Darwin's Darkest Hour (2009)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This film provides a glimpse into the life and times of Charles Darwin just before publishing Origin of the Species. His wife's intelligent, principled role, his children's' engagement in science and learning as well as tragic illness, the struggle with ethical questions related to attribution ("intellectual property rights" within the scientific world). It provides the basic reasoning & observations behind the theory and the fascinating context - especially recent discoveries about geological forces and time scale. A revolution in our understanding of the world all taking place in one short century. Pretty exciting! Filmed in beautiful Nova Scotia where I live (a pleasant surprise) - including local actors & sites. (Ironically the film tax credit that brought the filming here was drastically changed April 9 2015, 3 days before we watched the film, leaving the future of film-making in NS in doubt).

There is an evolution happening at Nat-Geo. National Geo's Nova did something very different in this episode. Rather than showing another documentary type movie, it premiere a two hour drama movie will coincide with the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of his seminal work 'On the Origin of the Species'. This will be National Geographic Television's first scripted film. This review will not be a debate between Creationism and Darwinism, but a review of the film. Still, it was kind of funny that the actor that plays Charles Darwin in this film play Jesus Christ in another film. The movie starts in 1858 with an actor that doesn't even look like the balding Darwin, Henry Ian Cusick getting a letter from naturalist Alfred Wallace while working on his book 'Origins of Species'. He has spent years refining his ideas and penning his work, but yet to publish his work due to conflict with the orthodox religious values that dominant the time he lives in. Darwin learned from the letter that Wallace is ready to publish ideas very similar to his own. Darwin knows that he can't delay his work anymore and works to publish it even with the fears of backlash. Most of the movie's story is told by Darwin lecturing his devout Christian wife Emma (Frances O'Connor) about what his life work is about. In fact, Emma was a genius who knew Charles Darwin's work who spoke several languages and helped edit Darwin's texts. He tells the story of his beginnings as a young man on voyage on the Beagle around the world. He tells about his finding for science with works on Patagonia, and Galapagos. The movie has some of the best beautiful stock footage of nature and animals. Finally he tells her, his conflicts of explaining his theory to his peers whom is still worry about the society impact of his views work. The movie isn't all about a smart narration explaining Natural Selection and transmutation. It also shows the personal sufferings of its originator. Some of the best acting that comes from Henry is seem with the relationship with his dying daughter. The movie is better than the docudrama portions of the Evolution: Darwin's Dangerous Idea episode. We are taken to defining moments of his works in his novel 'voyage of HMS Beagle' and through the pages of his transmutation notebooks via this dialogue. What I thought was nicely done is showing how Darwin's family was heavily involved in his work at Down House, the domesticity of Darwin's research. He was an unconventional father, very involved in the raising of his children, and at times his children became themselves scientific subjects. The scenes showing Darwin's children assisting, or being attentive to, his various experiments on plants and bees were my favorite and bit funny at times. Darwin was very humorous and jokes when he can. Most of them were often told at someone else's expense. For a film with a low budget, they really use their money correct. The movie wasn't ape crazy being pro evolution and anti-creation. The movie was balance between both views and easy to watch. So give it a try.

This is a well crafted story about the dilemma faced by Charles Darwin when he receives a letter from Russell Wallace that almost spells out the theory of Evolution from Natural Selection. Darwin has been working on this theory for some 20 years and now he holds a letter that could usurp his primacy should he forward it on. The show then follows his conversations with his wife as he discusses what he should do, and the events that shaped his formation of the theory. This is also a drama that touches on the current health troubles in his family and the effect the death a few years before of his beloved daughter Annie had on him. This is an excellent production, the performances are solid, and the art direction,sets, and costumes are wonderful. The only complaint was the contrivance of having Darwin spell everything out to his wife (who would have know 90% of it already) for our benefit. But this is also a quiet drama of his family life so cutting between that and him talking to... a reporter(?)would have been jarring. They could have done the whole thing in flashbacks from a time after publication, but what they did here ultimately does work, as we watch an honorable man do the right thing.

Evangelical churches and schools should (but won't) make this required viewing. Perhaps those misinformed and deluded millions who take the bible literally can learn something of the profound science in the Origin of Species and the honourable man who moved the world giant steps beyond mythology and superstition. Darwin is too little understood. This brave film is frank in its approach and does not skirt the religion issues. The writer obviously cared about the truth. Beautifully shot in Nova Scotia. Main actors are excellent. Not a bad performance anywhere. Bravo for an important story, well told. PBS should repeat and promote the film even more.