Movie: Dunkirk

Dunkirk:  the film expertly depicts what occurred at Dunkirk in late May 1940.  The city of Dunkirk is located on the coast of Northwestern France approximately 10 kilometers from the Belgium border.  A significant portion of the film takes place on the beach where as many as 400,000 British and French troops were stranded as a consequence of Germany’s successful blitzkrieg through France.  Rather than having his tank force continue their push to the sea, Hitler chose to have his air force finish the campaign.  This allowed Britain time to evacuate approximately 300,000 men.  Had Hilter chosen to continue the push westward using his ground troops, the allied forces at Dunkirk would have been decimated.  This film by Christopher Nolan tells of the British evacuation.  At the beginning of the film, we are told that “The Mole” (the jetty protruding into the Atlantic Ocean from the  beach) lasted for one week, “The Sea” (the military ships and civilian boats involved in the evacuation) lasted for one day, and “The Air” (the aerial battle between British and German planes) lasted for one hour.  During the course of its 106 minutes, the film weaves these three campaign narratives into a single cohesive tale about the evacuation of Dunkirk.  Most of the characters remain nameless, and you never see a German soldier until the closing scene.  The aerial sequences are outstanding, starting with the three British spitfires and their subsequent confrontations with German fighters.  Tom Hardy does a magnificent job as the lead pilot.  The British soldier who has the most on-screen time is Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) but you learn his name only by looking at the credits at the end of film.  The major character who is clearly identified is Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh), the officer in charge of the embarkation.  The evacuation was successful due to participation by British civilian boaters who answered the call for assistance in rescuing the Dunkirk soldiers.  Of the civilian boaters, the film highlights a father (Mark Rylance ), his son (Tom Glynn-Carney) and the son’s schoolmate (Barry Keoghan) who happened to be at the dock when the call for help came.  Of the film’s large cast, these three characters are among the most developed.  Because the film stays tightly focused on the goal of getting the men off the beach and back home, there is no back story for any of the individual characters.  From the opening scene, it is clear that you are at war and war’s consequences are constantly present.  The typical scene of war room strategizing is omitted.  Instead you are shown men waiting on the beach, men struggling to across the channel, and the superb aerial scenes.  My father refused to attend war movies because he said they never showed the horror of what was truly occurring.  This film, with its three pronged narrative, is one of the rare exceptions.  Dunkirk concludes with a reading of a portion of Churchill’s famous speech that rallied the British people once the majority of the soldiers were safely back home.  Most films would have included a shot of Churchill speaking but, to the end, Nolan remains true to his storyline.  Dunkirk is a film about how one saves lives in war.  With its expert cinematography, this is a film that should be seen on the big screen with full capacity audio.  The film’s musical score by Hans Zimmer also deserves praise.  The major Oscar winners are usually films released towards the end of the year.  Dunkirk should prove to be the exception.