Both awe-inspiring and controversial, vividly complex while often being infuriatingly loose in structure and character, Christopher Nolan’s 2017 effort, Dunkirk plays like an epic silent war film of yesteryear.
Revolving around the rescue of British soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, France in 1940, it is a piece of history well worth telling (and this film will make sure that the harrowing tale will be known by a wider audience still). With hundreds of thousands of men trapped by the Atlantic Ocean on one side, swiftly approaching German troops on the other and bombers overhead, it feels like the soldiers are monkeys in a barrel, just waiting to be shot. The British military have basically given up on them, hoping to rescue a measly thirty-five or so thousand, leaving the other three hundred and fifty thousand for slaughter. Despite the short span of the English Channel, their destroyers and other navy vessels are easy targets on the open seas – meaning that they must pull back and fight another day.
Beginning in the streets of Dunkirk, it is a laudable opening sequence, as the camera is at the men’s backs, as if we too are part of the beleaguered soldiers looking for food and water to endure another day. Suddenly, sniper fire erupts, and we watch as one by one they are picked off, leaving a sole survivor, Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), fighting for his life. Making it to the beaches, it is no better there. . . one of the most eye-catching sequences finds the men taking cover as a bomber comes in – the camera in prime position, we watch as each dropping bomb draws closer and closer to our protagonist, building a great deal of suspense. Varieties of human nature are on display here, most duck and cover, but one brave soul attempts to fire back as the plane approaches. Then, after the raid, those not dead pop up and get back into line (or to work), like nothing has happened (to the un-war-hardened viewer, it seems bizarre, but it reiterates the regular occurrence of such things on the front). Tommy befriends Gibson (Aneurin Barnard), a young man burying a soldier on the beach, and the two decide to transport a wounded Brit to the sole departing ship. Saving the life of another, Alex (Harry Styles), the triumvirate decide to try their luck at escaping, at any cost.
Pieced together in three intersecting parts, the above described land section is titled The Mole, while The Sea and The Air make up the other two. The former follows a British sailor named Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance), his son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney), and his boy’s friend, George (Barry Keoghan), as they heed the call and cross the ocean, along with many other citizens, who put on a stiff upper lip and brave the war front to save the lives of their boys. The first person they rescue (but most definitely not the last), a Shivering Man (Cillian Murphy), shows the monumental task they have, as he is dealing with shell-shock. The third component is that of The Air, with focus being placed on Farrier (Tom Hardy), Collins (Jack Lowden) and one other, a few Spitfire pilots highly outnumbered by their German counterparts.
Perhaps best described as cold fusion, a term I have just borrowed and coined this instant, the motion picture is sown together like some sort of surrealist quilt, non-linear timelines that leave us at a cool distance from truly knowing any of the characters. The meaning of time is abstract, flashes from day to night, not really sure if we are viewing future foreshadowing or past pain and loss. Parts occurring over the ocean feel lengthy, extended guns fights in the air, along with wondrous skylines, cloud formations and views of the deep blue, while moments on the beach, or when the three abovementioned soldiers hide out in an abandoned boat with some others, hoping that the current will eventually drag them out, are shorter in comparison. . . despite the likelihood that, in real time, those two things would be wholly reversed in their length. It is not surprising that Nolan messes with chronology and time, as the concept clearly intrigues him, as he has tinkered with it before in films like Interstellar, Inception, Memento and Insomnia.
Like watching from Mount Olympus on high, the audience is given a bird’s eye view of the happenings. Torpedoes, bombings, and gunfire attack from every angle, throwing us from one character to the next, never truly getting to their essence. Though there are supreme moments of heroics, bravery, cowardly survival, chickenheartedness and other such things, it feels like this is a film about the grand picture, not about the moving pieces (a few rare glimpses are offered when Commander Bolton [Kenneth Branagh] stays behind to rescue more men or when we learn that Mr. Dawson had a fighter pilot son who died in the early days of the war) – yet, despite these rare moments, this means that there is not much of an emotional heft or heart to the movie, just the overwhelming nature of the war and its rescues.
All in all, this is the purpose of the film, and to some it will thrill, while to others, it will frustrate. Survival is the main player, and Nolan’s faithfully realistic, often claustrophobic vision (ships packed with war weary soldiers, many wounded; giant ships sinking, those jumping then trying to swim for their lives; while another moment finds a man trying to evade being squished between ship and impediment), when mixed with cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema’s vividly crisp depiction, leaves no one safe. Even that of a bomber swooping down on a dinky boat in the open ocean has that same nauseous, tight feeling; alas, where is there to go against such intense firepower?
Not your typical summer blockbuster, Dunkirk replaces most of the spoken word with mind-boggling visuals and Hans Zimmer’s ever-noticeable score. An intense, brooding piece, it would be an interesting experiment to hear a sweeping orchestral composition instead, though that is not to say that the effects-laden music, that often has a 24-esque ticking clock in the background, does not have its merits. The story is historically based, grand in scale, complex in style and substance, as well as expertly crafted – a unique and epic experiment that, thanks to its beautifully crafted life jacket, still floats to the surface. It is even more impressive when you realize that they shot on location, using real war ships, fighter planes, extras (and cardboard cutouts) and nearly no CGI (on some days, sixty ships were in the water for shots) – a motion picture miracle to match the real-life miracle. As a weird sidenote (not trying to stir anything up here), this may have the least amount of female dialogue ever (perhaps one or two diminutive lines from nurses). This echoes that it will likely be more of an offering for male viewership, though the bravery and heroic underdog tale should offer up something to all those who view it. So, despite this two-fold review, don’t let the film’s challenges drag you down, it is well worth a ticket, be it one way or two.
Great pictures nik