Not only is Dunkirk more of a survival film than a war film, it provides a refreshing balance of army, air force, and navy forces that one normally does not see in typical war films. The three split non-linear narratives have three distinctive tempos in pace and music, coalescing into its decisive conclusion. Further, the film's distinctive cinematography gives the stories a strong sense of claustrophobia, even in large, open spaces, and breaks photographic rules to provide an even stronger sense of urgency. I don't know the detailed history of the evacuation of Dunkirk, so I don't know how accurate the film is beyond the basics, but I'll be researching it later. I'm certainly interested to know how many of the service members and civilians depicted here are real people, particularly Tom Hardy's character, Farrier. I thought it was odd that Michael Caine wasn't in the film until I saw on Wikipedia that he had a vocal cameo as a Royal Air Force officer and I apparently didn't recognized his voice. Otherwise, I would've thought the rear admiral who visits on the pier would've worked as a good cameo for Caine. I might be premature in saying this, but Dunkirk may have dethrone Insomnia as my favorite Christopher Nolan film. Mach5, are you going to add a poll to this thread? You should still have that ability through "Thread tools."
I enjoyed the flick, although I struggled to understand the dialogue with the accents. Teared up in the climax when they power chorded cues from "Nimrod" into the score.
I'd been told Michael Caine wasn't in it but my mate and I both recognized his voice as soon as we heard it though. I also recognized the voice of "the blind man" too without having to see his face (John Nolan, Person of Interest as well as Batman Begins/Dark Knight Rises and a few other things.) - ETA - Just reading wiki, I knew his name but hadn't connected his with Christopher Nolan before now I thought it was a very good film.
Saw it earlier today in 70mm. Amazing and intense. Easily the best film I have seen this year. The dogfight scenes were something special. Not sure where it ranks on my Nolan scale, but want to see it in imax at some stage. Should get multiple oscar nominations.
Did anyone notice that for the trailer run here in the U.S. the narrator's voice!! Listen carefully! I believe that's Lt.Malcolm Reed - Dominic Keating's voice!! Anyone care to comment???
Not finishing the job was their blunder. Glad they didn't of course. Another wave could have attacked Pearl Harbor--and there have been times where the Japanese Navy pulled punches. It reminded me a bit of a scene in RAN, I think it was, when two Shogon rode past one another without actually attacking. The island hopping campaigns were relentless. The Battle of Tarawa deserves a similar treatment, as does the St Nazaire Raid. HMS Campbeltown wedged in the dock gates.
I didn't really like it, I felt like the scope of what was happening wasn't well conveyed and the stories were told too much on an individual level without connecting well to the big picture. And the music was simply overbearing and ended up like white noise after a while.
Saw this today and ehhh... I was a little bored with it, to be honest. Never been that interested in the air and sea aspects of the war (or any war for that matter) and since pretty much 100% of the film was that, well... I seem to recall being more impressed by the long, unbroken shot across the Dunkirk beach in Atonement. All that being said, however, American-less WWII movies are always welcome, and it's a rare thing to have one set during the "Germany kicks everyone's ass" phase of the war. You do see a single black French soldier at one point, but everyone else in the film is white.
I recognised the voice straightaway. I thought he'd be in it . Spoiler It would have been good if his "character" had survived. He could then be the same squadron leader he played in 1969's 'Battle of Britain' named Camfield who's killed in action. In fact that's how I recognised the voice . I enjoyed the film though I didn't realise that until a few minutes in that it was three different time periods which (sort of) converged by the end. I also enjoyed the use of 'Nimrod' as the small boats come to the rescue. I also like the way the Germans were used in this in that other than the Luftwaffe Spoiler and a group of German soldiers whose faces you can't see at the very end who take Tom Hardy's character prisoner they don't appear at all. I think Nolan was trying to do with them what he stated he was doing with the Joker in 'The Dark Knight' and treat them like the shark in 'Jaws'. I'm not even sure if you hear German spoken in the film. It was also quite a short film by Christopher Nolan's standards coming in at less than two hours. Funnily enough whilst at the cinema I saw a trailer for 'the sequel' to Dunkirk - 'Darkest Hour' about Churchill who is played in this instance by Gary Oldman.
I saw it last night and really wished my village had an IMAX screen. It was beautiful. I was a tad confused until I caught on that time was moving at different paces with the different storylines and once the 3 timelines started to sync in the last 45 minutes it was really amazing. The score just drove the tension level through the roof for me.
Yeah, the non-linear flow of some events (relative to others) was an interesting choice, but I never felt too distracted by it.
War films, or at least films set during World War II it seems may be added to superheroes and zombies as a genre that's becoming very popular. There was 'Churchill' earlier this year about the run-up to D-Day, there's 'Dunkirk', the other Churchill film I linked to above. And according to reports, Ridley Scott is considering making a Battle of Britain film whilst Roland Emmerich is making a film about the battle of Midway: http://screenrant.com/roland-emmerich-directing-wwii-film-midway/ Could Peter Jackson's Dambusters film be too far behind?