DARKEST HOUR

Image result for Darkest Hour 2017

GB
2017
2hrs 05mins
Dir: Joe Wright
Starring: Gary Oldman and Lily James

The fate of Western Europe hangs on the British Prime Minister who must decide whether to negotiate with the enemy or fight on

Despite this award-winning wartime drama being highly praised it does seem somewhat underwhelming. There is nothing new in this film’s approach which often feels like an obligation and a way to get a decent actor his Oscar. The scene filmed on the Underground unsurprisingly used Aldwych, masquerading on this occasion as St. James’s Park. The tube train which Oldman boards before gamely carrying out a conversation with his fellow passengers (did no one remember ‘that careless talk cost lives’) is in part a CGI creation, and in part a quite convincing set. The earlier scene with Gary Oldman and Lily James walking down an unlined Underground tunnel is a little more interesting and although not confirmed, was almost certainly filmed in the Aldwych / Holborn area.

Gary Oldman and Lily James walk towards the map room in the ‘operations headquarters’. In reality, probably a tunnel somewhere on the Aldwych branch.
This is the passageway from the lift lobby to the platform at Aldwych station
The passageway leading to the platform at Aldwych. The red train of 1938 stock is a CGI creation, but the sound effects are very convincing.
Gary Oldman as Churchill. Note the windows of the tube train behind him are covered in a white gauze as a blackout measure.
The interior of the tube train is, I suspect, a rather convincing set with equally convincing ‘Underground’ noises. However, a real carriage from the collection at Acton could have been the basis for this sequence of events but the directors commentary sadly sheds no light on how this was acheived.