30 million dollars and took roughly 151 million dollars worldwide. It has a rating of 7.4 out of 10 on IMDb from about 242,000 votes and the same score on TMDB from some 5,650 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 7.3 out of 10 from 310 reviews, placing critical and audience responses close together.
What's left behind the scenes
- John Hurt passed away while work on the film was underway. Gary Oldman later recounted that the actor felt so unwell that he didn't even attend the script read-through, let alone participate in filming. Originally cast as Neville Chamberlain, Hurt desperately fought cancer, but even intensive treatment didn't help. The film is dedicated to the memory of John Hurt; it was the last project he agreed to participate in.
- Producers tried to find an authentic pre-World War II subway train for filming, but their attempts were unsuccessful. They had to rent a 1959 train from the Mangapps Railway Museum, similar to those used in 1939, and film it.
- Gary Oldman claims he personally chose makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji and convinced him to return from retirement to work and transform the actor into Winston Churchill. Oldman refused the idea of actually gaining weight for the role and decided to focus on makeup instead. The first difficulty for Tsuji was the lack of any physical resemblance between the actor and his character, which necessitated the use of special facial prosthetics. It took Tsuji six months to prepare, but he did manage to give Oldman the appearance of Churchill. The actor's face, with the exception of his forehead and lips, was covered with a rubber prosthetic, which, however, did not restrict muscle movements. A costume was specially created for the lean Oldman, visually adding weight to him. Oldman shaved his head to make it easier to put on a wig. During the filming, Oldman spent over 200 hours in the makeup chair.
- The film is set during the hot spring of 1940 in Britain, but filming took place in winter. For this reason, outdoor shooting was minimized, and indoor scenes focused on artificial sunlight behind the windows, intended to indicate the heat outside.
- Initially, John Hurt was cast as Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), but due to health problems, he had to withdraw from the role, and the 60th Prime Minister of Great Britain was played by actor Ronald Pickup.
- While embodying Winston Churchill, Gary Oldman smoked £30,000 worth of cigars on set (an average of 12 cigars per shooting day) and suffered nicotine poisoning.
- Gary Oldman claims that he personally chose Kazu Hiro as the makeup artist and convinced him to come out of retirement. The first difficulty for Tsuji was the lack of physical resemblance between the actor and his character, which necessitated the use of facial prosthetics. It took Tsuji six months to prepare. A "fat suit" was specially created for the lean Oldman. During filming, Oldman spent over 200 hours in the makeup chair.
- Preparing for the role, Gary Oldman studied Winston Churchill and his mannerisms for a whole year.
- Many critics reacted very negatively to the scene in the film in which Churchill meets a young Black resident of London and his white girlfriend and encourages their desire to marry. Critics considered this scene frankly contrived. Churchill himself called himself a supporter of the theory of white racial superiority and welcomed the fact that European settlers deceitfully 'took' North America from the Indians.
- The scene in which Churchill rides in a subway car and talks to passengers, ordinary residents of London, about whether or not to negotiate peace with Adolf Hitler is fictional. The producers wanted to add the kind of racial and other diversity that is so popular today to the film (since the screen constantly featured exclusively white men representing the middle class, which was historically accurate), and also to show the audience that Churchill himself sometimes experienced doubts and insecurity.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
