Oscar Update, Oldmans Darkest Hour is Rudy in disguise
Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Winston Churchhill is SO dead on, the great grandson of Churchill, Randolph Churchill calls Oldman, “great grand papa.”
With Gary Oldman’s best actor win at last nights Academy Awards, I wanted to revisit a post from last month.
How about a movie about Winston Churchhill? Unless you’re a political junkie, history buff or having lunch at Helen’s in Concord with presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwyn, you may say: “I don’t like documentary’s about history.”
Saying you need a history degree to get The Darkest Hour, is like saying you need to play college football to get the movie Rudy.
Ok, saying it’s “Rudy in disguise” maybe a little of a stretch. BUT, if you like stories about an underdog, with the world, literally against him, you may like Hour.
Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Churchhill was stunning, to me. The makeup alone made me forget who was behind the makeup. Oldman creates a Churchhill that is brave, relentless, innovative, yet, funny, loving, compassionate and oddly, modern for 1940.
In a very pivotal moment as Churchhill is challenged and pressured by the bureaucrats to surrender Britain to Hitler, he seeks wisdom by taking a subway ride, alone to ask real people what he should do. It was inspiring and believable as Winston Churchhill found his strength in real people supporting him to fight and never surrender. It was the most important subway ride of ANY MAN ‘s life. But while it was very serious, his conversation with the group on the subway was also light, funny, sad, and heartfelt, all at once. It showed Churchhill’s bold out-of-the-box leadership and human connection that people today are craving. In fact during that moment Heidi leaned over and said “he’s doing a town hall.”
In an interview about the movie, Gary Oldman had some doubts if he would have the stamina to play Winston Churchhill. He said: “when it got tough, I would remember that if 65 year old Churchhill could go up against Hitler, I can deal with a few long days.”