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I have been pantingly eager to see this movie ever since I saw the first trailer over a year ago.
Winston Churchill was a hero of mine from high school: his valiant stand against the Nazis is the stuff of legend, and his speeches during those dark days of 1940 still make the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

First of all, let me set a myth to rest.  Gary Oldman does not PORTRAY Winston Churchill in this movie.  That fiction was invented by Hollywood to hide the fact that they actually perfected human cloning and literally brought Churchill back from the dead just for this film.  At least, that's how it feels.  The look, the facial expressions, the slight lisp, the bulldog determination - this is the best portrayal of Churchill I have ever seen, and perhaps the best portrayal of ANY historic figure since Daniel Day Lewis channeled Abraham Lincoln a few years back.

The movie focuses exclusively on Churchill's first month in office - when the German Army was conquering all in its path, when democracies went tumbling down like dominoes, and when any reasonable man would have said the only sane policy would be to surrender, or at least cut the best deal possible.  That was what the King of England seriously considered; that was the course openly advocated by the Foreign Minister, Lord Halifax, and covertly supported by Churchill's predecessor, Neville Chamberlain.

As William Manchester observed thirty years ago, thank God Churchill was NOT a reasonable man.

The movie is not flawless, but it is still excellent.  A must for historians and filmgoers alike!

5/5 stars, and an Oscar nod for Gary Oldman.  (Assuming that was really him!)

Well, I liked it, but not quite THAT much. I gave it 4/5. Just missed my top 10 for the year. And I didn't personally vote for Oldman for Best Actor, though he won the OFCS award.

I think it would be fascinating if someone would edit DUNKIRK and DARKEST HOUR together into a single movie.