Starring: Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, James D’Arcy, Tom Glynn-Carney, Barry Keoghan, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Fionn Whitehead, Aneurin Barnard
OUR RATING: ★★★★★
Story:
War drama written, co-produced and directed by Christopher Nolan. The story is set in World War II and centers around the Dunkirk evacuation. Allied soldiers from the British Empire, Belgium and France are surrounded by the German army on the beaches on Dunkirk and evacuate it in Operation Dynamo between 26 May and 4 June 1940 during World War II. The movie opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in.
Verdict: Before watching this movie I was aware of all the critic complaints regarding the lack of compelling characters or not enough character development and the non-linear storyline, which most people found confusing. Coming out of the movie all I could think to myself was, “What movie where they watching?” Along with Logan, this movie is on the top list of movies of 2017 for me. The story is incredibly intense, and Nolan really knew well how to rack up the tension, accompanied by the amazing Hans Zimmer score. Yes, there’s no back story to the characters, and I had no problem with lack of character development, because this particular movie didn’t require it. That’s not what this movie is about, it’s more about the event that the three timelines brings together. The non-linear aspect of the story also was not an issue for me and being a Nolan film you had to expect that much at least, you know he’s never going to give you anything conventional. It is a divisive movie, despite its high Rotten Tomato ranking, but personally it really worked for me.
REVIEWS
Best Quotes (Total Quotes: 23)
Irate Soldier: Where’s the bloody air force?
Collins: Dunkirk’s so far, why can’t they just load at Calais?
Fortis Leader: The enemy had something to say about it.
Collins: But down here we’re sitting ducks.
Fortis Leader: Keep them peeled. They’ll come out of the sun.
Mr. Dawson: Ready on the stern line, George.
George: Aren’t you waiting on the navy?
Mr. Dawson: They’ve asked for the Moonstone, they’ll have her, and her captain.
Peter: And his son. Thanks for the help, George.
[George get onboard their boat]
Peter: What are you doing? You do know where we’re going?
George: France.
Mr. Dawson: Into war, George.
George: I’ll be useful, sir.
[referring to the fighter plane chasing them]
Collins: He’s on me.
Farrier: I’m on him.
Colonel Winnant: Rear Admiral. Commander.
Rear Admiral: How’s the perimeter?
Colonel Winnant: Shrinking everyday. But between our rearguard and the French, we’re holding the line, and the enemy tanks have stopped.
Commander Bolton: Why are they stopped?
Colonel Winnant: Waste precious tanks, when you can pick us off from the air, like a fish in a barrel?
Commander Bolton: How long does London expecting the army to hold out before we make terms?
Rear Admiral: Make terms? They’re not stopping here. We need to get our army back. Britain’s next, then the rest of the world.
Commander Bolton: Christ. I mean, you can practically see it from here.
Colonel Winnant: What?
Commander Bolton: Home.
Commander Bolton: What about the French?
Rear Admiral: Publicly, Churchill’s told them “bras dessous”. Arm in arm, leaving together.
Colonel Winnant: And privately?
Rear Admiral: We need our army back.
Colonel Winnant: How many men are they talking about, sir?
Rear Admiral: Churchill wants thirty thousand, Ramsay’s hoping we can give him forty-five thousand.
Commander Bolton: There are four hundred thousand men on this beach, sir.
Rear Admiral: We’ll just have to do our best.
Commander Bolton: Right, well this mole stays open at all costs. We’re in artillery range from the west. If anything else sinks here, the mole’s blocked and we’re stuffed.
Rear Admiral: Can’t we load from the beaches?
Colonel Winnant: Better than standing out here when the dive bombers come.
Commander Bolton: It’s impossible.
Rear Admiral: Too shallow.
Commander Bolton: It’s anything drafting more than three feet can’t get near. We don’t have enough small boats to ferry men to the destroyers.
Rear Admiral: The mole it is then, gentlemen.
Shivering Soldier: Where are we going?
Mr. Dawson: Dunkirk.
Shivering Soldier: No, no, we’re going to England.
Mr. Dawson: We have to go to Dunkirk, first.
Shivering Soldier: I’m not going back. I’m not going back. Look at it. If we, if we go there, we’ll die.
Mr. Dawson: I see your point, son. Well, let’s plot the course. You can take your tea below and warm up. Pete, have we got space for a man to lie down?
Peter: Uh, yeah.
[referring to the shivering soldier they’ve rescued]
George: Is he a coward, Mr. Dawson?
Mr. Dawson: He’s shell-shocked, George. He’s not himself. He may never be himself again.
Shivering Soldier: You haven’t turned around.
Mr. Dawson: No, we have a job to do.
Shivering Soldier: Job?! This is a, this is a pleasure yacht. You’re, you’re, you’re weekend sailors, not the bloody navy. A man your age.
Mr. Dawson: Men my age dictate this war. Why should we be allowed to send our children to fight it?
Shivering Soldier: You should be at home!
Mr. Dawson: Well, there won’t be any home if we allow slaughter across the Channel.
Farrier: He’s turned his tail. I’m going to get after him.
Collins: Good luck. Watch your fuel. You’re at fifteen gallons.
Farrier: Fifteen gallons. Understood. Best of luck, Collins.
[he watches as Collins plane start to descend]
Farrier: Collins? Do you read?
[he sees Collins plane crash land into the sea]
Mr. Dawson: There’s no hiding from this, son.
Shivering Soldier: What is it you think you can do out there, on this thing?
Mr. Dawson: It’s not just us. The call went out. We aren’t the only ones to answer, you know.
Shivering Soldier: You don’t even have guns.
Mr. Dawson: Do you have a gun?
Shivering Soldier: Yes, of course. A rifle, a 303.
Mr. Dawson: Did it help you against the dive bombers and the U-boat?
Shivering Soldier: You’re an old fool. I’m not going back. I’m not going back. Turn it around.
Mr. Dawson: I’m not turning around.
Shivering Soldier: Turn it around! Turn it…
[he tries to shove Dawson to the other side of the steering wheel, George tries to stop him, but the solider pushes George who falls down below]
Peter: Calm it down, mate.
Shivering Soldier: Turn it around.
Mr. Dawson: Wait! Wait!
Peter: Calm it down, mate. George? George?
[to the soldier]
Peter: What have you done?
[trying to tend to George’s head wound]
Peter: You’re a brave lad.
George: You and Mr. Dawson, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.
Peter: You’re alright. You’re okay.
George: Sea Cadet, it’s the only thing I’ve ever done.
Peter: It’s alright. It’s okay. Just have some water.
George: I told my dad I’ve, I’ve done nothing at school. But I know I would do something one day. Maybe get in the local paper. Maybe my teachers would see it.
Peter: Now you get some rest. I’ll need you on deck as soon as you’re able.
George: I can’t.
Peter: What?
George: I can’t see.
Commander Bolton: After yesterday’s losses, it’s one ship on the mole at the time.
Colonel Winnant: The battle is here! What the hell they’re saving them for?
Commander Bolton: The next battle. The one for Britain. Same with the planes.
Colonel Winnant: But it’s right there. You can practically see it
Commander Bolton: Seeing home doesn’t help us get there, Colonel.
Colonel Winnant: They need to send more ships. Every hour the enemy pushes closer.
Commander Bolton: They’ve activated the small vessels pool.
Colonel Winnant: Small vessels?
Commander Bolton: It’s the list of civilian boats for requisition.
Colonel Winnant: Civilian? We need destroyers.
Commander Bolton: Small boats could load from the beach.
Colonel Winnant: Not in these conditions.
Commander Bolton: But I’d rather face waves than dive bombers.
Colonel Winnant: No, you’re right. They won’t get up in this. The Royal Engineers are building piers from lorries. At least that should help us when the tide comes back.
Commander Bolton: We all will know in six hours time.
Colonel Winnant: I thought tides were every three?
Commander Bolton: Then it’s good that you’re army and I’m navy, isn’t it?
[trying to stop the sinking boat]
Alex: Somebody needs to get off.
Highlander 1: Well volunteered.
Alex: We don’t need a volunteer. I know someone who ought to get off. This one.
[he points to Gibson]
Alex: He’s a German spy.
Tommy: Don’t be daft.
Alex: He’s a fucking Jerry. Have you noticed he hasn’t said a word, because I have.
[to Gibson]
Alex: You don’t speak English. If he does it’s with an accent thicker than sauerkraut sauce.
Tommy: You’re daft.
[to Gibson]
Tommy: Tell him.
Alex: Yeah.
[he points the rifle at Gibson]
Alex: Tell me.
Alex: Tell me, Gibson. Tell me!
Tommy: Tell him, for God’s sake.
Gibson: Francais. Je suis Francais!
Alex: A Frog? A bloody Frog? A cowardly little queue-jumping Frog.
[referring to his dogtag]
Alex: Who’s Gibson, eh? He’s a naked dead Englishman lying out on that sand. Or did you at least have the decency to bury him?
Tommy: He did. I helped him. I thought it was his mate.
Alex: Maybe he killed him.
Tommy: He didn’t kill him.
Alex: How do we know?
Tommy: How hard is it to find a dead Englishman on Dunkirk beach. He didn’t kill anyone. He was just looking for a way off the sand like the rest of us.
Peter: Careful. Careful down there.
[referring to George]
Alex: He’s dead, mate.
Peter: So, be bloody careful with him.
[referring to George, who’s he’s accidentally caused his death]
Shivering Soldier: Um, will, will he be okay, the boy?
Peter: Yeah.
[Peter looks at Dawson, who nods his head, confirming Peter did the right thing lying to the soldier]
[as they watch the plane]
Soldier: It’s coming back round. He’s coming back round!
Collins: Come on, Farrier. Come on!
Blind Man: Well done, lads. Well done.
Alex: All we did is survive.
Blind Man: That’s enough.
Colonel Winnant: Well, Churchill got his thirty thousand.
Commander Bolton: And then some. Almost three hundred thousand. So far.
Colonel Winnant: So far?
Commander Bolton: I’m staying. For the French.
[referring to the paper]
Alex: I can’t bear it. You read it.
Tommy: Can’t bear it?
Alex: They’ll be spitting at us in the streets, if they’re not locked up waiting for the invasion.
[last lines; reading Churchill’s statement in the paper]
Tommy: Wars are not won by evacuations.
[a man knocks on their train window]
Alex: I can’t look.
Tommy: But there was a victory inside this deliverance which should be noted. Our thankfulness at the escape of our army must not blind us to the fact that what has happened in France and Belgium is a colossal military disaster. We must expect another blow to be struck almost immediately. We shall go on to the end. Tommy: We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and oceans.
[we see Dawson showing Peter the article on George in the papers, “Local boy, George Mills, just 17, hero at Dunkirk and also as Farrier lands his plane and gets out]
Tommy: We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be.
Alex: What?
Tommy: We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.
[we see as Farrier sets fire to his plane he’s captured and taken away by the German soldiers]
Tommy: And even if this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
Total Quotes: 23
Trailers:
It has been strange to see Dunkirk being hailed as the best war film of all time, when director Christopher Nolan himself has not even categorised the film as such. In an interview, Nolan was quoted as saying, “Dunkirk is not a war film. It’s a survival story and first and foremost a suspense film.”
In Dunkirk, we are presented with what have become staples in a Nolan film. A non-linear story line, an elaborate cast and several ‘layers’ of stories. Nolan had utilized these same techniques earlier, but the two films which can be compared here are Inception (2010) and Interstellar (2014). In the former, we saw Nolan at his best, presenting a complex narrative smartly. However, the outcome was less impressive in Interstellar, which was notable for visual brilliance, but had several plot holes. In his third attempt however, the results are utterly disastrous.
In Dunkirk, Nolan presents the narrative in three threads. The first, on the Dunkirk beach, is The Mole, which supposedly lasts for a week, but it is my belief that it doesn’t last for more than two complete days. The second, on sea, which lasts for a day and the third, on air, which is for an hour. All three are interwoven to form an unnecessarily confusing narrative.
On land, the cornered British forces are easy pickings for the German Luftwaffe. It is here that we come across Tommy (Whitehead), Gibson (Barnard) and Alex (Styles), who are desperate to go home. The shallow beach makes it impossible for large vessels to evacuate the soldiers, and smaller ships are being used to ferry them. But even in the sea, these vessels are easy pickings for the U-boats. The Navy has commissioned civilian boats and yachts to travel to Dunkirk, which is only a few miles away, among which Mr. Dawson (Rylance) is one. Fearing invasion, the British government is sparse in using the air force, and send out only few aircraft. It is here that we see some of the best scenes in the movie, where the intense dogfighting between the RAF pilots (Hardy and Lowden) put us right inside the cockpit.
Nolan keeps cutting across these three narratives, jumping time and space in a style that was exhilarating in Inception, but muddled now. If presented as three different narratives converging upon each other, then it would have made for an interesting story. But the editing is so haphazard and inconsistent that there is no flow to the movie. Each time, the audience is left trying to figure out the chronology. Nolan fanboys will point to this as evidence that the viewer is not smart enough, but I would like to flip it around and say that it’s actually the editing that is not smart. There is no logical explanation for the non-linear screenplay, apart from the fact that it is Nolan who has written the story. It takes away from the plot.
Because, in Nolan’s own words, this is a suspense film, it comes laden with the clichés of this genre. There is much manufactured tension and drama, most notably when a pilot crash lands in the water and can’t escape. Later on, when Tom Hardy’s landing gear doesn’t work properly, you can’t help but feel that the drama has been manufactured as well. Only during the establishing shots on the beach and the dogfights does the drama feel natural and intense.
The decision to cast Harry Styles is perplexing as well. While his acting skills are by no means atrocious, they are not satisfactory either. It is even more startling that he plays the one character tasked with displaying overt emotion in a scene where one of the characters is accused of being a German spy. Here, it is obvious that Styles is out of his depth, though he does a passable job throughout the rest of the movie.
Nolan has been vehement in his refusal to utilize CGI. In his previous movies, his innovative use of camera and sets have allowed him to pull of stunning zero gravity scenes without using any CGI. However, his adamant nature is now just proving silly. There were over 800 civilian boats that arrived at Dunkirk. While it is understandable that Nolan doesn’t want his primary action to be generated by computers, there is no harm in enhancing finer details like these. The true scale of the number of boats that arrived in France is not revealed to the viewers. CGI could’ve helped portray this spectacle in all it’s might.
Like most Nolan films, Dunkirk warrants repeated watching. In his earlier showings, it was because you wanted to understand the complexities or the finer details of the plot. Now, it is because of the muddled plot and narrative.
Hans Zimmer, a Nolan regular, turns in a disappointing score as well. He seems to have phoned this one in completely. Once again, the tension the score creates feels very manufactured. When Tommy and Gibson are ferrying an injured soldier to a departing boat, the score is almost cringe-worthy. I have a feeling that using someone like Trent Reznor to deliver the score would’ve been much more suitable.
Overall, good acting (a special mention to Cillian Murphy) and a few intense scenes redeem what would otherwise have been a thoroughly disappointing film, but not enough to make it an engaging watch.
(SPOILER ALERT) One picky gripe I have with the movie is that while it is stated at the beginning that the story on the mole spans over a week, it doesn’t seem to hold up. On day one, we see Tommy, Gibson and Alex getting on to a departing boat that is sunk by a torpedo. They make their way back to the beach and wake up the next morning. They then join a group of Scots and lie in wait inside a trawler, waiting for the tide to float it. The events of this day see them finally board Mr. Dawson’s boat and travel back to Britain. On the same day, the entire beach is supposedly evacuated, as witnessed when Hardy’s plane glides across it. The next morning, the officers are the last ones to leave the beach, which means that the narrative lasts only for three days and two nights. Correct me if I’m wrong on this one. Maybe the scene with the officers is a few days later?
Rating: 3/5
SPOILERS!! Dunkirk is directed by Christopher Nolan, and stars Fionn Whitehead, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy. This was actually my very first IMAX movie, and I was highly anticipating this movie. And not only was it an incredible IMAX experience, but a great movie. Christopher Nolan is masterful behind the camera, with fantastic cinematography. All the performances are great ( But to be truthful, I could not tell a lot of the soldiers apart because they are all 20 year old black haired guys ), but the standout is actually Barry Keoghan, who plays George. The story is masterfully told, and it never felt like it dragged. Most movies have a scene where it feels like it was just tacked on to pad the run-time, but that’s not the case with Dunkirk. At first, the story is a little confusing in terms of the timeline, but it all comes together nicely at the end. Between Dunkirk and his Batman trilogy, Nolan has proved he knows how to bring intensity to full form. Overall, Dunkirk is a thrilling and intense war movie that is definitely worth the price a movie ticket.
Rating: 4/5
No war is sanitary. Like a bloody napkin it’s foul and necessary. It tests the human spirit to survive 24/7. This movie left me shell shocked as to the perils of young men one third my age. In remembrance of a great movie don’t forget to empty your concessions in the trash.
The first thing you probably realized when observing the trailer or poster of Dunkirk, was that the director was Christopher Nolan. Even though you might have not known his name, it details that he is the director of ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy, ‘Interstellar’, ‘Inception’ and so on. However, you shouldn’t really put much anticipation towards the movie. Kind of disappoints you at the end that it didn’t reach what you thought it would.
Anyway, I’d say about four stars compared to every single movie I’ve watched in my life so far. That’s pretty good, because some of the movies rated five stars are crazy awesome and just a star below that is good enough for me. I could have given it a lot lower if it wasn’t for the suspense building throughout the movie, which was thought out brilliantly. I’d give a huge thumbs up to the background music composer.
The main reason I gave this movie a high score was how it made you feel like that you were actually in the war zone itself (I recommend IMAX for better understanding). The sounds of the shells are truly terrifying, hearing like it exploded a few feet from your face, which actually does in the movie. I guess this includes how real all the sounds are. One of the explosions that hit one of the battleships was the sound that I never heard before (you’ll get it once you watch the movie), different from usual explosions in movies you see these days. I can’t explain it but the noise vibrated to my heart, giving me goosebumps about how real this sounded.
Last thing before I clear up, if you are expecting an action scene between the British and the Germans, charging up at each other with furious looks on their faces, this is nothing you would expect to find in the movie. The movie itself is quite clean from blood and there are only a few scenes spilling red liquid. This results why it’s a PG-13 movie despite being based on WW2.
The film itself is great. You get a little emotional at the end as well, giving you a good thought when leaving the cinema. Christopher Nolan has done another great job as he always does, but I wouldn’t say it’s one of his best movies. I hope you guys enjoyed the movie as I did, and let’s thank the soldiers once again who fought us in WW2.
Rating: 4/5