Wow. I was afraid to see this story of the evacuation of 400,000 British soldiers from the Dunkerque, France beach in World War II but must admit I liked it as much as Jack did, which was a lot. It is, however, thunderously loud. About thirty nonagenarian veteran survivors of the actual event were invited to the premiere in London and some commented that the movie is louder than the actual bombardment. My recommendation is that you bring earplugs and get to the theatre a little early to ask for a closed caption device. I usually get the devices but couldn't use it this time, as the IMAX print we saw didn't have captioning available. I did have earplugs handy and used them a lot.
The movie follows the event from land, sea, and air. On land we have Fionn Whitehead in his film debut, accompanied by thousands of others (real and computer-generated), including Harry Styles of the boy band One Direction, also in his debut (in this photo Styles is on the left and Whitehead on the right). The director has been quoted as saying that he chose young, inexperienced actors since so many soldiers at the time were young and inexperienced. Kenneth Branagh (last blogged for My Week with Marilyn) plays a dedicated officer.
At sea we have Mark Rylance (most recently in these pages for The BFG) and Cillian Murphy (his best work includes 28 Days Later... (2002), Intermission (2003), Breakfast on Pluto (2005), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises), as a civilian boatman and a rescued soldier, to name a few. In the air we have Tom Hardy (Oscar-nominated for The Revenant but lost to Rylance for Bridge of Spies) and a couple more pilots.
Director/writer Christopher Nolan (last blogged for Interstellar) may get his fourth Oscar nomination (and first win?) and director of photography Hoyt Van Hoytema (also last blogged for Interstellar) may get his first for the stunning shots, including the aerial dogfights, no doubt enhanced by special effects. Shooting locations include the actual beach (more on that in the next paragraph) and several places in the Netherlands, not far from Dunkerque.
One clever person has found the actual address in Dunkerque on google maps. Take a look at the "street" view. They may be beginning to build the sets or take them down.
I'm currently listening to the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer (most recently scored Hidden Figures), streamed from this link (with volume turned down) and, for once, I watched the commercial because it's for a master class by the composer and we get to see and hear him talk about his craft. There's a ticking, recorded from Nolan's pocket watch and extended, that goes on throughout most of the movie. Until it stops. See if you notice. In the spoiler section of imdb's trivia you can learn when that is. The last track of the youtube playlist above goes into some detail about the ticking and the work of Zimmer, Nolan, and sound designers.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are rhapsodic, averaging 93%, and its audiences come in at 83. It was impressive in IMAX and I'm sure would be in 70mm if you can find somewhere that's showing it, but I still recommend the closed captions, which will be available only in 2D. If you're new to that technology, allow time for a tutorial.
I saw the film in 70 mm, and on the big screen it is powerful. As Babette mentioned, the use of unknown actors added authenticity because the solders in WWII were kids. I had a couple of quibbles about the film. Wikipedia reports that 861 personal boats made the trip across for the rescue, and in the film and I expected to see small craft filling the ocean. The RAF lost over 100 planes, and the impression was given in the film that Brits did not want to put too many aircraft at risk. Overall, a film worth viewing.
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