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Sunday, August 08, 2021

If There's One Thing Winston Churchill Was Not ...

... it was boring. Warts and all (and there were a lot of terrible, terrible warts), he led a wildly interesting life, in large part due to his skill with words. To quote JFK (who stole the quote from Edward R. Murrow), "he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle."

That quote is attributed to Viscount Halifax in Darkest Hour, which I'd been meaning to watch for some time and finally sat down for last night. In addition to the fascinating subject matter, I've never known Gary Oldman to drop the ball, at least when playing an Englishman (he was the perfect George Smiley for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy).

Yes, Darkest Hour takes a number of liberties with historical fact (for example, the "Beaches" speech was not broadcast on radio, nor did Churchill go take a ride on the Underground to take the temperature of The Little People before deciding not to negotiate with Hitler -- and of course there's that Halifax quote attribution), but it's still a damn good movie.

If you don't find Churchill as interesting as I do, I suggest reading William Manchester's The Last Lion (the third volume was completed by Paul Reid after Manchester's death).

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