Darkest Hour Movie Review

O’Sullivan’s Article

November 15th

I’ve been teaching history for many years. Over the years one of the people students often asked about is the leader of Nazi Germany. How did he come to power? How did he get people to do what he did? I always looked for the opposite leader;  the person who stopped him.  That person was Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England.

           Winston Churchill was a flawed individual. He drank alcohol every day at every meal.  He was stubborn. But underneath the rough exterior he was the perfect hero. He was known as the Last Lion. A movie was made about him called “Darkest Hour”.  It is currently on Netflix. I highly recommend it. While the rest of Europe stood helpless as the German army advanced and America stood by in Isolation, Churchill rallied the British. He motivated them to fight, to survive, to believe they could win.  

           During the summer of 1940, the Battle of Britain raged. The German air force, taking off from bases stolen from France, flew daily and nightly bombing missions into Britain. They were trying to crush the British resistance, to break them. Churchill wouldn’t let it happen. The British Royal Air Force fighter pilots were heroes, flying missions around the clock.  They would sleep, eat, and go back in the air.  

            We often ask, how could one man pull off such evil as in Nazi Germany.  What we should ask is how did one man stand up to him and show the world how to fight.