Recent events in England turned my attention once again to this movie.
Called ‘Darkest Hour” it is a storyline about Sir Winston Churchill from slightly before his being appointed prime minister up to the moment that he declared on the floor of Parliament that Great Britain
The more recent events to which I refer will be discussed in another post. However, I wanted to pass this on because I found the movie to be a moving portrait of Sir Winston.
I also found it a telling bit of History about the forces that Churchill was up against domestically. Devil Chamberlain, Hallifax, and so on. Despite the obvious utility of negotiating with Hitler Halifax and Chamberlain at all still insisted on that course. To which a rather frustrated Churchill responded:
When will the lesson be learned? You cannot negotiate with the lion when your head is in its mouth.
Let’s remember the disaster that was the negotiation between Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler was fresh in the minds of everyone in the country. And yet Chamberlain and Halifax were still pushing the idea of negotiation.
I found this to be the most moving scene in the entire movie, in a movie full of them.
The scene I will show you here is preceded by his wife telling him that he is strong because he is imperfect, and he is wise because he has doubts.
At this point she advises him to his shock, that the King of England is visiting his home in the wee hours of the morning.
We need to remember that the King had just come away with a meeting at Buckingham Palace with Halifax, who was urging him to rule in absentia from Canada. The King had finally had enough, and got on the horn with Mrs Churchill to make the arrangements to meet her husband.
Churchill was on the verge of giving in to the negotiators. But changed his direction at his Kings command.
I am firmly convinced that had this conversation not happened, we would all be speaking German to this day.
