Dunkirk

[Ageing Grey Mackem]

We saw it Friday night. It's an exceptionally good film, tense and moving in the right places, with a cracking score and some superb scenes - much of the Spitfire stuff is a real seat of the pants ride for example, and they made the sound of the diving Stukas shrieking sirens a horrific chilling wail. But, and it's a quite big but, I never felt the scale of the situation was ever adequately conveyed. It's repeated a few times that there were 400,000 men on that beach and at no time do you get the feeling that there are more than about 400, in ruler straight organised queues.

As a contrast I would recommend searching youtube for the Dunkirk scene tracking shot from the film Atonement from a few years back. To me, that does a lot more to convey the sense of panic, chaos, carnage and impending disaster that must have been the case as a ruthless enemy appeared set to encircle and surely destroy every man there.

Also, I know they had a story to tell and chose to tell it through the experience of individuals at sea, in the air and on the land, but there was no reference to some of the hideous massacres committed by the Germans as they chased the expeditionary force to the coast. At Le Paradis, and at Esquelbecq. Worth reading up on.

 

[Ben Gardner]

Christ, there's a few clowns on here! Fancy trying to give an informed opinion of a film when they've seen it via Kodi on their TV at home?

Some daft sod said it looks like it's been made on the cheap. Mentalist.
As for lack of dialogue, do you think soldiers fleeing for their lives or fighting for their country would have cool bants like Jackson & Travlota in Pulp Fiction?
A confusing timeline? Not for a second.
Lack of gore? It's not Tarantino, you know.
"The train at the end is too modern". Even Shawshank and The Godfather have the odd error, you know.
No connection with the main characters. The story isn't necessarily about them, it's about the futility of war and the coming together of mankind.
Lack of boats? At least they were real, and not CGI - that counts for some kudos.

I watch films as part of my job and this is a superb production all round. Audio, visuals, acting, atmosphere, tension, cinematography - all top notch.

I'm not a big fan of Nolan at all (Memento was self-indulgent shot) but he's excelled himself here.

So what if he's "crying out for Oscars", shouldn't all directors strive to do their best and get recognized for their work?

Rant over. Just go and see the film. In the f***ing cinema.

 

[HABA87]

7.5/10, as per my input on the films thread.

 

[Sandboy]

I rarely go to the flicks but knew this would be best viewed big and loud - watched it with son (16) and neither of us spoke for a bit when we came out. Both agreed it wasn't the best film but very important, I was bloody exhausted by the end, a timely reminder of what happened so relatively recently

 

[RestlessNatives]

Christ, there's a few clowns on here! Fancy trying to give an informed opinion of a film when they've seen it via Kodi on their TV at home?

Some daft sod said it looks like it's been made on the cheap. Mentalist.
As for lack of dialogue, do you think soldiers fleeing for their lives or fighting for their country would have cool bants like Jackson & Travlota in Pulp Fiction?
A confusing timeline? Not for a second.
Lack of gore? It's not Tarantino, you know.
"The train at the end is too modern". Even Shawshank and The Godfather have the odd error, you know.
No connection with the main characters. The story isn't necessarily about them, it's about the futility of war and the coming together of mankind.
Lack of boats? At least they were real, and not CGI - that counts for some kudos.

I watch films as part of my job and this is a superb production all round. Audio, visuals, acting, atmosphere, tension, cinematography - all top notch.

I'm not a big fan of Nolan at all (Memento was self-indulgent shot) but he's excelled himself here.

So what if he's "crying out for Oscars", shouldn't all directors strive to do their best and get recognized for their work?

Rant over. Just go and see the film. In the f***ing cinema.

If you watch films as part of your job, do you realise that people have different opinions and are therefore allowed different opinions?
People seem to get bizarrely defensive about this film. It was good but not an all time classic.
Ultimately I expect to be entertained and I felt shortchanged. If realism is the only criteria, then I'll watch a documentary.
You are arguing for realism with the characters and dialogue yet dismissing it as unimportant when it comes to scale or details.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, the fact that others weren't thrapping themselves daft in the pictures doesn't make them wrong.

 

[Ben Gardner]

If you watch films as part of your job, do you realise that people have different opinions and are therefore allowed different opinions?
People seem to get bizarrely defensive about this film. It was good but not an all time classic.
Ultimately I expect to be entertained and I felt shortchanged. If realism is the only criteria, then I'll watch a documentary.
You are arguing for realism with the characters and dialogue yet dismissing it as unimportant when it comes to scale or details.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, the fact that others weren't thrapping themselves daft in the pictures doesn't make them wrong.

Indeed, opinions are one thing, facts are something else. This is a tremendous film - fact.

@Sandboy hit on something that I meant to mention. It's more than just a film, it's a recognition (albeit an interpretation) of what happened at a very important part of our history.

It's a realization that all of us today should have a massive gratitude to that generation that offered up and sacrificed so much.

Maybe that's why folk get defensive. Quite a few folk on this thread have bared their souls and told very personal touching and poignant tales about relatives that lived and died through Dunkirk.

I think it's testament to them that Nolan was brave enough to do this film. It took him long enough.

 

[Son of Stan]

I was extremely emotional at a few points during the film. Added poignancy as something happened to Dad during the war which made him unable to face water where possible. So watching this made me doubly sad.

I do feel that although a brilliant rendition of the events at Dunkirk in striving for realism some characterization was lost along the way.

 

[Ben Gardner]

I was extremely emotional at a few points during the film. Added poignancy as something happened to Dad during the war which made him unable to face water where possible. So watching this made me doubly sad.

I do feel that although a brilliant rendition of the events at Dunkirk in striving for realism some characterization was lost along the way.

good point, but I'd argue that (on this occasion) characterization wasn't needed. The main protagonists were the futility, the brutal landscape and the desperation.

Much like Kubrick when he had the vastness of outer space as a character in 2001, the The Overlook Hotel as a character in The Shining ... Nolan has dome something similar here.

 

[RestlessNatives]

Indeed, opinions are one thing, facts are something else. This is a tremendous film - fact.

@Sandboy hit on something that I meant to mention. It's more than just a film, it's a recognition (albeit an interpretation) of what happened at a very important part of our history.

It's a realization that all of us today should have a massive gratitude to that generation that offered up and sacrificed so much.

Maybe that's why folk get defensive. Quite a few folk on this thread have bared their souls and told very personal touching and poignant tales about relatives that lived and died through Dunkirk.

I think it's testament to them that Nolan was brave enough to do this film. It took him long enough.

SMB pomposity at its finest.
And after watching a film about Dunkirk you come away thinking a bloke who made a film is brave?

 

[Son of Stan]

good point, but I'd argue that (on this occasion) characterization wasn't needed. The main protagonists were the futility, the brutal landscape and the desperation.

Much like Kubrick when he had the vastness of outer space as a character in 2001, the The Overlook Hotel as a character in The Shining ... Nolan has dome something similar here.

Yes I know what you're saying. And believe me I wouldn't want an English version of Saving Private Ryan. I didn't mind the lack of dialogue even, it would have been just that bit more effecting for me if there had been a character to empathise with or something more done with Fionn Whitehead's character possibly.

 

[Billy Fish]

We saw it Friday night. It's an exceptionally good film, tense and moving in the right places, with a cracking score and some superb scenes - much of the Spitfire stuff is a real seat of the pants ride for example, and they made the sound of the diving Stukas shrieking sirens a horrific chilling wail. But, and it's a quite big but, I never felt the scale of the situation was ever adequately conveyed. It's repeated a few times that there were 400,000 men on that beach and at no time do you get the feeling that there are more than about 400, in ruler straight organised queues.

As a contrast I would recommend searching youtube for the Dunkirk scene tracking shot from the film Atonement from a few years back. To me, that does a lot more to convey the sense of panic, chaos, carnage and impending disaster that must have been the case as a ruthless enemy appeared set to encircle and surely destroy every man there.

Also, I know they had a story to tell and chose to tell it through the experience of individuals at sea, in the air and on the land, but there was no reference to some of the hideous massacres committed by the Germans as they chased the expeditionary force to the coast. At Le Paradis, and at Esquelbecq. Worth reading up on.

You're not meant to get the scale of it or any focus on atrocities. The whole premis of the film was around what was seen through the eyes of the main participants. The beach-head was about ten miles long so any one man on the beach would not have seen the full scale. The fellas in the boats would only of seen those others close to them and the aircraft would have only seen those in their path but would ha e been concentrating more on the skies around them. I thought all of that was very well, and deliberately, portrayed, basically just focussing on the microcosms around the characters in shot.

 

[Horatio Pugwash]

My grandfather was evacuated form Dunkirk but he was with the RAF and he never talked about it (think the RAF had a tough time) but was proud to be a member of the Dunkirk veterans association. Looking forward to this one. Read a good article about how it was a WWII movie without the Americans in it and then suggested a movie about the Falklands would be a good choice, however the danger with that is Mrs Thatcher being turned into a Winston Churchill-esque leader, when in reality the Falklands could have been a complete disaster.

ww2 could have been a complete disaster

Absolutely tremendous. Just come out the cinema in town and there's loads of low flying planes overhead I fuckin ran for cover. Bloody air show!

Really really well done. Not your average film. Hopefully gives people a nudge to look into, understand and respect what happened

I thought the fillum was brilliant, the only small criticism i would have is that it didn't really convey the magnitude of it, the sheer numbers involved.

you see a few hundred men at a time (maybe a couple of thousand ) when in reality well over a quarter of a million got off that beach

 

[Ageing Grey Mackem]

You're not meant to get the scale of it or any focus on atrocities. The whole premis of the film was around what was seen through the eyes of the main participants. The beach-head was about ten miles long so any one man on the beach would not have seen the full scale. The fellas in the boats would only of seen those others close to them and the aircraft would have only seen those in their path but would ha e been concentrating more on the skies around them. I thought all of that was very well, and deliberately, portrayed, basically just focussing on the microcosms around the characters in shot.

Ok. It all looked a bit sanitised at least in comparison to what I would have expected given the collapse of the BEF.

 

[Billy Fish]

Ok. It all looked a bit sanitised at least in comparison to what I would have expected given the collapse of the BEF.

It wasn't done like "The Longest Day" which tried, relatively successfully, to include a snippet on every single aspect of the campaign. I liked the way it was done, seemed to make it more immersive which gave it more impact rather than feeling divorced from it just watching it as a historical spectacle.

 

[Lewberry pie]

Good film, great music which you always get with Hans zimmer like.

It's not so much a story like you'd expect in film but it still gets you involved with the characters and what they're going through.

 

[Scotty]

just got back from seeing it

10/10 - got a bit emotional when the Branagh character sees the little ships for the first time (possibly just something in my eye as same thing happened at the end when they're reading the newspaper



only needed an end credit scene of Tom Hardy strangling his captors and escaping (whilst probably shacking up with a french tart) for an 11/10

 

[janey]

The only real real criticism I have about it is the lack of blood/gore. Some films use it to the point it becomes overkill, but if used in the right way it can have a very visceral effect and I think in films such as this it's absolutely necessary.

That's really helpful for me, was thinking about getting tickets for me mam and dad, me Mam hates blood and gore so that was the one thing I was wondering about. I'll book tickets now.

 

[bryc1]

Went last week today see it and thought it was nowt flash. Seen better war films

 

[Deleted member 37772]

I enjoyed it. I think the reason he didn't focus on character development was done on purpose. Any of the people on that beach could have told similar stories or had similar experiences. It didn't need the back story to go with it. Some of the scenes left me feeling slightly claustrophobic I must admit. The music and sound building up to particular scenes was also executed very well. 7/10 for me.

 

[Ben Gardner]

Went last week today see it and thought it was nowt flash. Seen better war films

Just curious, genuinely .. which war films are better?

I ask because there's a spate of war films out just now (some good, some reported to be bad) so I'd like to see how the perception is in SMB land.