123.
Dunkirk
8.5/10
A film that a lot of people have been waiting for after the plenty of trailers, documentaries on the real events and posters everywhere. Christopher Nolan made my favourite Batman films, so anything that was coming from him will always be worth a watch. This time it's realism rather than his usual surrealism, let's see how he added his creative side to one of the biggest events in World War II. Dunkirk is the story of allied soldiers, surrounded by the Germans on the beaches of Dunkirk and the attempt to evacuate the 400,000 men during the earlier stages of the war. Let's hit the beach.
This review is going to be a lot different to the rest of the ones I've already written. The way that the movie is told is through three different aspects of the evacuation. We have one on land, which shows the first attempts of the evacuation on bigger ships, known as the Mole and covers the events over one week. The second is on the sea and covers one day. Finally, the third is set in the air with three pilots and covers one hour. Films usually form a linear narrative, which means the story has a beginning, a middle and an end. This film, because of its timelines, form a non-linear narrative so I will focus on each one on their own and then finally link them together. As the movie begins, we are straight into it. Following a group of soldiers down a deserted street, looking for any water and somewhere to go to the toilet. Posters are flying everywhere, sent from the Germans, stating that they have all the allies surrounded. Suddenly bullets are flying and all of them are picked off except Tommy, a young British soldier, who leaps a wall and runs into a French blockade. The French shoot at him before realising and sending him down to the beach and the camera pans out and shows how many men are lining up waiting for a trip home. As he heads to a dune to carrying on with his toilet break, he sees another youngster burying his friend in the sand but we see they dead man doesn't have shoes on as the silent youngster is tying up his laces. He's taken them from the body, but Tommy nods at him and helps his cover the dead man in sand. The two head to join a line as German planes head in and start dropping bombs. Once this wave is over, they get up and see a man lying on a stretcher but the medics are dead. Picking him up, the head to the Mole, which is a gangway onto the boats and push through the crowd to use this injured man as their pass onto the boat. Once they have dropped him off, they are refused the chance to stay on and instead climb under the Mole to hide. The vessel gets attacked as it leaves and as it sinks, Tommy drags another soldier, Alex, to stop him being crushed in between the boat and the Mole. Alex is played by the One Direction band member, Harry Styles. The scene has shown how desperate people were to get home and would go to anything length to get on a boat. The two hiders, dip themselves in the sea and pretend they were on the sunken boat in order to get an advance onto the next vessel. This one again is sunk as Tommy and Alex are below deck. The silent guy, Gibson, is hiding by himself. Something is up with him. My guess, he's French, sneaking onto the boats to skip the British queues. He heads to open the door for Alex and Tommy to escape and the three, along with the other survivors, head back to the beach. The next day, the three join a group of Scots who head to a boat that is stranded because the tide has gone out. Bad news though as the boat isn't in the allied occupied area and the Germans start using it for shooting practice. Some foot prints are heard on deck and they pull down a Dutch captain, who owns the boat. Looking to reduce the weight so that boat can still float, Alex accuses Gibson, who has been silent throughout the film, of being a German spy. Finally, it's revealed that he is French and stole the identity of the British soldier in order to evacuate. As the ship starts to move, with the Dutchman starting the engine, it quickly begins to move as the Germans continue firing, knowing that there are now occupants. The lads swim out and into the open sea but Gibson, the Frenchman, gets tangled in a chain and we see him slip away to his death. Tommy and Alex swim for a minesweeper but it's sunk by a bomber. Mr Dawson, who we'll get to in the second part, picks them up, covered in oil and takes them back to Britain. Alex thinks that they will get a bad welcome home for their retreat but instead are given beer and food and a heroes' welcome. Back on the walkway and the Commander, Bolton, is watching as the last British soldiers leave, as one wakes up and fears he's been left behind but there is one last space for him. Bolton has decided to stay behind to make sure that the French evacuation goes as planned where possible.
The second story, which is intertwined, takes place on the sea for one day. The Royal Navy are taking control of private boats in order to help with the Dunkirk evacuations so are asking people to empty as much of them and fill them with lifejackets. Mr Dawson follows orders without question but instead of the Navy taking the ship, he decides to head out himself. With the help of his son Peter and their teenage helper, who jumps on last minute, George. George wants to do something of note after his teachers and family think he will come to nothing. The first thing we come across is a sunken ship with a shell-shocked soldier sitting on top, who jumps aboard the boat but doesn't speak for a while. Played by Cillian Murphy, he tells the story of what happened and we see a flash back to where he was on a rescue ship which found Tommy and Alex from their sunken ship. He was later sunk himself and was the only survivor. As he discovers that they are heading back to Dunkirk, he becomes erratic and pushes George down the steps, below deck, where he hits his head and although Peter treats him as best as possible, the young boy can no longer see. Duty calls though and they continue onwards. Getting closer they see a spitfire plane ditched in the sea and head over in case the pilot is still alive. They pull Collins, the pilot aboard and the Dawson family reveal that the other son was a hurricane pilot who was lost in the first moments of the war. Carrying on, they see a minesweeper being attacked, the same one as already mentioned and the story links as they pull men, covered in oil aboard. As many as possible before the oil catches fire and spreads to the boat. Tommy and Alex head in and most are crammed downstairs where George is. As Peter asks them to be careful, a soldier reveals that he's no longer alive. Instead of breaking the news to the already broken shell-shocked soldier, Peter lies to him and tells him that George will be ok. Finally getting home. Mr Dawson is congratulated for the amount of men he has saved, as the soldiers questions Collins as to where the hell the Air Force were. George's body is carried off the next morning Peter heads to the local newspaper with a picture of George and his story as he is on the front page as a youthful hero of the war for all that doubted him to see.
The third and shorter point of view of events come from the Air. With the information that by the time the spitfires made it to Dunkirk, they only had enough fuel to dog fight for thirty minutes, this account takes place over the space of an hour. Three spitfires and their pilots are heading over, they encounter enemies, which shoot down their leader. Farrier, a pilot played by Tom Hardy, has his fuel gauge shot out but takes command of the pair. They win the next fight but Collins takes fire and his plane is damaged so ditches into the Channel. Where he obviously gets picked up by the Dawsons. He reaches the beaches, where he sees attacks on the evacuating soldiers. He takes out the bombers to applause across the beach and sea. Now out of fuel, he glides with his attacks until finally there is suspense as his wheels are slowly coming out for landing, just as he hits the sand. He sets fire to his plane as the Germans advance and he is taken as a prisoner.
I really enjoyed this movie, even if I didn't know the true events and the history behind it. The film had been made before, which I had never seen but this newer version seemed to win over the audiences and even the people who were there to experience the reality. With a mixture of unknown actors and well known, it gave a great account and because of the way the story was told, there was never really a chance to become attached to any characters. With this though, at times it would feel a bit empty for some, that feel the film is only there to show its visual prowess. The way the sounds mixed with the ticking clock through vital moments worked very well as the film relied on very little speech, so the suspense was built in other ways. The film doesn't rely on CGI but instead is shot on location with over 6,000 cast members making this not only a film, but an experience.
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