Dunkirk

I was in the mood for something different so I mentally went through the list of movies I intend to watch and decided to see:

Dunkirk (2017).

This is in many ways a weird war movie. Do not go into this expecting dramatic battle scenes and plucky and courageous Allies fighting Nazis like so many other war movies. This is not Saving Private Ryan. Christopher Nolan went an entirely different route with Dunkirk.

First a little bit of background. So when WWII broke out, the British sent a bunch of soldiers to France to fight the Germans, but they together with the French and Belgians dropped the ball. They got surrounded and pushed back into the French town of Dunkirk. The German general in charge, von Rundstedt, issued an order to halt the attack. Instead of loosing lots of troops assaulting the desperate Allies, they opted to let the Luftwaffe (air force) bomb them to pieces instead.

British High Command realized that in order to have a fighting chance later on, they needed to get their boys off the beach and back to Britain. The biggest problem was that the harbor wasn't very big and could only accommodate one larger ship at a time. In response, the call went out to every boat owner in SE Britain to sail across the channel with whatever they had in order to bring back as many men as they could. All while the German Air Force did their best to stop this from happening.

So back to the movie. Dunkirk is all about the evacuation. It is told from the perspective of land, sea and air. Each part has its main characters, but it's as much about the evacuation effort as it is about the people. In a sense the people come second to the event itself. The movie is also somewhat non-sequential which is a bit confusing, at least at first.

I have to say that Nolan did an amazing job. Dunkirk is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen, even though the subject matter is incredibly grim. The cinematography is first class all the way and his use of CGI vs. practical effects is masterful. It all blends seamlessly together and really drops you down in the middle of the conflict.

The soundtrack merits a special mention. There is essentially no music only sound. Sound designed to heighten your anxiety and help you feel the panic the desperate soldiers feel. Pounding ticking and unpleasant screeches are common here and it really works. Amazing work by Hans Zimmer.

But as always, you can have the best techniques in the world, but without good actors you fall apart. Luckily the actors knocked it out of the park. Entire scenes go past with no dialogue, only wordless acting that never the less speak volumes. The cast list is huge and everyone did a great job. Dunkirk is painted thick with fear, exhaustion, desperation, anger, shame and even some rare humor. All mixed up to make a masterpiece about the will to survive.

A couple of interesting details: You don't see a single German until the very end, and even then, they are more shadows in the dark than soldiers. Also there is a scene where a Spitfire without fuel manages to shoot down a Stuka dive-bomber. This is recorded fact and worked as the Stuka was a sitting duck when diving. It looked silly, but sometimes the truth is kind of silly.

So do I recommend this movie? If you haven't already figured it out from all the gushing, then yes! Unless you hate war movies, or just can't stand the subject matter in general, do please watch Dunkirk. It completely blew me away and sucked me in completely. I absolutely need to watch it again some day.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!