Dunkirk - Christopher Nolan film
Discussion
Blaster72 said:
IMDB review said:
A technical masterpiece that is nearly devoid of palpable emotion and compelling characters.
Pretty much summed it up for me sadly. I had high hopes for this one but it wasn't actually that good.Really interesting comments re. Accuracy and overall atmosphere. I've not seen it yet but really wanted to, not sure I'll bother now, might wait for the bluray. My day job involves huge amounts of research into historic aircraft so I end up noticing all the tiny anachronisms :-/
It will end up like interstellar, a film I wanted to love (I read loads of Arthur c Clarke as a teenager) but ended up just getting annoyed by it. Nice visual effects though.
It will end up like interstellar, a film I wanted to love (I read loads of Arthur c Clarke as a teenager) but ended up just getting annoyed by it. Nice visual effects though.
ONtheROCS said:
nicanary said:
As for the lack of men and boats in view, it is difficult to find enough extras and suitable craft to hire for the day. Some day someone will invent a way to superimpose these on film, some sort of Computerised Graphic Images or a snappy shortened CGI. Pity it hasn't been invented yet.
I'm pretty sure there was a scene in Black Hawk Down where the crowds were either completely CGI or at the very least enhanced by some CGI.I'm looking forward to watching Dunkirk when I get back to the UK. I'm a big fan of WW2 movies and I don't recall Nolan doing a bad film yet.
One thing that bothered me, would a spitfire prop rotate while it was gliding? I would have thought if it didn't spin it would probably snap!
And imagine the coincidence, watched the film in a damp musty cinema in haverfordwest, which is also home to the spitfire charity shop, yep a charity shop which actually has a live Spitfire living behind a manky curtain in the back of the shop! Priceless.
And imagine the coincidence, watched the film in a damp musty cinema in haverfordwest, which is also home to the spitfire charity shop, yep a charity shop which actually has a live Spitfire living behind a manky curtain in the back of the shop! Priceless.
Saw it tonight. Absolutely brilliant movie, a very emotional experience. Rylance was superb. There was obviously a bit of artistic license regarding the gliding abilities of a Spitfire 
but the full frame shot with the Dunkirk sea front buildings behind it made me forget that. The scene near the end where the squaddie on the train read Churchill's speech from the newspaper bought a lump to my throat.
Sitting in a cinema in the American Midwest it made me proud to be British.
but the full frame shot with the Dunkirk sea front buildings behind it made me forget that. The scene near the end where the squaddie on the train read Churchill's speech from the newspaper bought a lump to my throat.Sitting in a cinema in the American Midwest it made me proud to be British.
gareth h said:
One thing that bothered me, would a spitfire prop rotate while it was gliding? I would have thought if it didn't spin it would probably snap!
And imagine the coincidence, watched the film in a damp musty cinema in haverfordwest, which is also home to the spitfire charity shop, yep a charity shop which actually has a live Spitfire living behind a manky curtain in the back of the shop! Priceless.
Can they freewheel? If not I cannot see a propeller overcoming the engine braking effect of a massive engine. It would probably be feathered anyway. And imagine the coincidence, watched the film in a damp musty cinema in haverfordwest, which is also home to the spitfire charity shop, yep a charity shop which actually has a live Spitfire living behind a manky curtain in the back of the shop! Priceless.
Finally got around to seeing this last night and really enjoyed it (if that's the correct emotion?). Soon got into the timeline shifting about and found the visuals stunning and thought provoking.
As a side note, it was gratifying to see a number of younger viewers in the audience - late teen/early twenties yoof types.
As a side note, it was gratifying to see a number of younger viewers in the audience - late teen/early twenties yoof types.
lufbramatt said:
Interesting comments about the Spitfire scenes, all the cockpit stuff was filmed in a Russian Yak trainer with a mockup spitfire canopy and fin grafted on to it
Tell Tom Hardy as he seems to think he was in a 2 seater Spitfire.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddIYyYNqwz4&t=...
hornetrider said:
I've just seen it. You know what I feel the same. The film was ridiculously smothered in excessive bass at Cardiff IMAX. It was absolutely relentless and after a while really detracted from the film as I was thinking alright, enough already ffs!
I so wanted to be blown away by the film however there seemed to be too many annoyances/errors for me to really enjoy it.
70s/80s trains what the f
k! Such a clanger those seats they even looked brand new.
Ferried back to Dorset - eh?
Tom landing the Spit after the world's longest glide - miles away from friendly troops, why? No effort to run back up the beach, why?
400 thousand on the beach supposedly awaiting evacuation. Looked like 400 to me.
Scale. Expected to see dozens upon dozens of small boats arriving en masse, yet no. No more than ten on screen at any one time ergo no sense of scale. Same goes for the men on the beach, where were they all?
Gahhh.
Agree. Just got back from the local Vue. What a disappointment.I so wanted to be blown away by the film however there seemed to be too many annoyances/errors for me to really enjoy it.
70s/80s trains what the f
k! Such a clanger those seats they even looked brand new.Ferried back to Dorset - eh?
Tom landing the Spit after the world's longest glide - miles away from friendly troops, why? No effort to run back up the beach, why?
400 thousand on the beach supposedly awaiting evacuation. Looked like 400 to me.
Scale. Expected to see dozens upon dozens of small boats arriving en masse, yet no. No more than ten on screen at any one time ergo no sense of scale. Same goes for the men on the beach, where were they all?
Gahhh.
There was absolutey no sense of peril that the Germans were approaching. The troops in the beach scenes looked like they were queuing for a pleasure trip.
All of the main escaping characters were fully clean shaven.
I'm sure I saw a modern glass panelled balcony in one of the sea front buildings early on.
The loaded departing naval vessels and the hospital ship looked only a third full.
The rescuing armada of private boats looked rather, erm, down on numbers.
Spitfires only had about 15 seconds worth of rounds but the pilot trying to shoot the Heinkel down seemed to have an unlimited ammo cheat activated.
They also had a whopping great engine behind the prop - the burning Spit on the beach at the end (yes the one that now holds the world record for the longest glide) had what looked like a wooden pole extending back to the cockpit.
The model aircraft that were crashed into the sea - looked like models.
The Stukas had a strange deep bass sound to compliment the standard fit siren.
The Spits were flying Red Arrow display team close - no way would you do that if you were expecting 109s to pay a surprise visit.
When the guys were on the grounded boat waiting for the tide to come in we were encouraged to believe that the weight of just one soldier getting off would make it float. Don't think so.
The acting on the main rescuing small boat was rather lacking. When the young civvie lad died from the bang on the head the others looked less alarmed than when somebody knocks a glass of red wine over on a carpet.
The carriage used for the troop train at the end didn't enter service until 1951, and certainly not with that upholstery.
Total lack of attention to detail. Done on a budget and it showed.
6/10
Edited by Cobnapint on Thursday 27th July 23:04
Blaster72 said:
IMDB review said:
A technical masterpiece that is nearly devoid of palpable emotion and compelling characters.
Pretty much summed it up for me sadly. I had high hopes for this one but it wasn't actually that good.Saw this last night at IMAX in Glasgow.
Good Bits :
1) Mark Rylance, never seen a bad acting performance from this man.
2) The landscape cinematography was truly exceptional, dunno if the intent was to give the feeling of wide open space but in the IMAX projection it was something to behold.
3) The musical score that was there from the beginning, almost like a time-bomb waiting to go off. This is what gave the film the sense of suspense throughout.
The Bad Bits :
1) Conversely, there was no real sense of wartime scale. It just didn't look like 300k-400k troops on the beach, the hundreds of little boats were boiled down to 20, the luftwaffe and RAF comprising of 3 planes each. I realise the film was a selection of small "stories" that converge. I really thought just a handful of scenes bolstered by CGI to expand the scale of the evacuation would have helped.
2) The sparse vocal performance was completely ruined in IMAX, could barely make out anything they were saying. Seemed like they wanted the booms and rumbles to be front and centre.
3) No real feeling of imminent threat from the encroaching German army. The music score did all of the threat work.
4) The Tommy's all looked a bit cleancut and happy...realised going in it wasn't going to be a gorefest but a bit of misery would have added some authenticity!
5) The last 20 seconds....annoying, should have ended at the burning spitfire I think.
6) Conflation of English and British.
7) The incident on the boat with the young boy....why bother....I know it was a hamfisted way of demonstrating in war men are broken but everyone loses something....but clunky.
8) I a film where there were no real stars but lots of relatively unknown actors - Harry Styles - fair actor, nothing against him personally, but I'm sure there are a bunch of young jobbing actors out there who could have done with the leg up more than multi-millionaire him.
But as a film...for all the gripes...it'll stick with me...
Good Bits :
1) Mark Rylance, never seen a bad acting performance from this man.
2) The landscape cinematography was truly exceptional, dunno if the intent was to give the feeling of wide open space but in the IMAX projection it was something to behold.
3) The musical score that was there from the beginning, almost like a time-bomb waiting to go off. This is what gave the film the sense of suspense throughout.
The Bad Bits :
1) Conversely, there was no real sense of wartime scale. It just didn't look like 300k-400k troops on the beach, the hundreds of little boats were boiled down to 20, the luftwaffe and RAF comprising of 3 planes each. I realise the film was a selection of small "stories" that converge. I really thought just a handful of scenes bolstered by CGI to expand the scale of the evacuation would have helped.
2) The sparse vocal performance was completely ruined in IMAX, could barely make out anything they were saying. Seemed like they wanted the booms and rumbles to be front and centre.
3) No real feeling of imminent threat from the encroaching German army. The music score did all of the threat work.
4) The Tommy's all looked a bit cleancut and happy...realised going in it wasn't going to be a gorefest but a bit of misery would have added some authenticity!
5) The last 20 seconds....annoying, should have ended at the burning spitfire I think.
6) Conflation of English and British.
7) The incident on the boat with the young boy....why bother....I know it was a hamfisted way of demonstrating in war men are broken but everyone loses something....but clunky.
8) I a film where there were no real stars but lots of relatively unknown actors - Harry Styles - fair actor, nothing against him personally, but I'm sure there are a bunch of young jobbing actors out there who could have done with the leg up more than multi-millionaire him.
But as a film...for all the gripes...it'll stick with me...
^ I was going to do a good bits and bad bits review, but you've beaten me to it. Agreed on all of the above BTW.
I'm surprised none else has mentioned the muffled, unintelligable speech - just about the only word I could make out from the Spitfire pilots was "gallons".
Added to that when the dialogue was audible, some of it was truly clunky and cringeworthy;
The bit from the young boy (who was he? Why was he on the boat? Why should we care about him?) about never being good at school and finally doing something to get his picture in the paper. Bleurgh.
Similarly the insipid lines from Branagh's naval commander: "Home". fk off.
I took my 11 year old son to see it - every time a new group of characters were introduced (with no back story or development) he kept asking me if they were the Germans:
"Is that the Germans, Dad?"
"No that's the allies - they think he's a German."
"Is that the Germans?"
"No"
"That's a German boat isn't it? It's got a cross on it."
"No that's a RED cross - it's a rescue boat. Don't worry you'll see the Germans soon"...........
...............
WHERE ARE THE GERMANS?
Added to the confusion, were the actors playing British soldiers who all looked largely the same.
Much has been said about the lack of gore - it's a 12A - and as I'm trying to educate my boy on this era of history & and I can't yet sit him in front of 'Saving Private Ryan' or 'Schindlers List', I thought it would be perfect. He's a smart kid - but I think it's done more harm than good.
Even the (let's face it - repetitive) air battles were boring to him - if the rating is intended to get kids in, why not make the aerial duels more like the ones in Star Wars - which were seemingly based on real WW2 dogfights. Three planes FFS.
I know some tedious nerd is going to roll his eyes at that last one, but i just don't get Christopher Nolan. He seems to have the critics in the palm of his hand every single time. And every time I watch one of him films I feel completely detached from it and empty & unmoved at the end.
And a bit ripped off.
I'm surprised none else has mentioned the muffled, unintelligable speech - just about the only word I could make out from the Spitfire pilots was "gallons".
Added to that when the dialogue was audible, some of it was truly clunky and cringeworthy;
The bit from the young boy (who was he? Why was he on the boat? Why should we care about him?) about never being good at school and finally doing something to get his picture in the paper. Bleurgh.
Similarly the insipid lines from Branagh's naval commander: "Home". f
k off.I took my 11 year old son to see it - every time a new group of characters were introduced (with no back story or development) he kept asking me if they were the Germans:
"Is that the Germans, Dad?"
"No that's the allies - they think he's a German."
"Is that the Germans?"
"No"
"That's a German boat isn't it? It's got a cross on it."
"No that's a RED cross - it's a rescue boat. Don't worry you'll see the Germans soon"...........
...............
WHERE ARE THE GERMANS?
Added to the confusion, were the actors playing British soldiers who all looked largely the same.
Much has been said about the lack of gore - it's a 12A - and as I'm trying to educate my boy on this era of history & and I can't yet sit him in front of 'Saving Private Ryan' or 'Schindlers List', I thought it would be perfect. He's a smart kid - but I think it's done more harm than good.
Even the (let's face it - repetitive) air battles were boring to him - if the rating is intended to get kids in, why not make the aerial duels more like the ones in Star Wars - which were seemingly based on real WW2 dogfights. Three planes FFS.
I know some tedious nerd is going to roll his eyes at that last one, but i just don't get Christopher Nolan. He seems to have the critics in the palm of his hand every single time. And every time I watch one of him films I feel completely detached from it and empty & unmoved at the end.
And a bit ripped off.
Edited by Evil Jack on Friday 28th July 12:02
Evil Jack said:
Much has been said about the lack of gore - it's a 12A - and as I'm trying to educate my boy on this era of history & and I can't yet sit him in front of 'Saving Private Ryan' or 'Schindlers List', I thought it would be perfect. He's a smart kid - but I think it's done more harm than good.
Don't forget "The Pianist" when he's old enough. That's up there with the best of them.As a 'student' of WWII history I've booked to see this next Saturday. From reading the above reviews it seems my disappointment with Christopher Nolan movies is not going to end any time soon.
Maybe I'm a bit dim - but:
1. Memento -never managed to make it through to the end despite several attempts
2. Dark Knight Rises - cut 120 minutes and I'll try watching it again
3. Inception - switched channels to watch the weather forecast after half an hour
4. Interstellar - (went to IMAX to see this). Walked out after an hour.
Oddly I was gripped by his brother Jonathan's Netflix series "Person of Interest".
Maybe I'm a bit dim - but:
1. Memento -never managed to make it through to the end despite several attempts
2. Dark Knight Rises - cut 120 minutes and I'll try watching it again
3. Inception - switched channels to watch the weather forecast after half an hour
4. Interstellar - (went to IMAX to see this). Walked out after an hour.
Oddly I was gripped by his brother Jonathan's Netflix series "Person of Interest".
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