The Darkest Hour and A. O. Scott

The film “The Darkest Hour” is a representative interpretation of truth in regard to Winston Churchill becoming Prime Minister, nearly becoming an ex-PM in a matter of days and the beginning of a great sacrifice, and a great triumph.

Before Churchill became PM, he realized for a long time a need for Great Britain to rearm, such as in 1935 when the Anglo-German Naval Treaty conceded to Hitler up to 35% of British Navy strength. There was the Italian attack on Abyssinia. In 1936 Hitler reintroduced conscription and placed troops into the demilitarized Rhineland. Churchill thought strong resistance by the French to the Rhineland occupation would have forced Hitler to withdraw, be discredited, and removed from power by the German General Staff.

In 1936 Churchill stood for Epping and did well, but received no office in the government. He was moving to the center, courting those in power to be in power. He had fame, a recognized personality, and his oratory in his approach to government office. In not getting in, he could devote time to his book, Marlborough, articles for the “Evening Standard,” painting, and another book, A History of English Speaking Peoples. By 1937, only war would bring Churchill into office in the government, not that he was a warmonger.

In the Fall of 1938 at Munich, The Prime Minister, Chamberlain, secured “peace with honor” and came to be affixed with the label of appeasement. The Nazi-Soviet Pact came along. Hitler took Poland. Then, in 1939, Churchill was summoned to take a position in the War Cabinet. They had wondered should he be admitted to office in the government? Some in the press and many Britons outside the government had him as the one to do what was becoming necessary. Churchill had been sending off memos to government officials and others at a great rate such that he needed a stenographer by day and often deep into the night.

The misadventure in Norway led to the expectation that someone resolute and resourceful in dealing with the Germans was required, Chamberlain did not fit the bill and nor did Halifax, who shared some of Chamberlain’s views. Halifax wanted Churchill in for a short time and fail so that they would turn to him. He had in mind no destruction of Britain, give it over to Hitler, thereby war would be avoided. He did not want to be a wartime Prime Minister.

But then A. O. Scott of the NY Times writing about “The Darkest Hour,” doesn’t dwell on this. Instead: He faults the film for lacking details and insights into statecraft; but for one detail of Churchill’s doubt about how to proceed vs. Hitler, there is assumed a great deal of hesitation on Churchill’s part; Churchill, used now as an ego boost and an actor’s project supported by the notion Churchill regarded women as throwaways; Churchill derived pleasure from his being on the scene during national predicaments; Churchill produced rhetoric for a war effort; and his Britons are seen by Scott as reactionary, empty, passive, and considered as a sop to gumption and unity; writing in the Nazis on the “pay to” line on a moral check to be paid for by the Britons that is not transferable; any pride derived from “The Darkest Hour” can’t apply to us, since we have nothing to be proud of; and, most of all, Churchill in the subway getting a confidence boost for opposing Hitler from the occupants of the subway car, is exasperatingly “ridiculous” as sham populism.

Thank you, Scott, and what is so “ridiculous” about the subway scene in comparison to much else that is “ridiculous’ : a Churchill family tableau; Clementine upbraiding Churchill for rudeness; Churchill and King sitting side by side and getting chummy as the King is coming to adopt Churchill’s stance; a person as his regular typist who wasn’t there yet, and when she did arrive, she did not have a brother who died in the fall back to Dunkirk; the doomed British commander at Calais looking skyward as German bombers completed a run; and Chamberlain’s hanky displayed in Commons to rouse his supporters?

All “ridiculous” but true enough in intent? Churchill’s own party, the Conservatives, did not fully support him. The opposition, the Labor Party, couldn’t any longer support Chamberlain. Who else was there? Halifax, if he had roared to be Prime Minister would have had it, but he wasn’t going to get it with Churchill as an alternative and at least not just yet. Let Churchill fail, Halifax would be in and he could be with Hitler for a second “Munich.”

Only the Britons could yet oppose Hitler. The U.S. was in isolation. Russia was sidelined, Japan was readying an attack on the U.S. No other great power could intervene. Without much effort, Hitler had Europe. The British were woefully prepared. Their forces of the Continent were trapped at Dunkirk.

Churchill did not have rousing support. He was not the preferred man. The crux of world history in May 1940 was nine meetings in three days by the War Cabinet, of which Churchill, Chamberlain, Halifax, Attlee, and Greenwood were the members. Five people. Churchill was adamant in opposition to Hitler. Churchill had commented on Halifax’s continual effort to surrender to Hitler by acknowledging it, if Hitler gave autonomy to Great Britain. Churchill knew Hitler would not accept such. Churchill was buying time. Churchill thought he momentarily was forced to make concessions to Halifax. Churchill needed to get Chamberlain to his side. He did so. Attlee and Greenwood were already in Churchill’s camp. If Chamberlain and Halifax had resigned, Churchill would have been out and Halifax in. But Chamberlain came over and no ridiculous scene was contrived to show how it was done. It was done, that is the point. Five people, only five and two of them could have destroyed Great Britain.

One of the five certainly believed that tyranny must not be allowed to flourish, it must be opposed, and destroyed if necessary. He was a great man and a hero. “The Darkest Hour” supports the obvious and does so in a most entertaining manner. The national mood, led by Churchill’s words, wasn’t defiant nor brave. It was a belief that the worst that could happen would not happen. Churchill fostered an irrational belief in the ultimate outcome even as they teetered on a very thin support against disaster.

On June 18, 1940 Churchill said the battle of Britain was to begin and the fate of Christian civilization would be decided. The world faced a dark age and some might well live “their finest hour.”