{"id":23018,"date":"2024-09-09T18:56:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T17:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=23018"},"modified":"2024-09-10T21:19:57","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T20:19:57","slug":"media-film-darkest-hour-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=23018","title":{"rendered":"MEDiA\/FiLM: Darkest Hour, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We recently visited Chartwell. What an incredible place. Mostly on account of the location. The house and nearby art studio are amazing. But the landscape and gardens are even more breathtaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, \u2018pon our return home, from a week in St Leonards by the Sea, with the visit to Chartwell en-route home, Teresa suggested we watch this film, again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The real Elizabeth Layton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The movie version, aka Lily James.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s great. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared with the extreme ahistorical travesty that was Churchill<\/em>, in which Brian Cox portrays a really rather pathetic version of the \u2018Great Man\u2019, this is – whilst still inserting some fiction (any<\/em> is too much, in my view) – much more in line with more traditionally popular ideas of the man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gary Oldman\u2026 is<\/em> Churchill.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The transformation in progress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gary Oldman is superb. Indeed, the whole cast is terrific. There are<\/em> some modern intrusions into the film, some of which are along similar lines to some of those in Churchill<\/em>. But, all things considered, to much less egregious effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This scene is pure fiction, sadly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pity, really.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As ever, I\u2019m interested to learn about the historical accuracy of such things: from the role of secretary Elizabeth Layton, to whether or not Winston actually rode the underground, and as a result was late for\/or even absent from a Cabinet meeting, about negotiating a peace to be brokered by Mussolini. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out the real Miss Layton worked with Churchill after<\/em> the timeframe depicted. And the Underground scene is completely fictitious. I think it\u2019s a great shame allegedly \u2018historical\u2019 films like this take these liberties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ben Mendehlson as George VI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Inevitably, many viewers will take the fabricated parts at face value and believe them to be genuine history. And that\u2019s just not right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, this is<\/em> a good film. Far better and more watchable – and despite elements of fiction, still more historically faithful – than Churchill<\/em>. Beautifully shot, well directed, and brilliantly acted, a very engaging film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We recently visited Chartwell. What an incredible place. Mostly on account of the location. The house and nearby art studio are amazing. But the landscape and gardens are even more breathtaking.  Anyway, \u2018pon our return home, from a week in St Leonards by the Sea, with the visit to Chartwell en-route home, Teresa suggested we … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MEDiA\/FiLM: Darkest Hour, 2016”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-5Zg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23018"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23018"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23054,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23018\/revisions\/23054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}