"Dunkirk"

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fountainhall

"Dunkirk"

Post by fountainhall »

Saw this amazing movie today at the iMax Theatre in the Emquartier shopping mall. Almost everyone will know the story of the Dunkirk evacuation when 400,000 British and allied forces were trapped on the beach at Dunkirk surrounded by the German war machine. The movie captures the event in three separate story lines taking place over different time periods. A week spent by the solders on the beach desperate for destroyers to arrive and take them home; the day spent by one of the small boats crossing the channel, its captain superbly underplayed by Sir Mark Rylance who must surely be in for another Oscar nod; and one hour involving an air fight with three Spitfires.

The intercutting between the story lines can be confusing at first, but you soon catch on. More surprising is the exceedingly sparse dialogue. I can’t recall more than a handful of short lines in the whole of the first ten minutes. But the film concentrates on the men – the very young men – and the depth of their fear and emotions. No-one portrays this better than Fionn Whitehead, an actor of whom I had not heard before and who will surely also be in the running for an Oscar. The vulnerability shown on his face throughout is hard to forget. Some of the film’s images will also remain in the mind, none more so than Whitehead’s arrival on the beach as he cannot quite take in the masses of orderly lines of soldiers stretching as far as the eye can see.

Hans Zimmer’s score has just one haunting theme of just a few bars heard from the middle of the movie on. At the climax, this theme crashes though the action and it becomes obvious that it is the start of the famous Nimrod from Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Perhaps the use of just its start is to signify that this wartime evacuation marked a successful but also disastrous start to Britain’s war.

Dunkirk is less a conventional war movie and more of a suspense thriller. It’s gritty, realistic and with just a brief moment of sentimentality involving Sir Kenneth Brannagh near the end. On the big iMax format it hits you right between the eyes. I’m sure a lot of impact is lost in the narrower wide-screen format. There were probably no more than 30 in the audience for this afternoon’s showing. I hope that is not an indication it will be taken off quite soon.

firecat69

Re: "Dunkirk"

Post by firecat69 »

I did not see it in IMAX but rather 70MM which is still much better then normal screens. I gave it a B and only that high because of the riveting dogfight scenes and the acting of Sir Mark Rylance.

Maybe because the story is so well known , i found very little to illuminate what I already knew many went through during first the horror of death and then the uplifting story of small boats from everywhere to rescue the survivors.

FH is in good company of the most famous reviewers falling over themselves in their praise for this movie. For me I was disappointed !
fountainhall

Re: "Dunkirk"

Post by fountainhall »

I totally agree there is little in the movie that expands on what we do not already know. What I found fascinating were the characters themselves and their reactions to what was happening to them. I was glad there was no moralising and speechifying by higher-ups like Churchill. It was all about the men. Christopher Nolan's direction pulled me right into the action rather than being a mere spectator and I sometimes found I was emotionally involved.

I do accept, though, that the background to those 400,000 finding themselves on the beach was glossed over and could have done with a little more explanation. It was far from Britain's finest hour!

Perhaps, too, I feel a more personal involvement. My recently married father enlisted at the outset of war and was sent to France. In June 1940 his division found themselves at St. Valery, on the Channel coast but about 200 kms west of Dunkirk. Despite consideration being made in London to rescuing his group, the distance across the Channel at that point was too great and the weather too bad. Six days after the end of the Dunkirk evacuation, his commanding officer surrendered. He went on to spend 5 years in a prisoner of war camp before being repatriated by the Russians.
firecat69

Re: "Dunkirk"

Post by firecat69 »

Just for context. Would be interested in hearing what you thought about my favorite movies of the last year.

Hidden Figures
Lion
Hacksaw Ridge
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Undaunted
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Re: "Dunkirk"

Post by Undaunted »

I thought Lion was spectacular...loved the lead actor who was also in Slumdog Millionaire. I enjoyed Hidden Figures as I knew nothing of those black women who contributed so much to the U.S.space program.



"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
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Re: "Dunkirk"

Post by Captain Kirk »

firecat69 wrote:Just for context. Would be interested in hearing what you thought about my favorite movies of the last year.

Hidden Figures
Lion
Hacksaw Ridge
Of these I've only seen Hacksaw Ridge which I thought was top notch. Dunkirk for me was an 8/10. Pretty good but not spectacular.
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Re: "Dunkirk"

Post by Gaybutton »

firecat69 wrote:Would be interested in hearing what you thought about my favorite movies of the last year.
I saw all three. I thought all of them were exceptional.

If I had to select just one as my favorite from among them, it would be 'Lion.
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Re: "Dunkirk"

Post by thewayhelooks »

Plenty of Stukas dive bombing soldiers on the beach, including a row of blasts drawing ever closer to our hero, half burying him in the sand.Very noisy they were too. You don't need to see the Germans when they are firing at you as you run for your life through the town. More terrifying that way.
fountainhall

Re: "Dunkirk"

Post by fountainhall »

PeterUK wrote:I went to see it with my older brother at the local Gaumont (long since gone)
From my dim and distant past I well remember the Gaumont in my home town. I did not realise it must have been part of a chain like Rank's Odeon cinemas. Close to the main street there were ten cinemas, some playing first run features but always with the addition a cheap 'B' movie, others showing double bill reruns of moves about a year old, the latter for virtual peanuts!
fountainhall

Re: "Dunkirk"

Post by fountainhall »

firecat69 wrote:Just for context. Would be interested in hearing what you thought about my favorite movies of the last year.

Hidden Figures
Lion
Hacksaw Ridge
I only saw Hidden Figures which I really enjoyed. The other two I saw last year which I equally enjoyed were -

Manchester by the Sea
The Assassin - a masterful and beautiful film by the Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsian


Sadly the official good trailer does little justice to the actual film.
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