Dunkirk - Christopher Nolan film

[Brigand]

nicanary said:

Shakermaker said:

They had a teaser for this ahead of Suicide Squad, just a minute or so long, a load of soldiers on a landing craft, and then they all look up as you hear the noise of an aircraft coming towards them at high speed.

That sounds like part of the trailer. They're actually standing on one of the "moles" otherwise know as jetties, and the aircraft are Stukas which are aboout to sink the destroyer which they were planning to board.

My (adult) daughter watched the trailer and asked me what the dead whales were doing on the beach. The "whales" were dead soldiers covered in their greatcoats.

I think you need to collect a Whoosh Parrot here nicanary...

[Noodle1982]

nicanary said:

How are they going to pass off his hairstyle as WW2 fashion? Mind you, pop stars being used to pull audiences is nothing new - Johnny Leyton in The Great Escape comes to mind.

He no longer has long hair.

[Halmyre]

RC1807 said:

TEKNOPUG said:

I see that Harry Styles is in it.......

- rather a shame then that they had to use dummy bullets in the filming.
Opportunities.
Missed.
And all that.

He's got sod-all acting experience; how did he get the gig? Surely they don't need him to pull in the punters, unless Nolan is pitching the film at pre-pubescents?

[Beati Dogu]

I guess he wants to move on from lip-syncing for a living.

[Halb]

This story deserves a decent modern film. If it gets the emotion right, it could be a classic.

Not sure if it should be a small story or a big one. Nolan does a lot better with large stories. He's not a character driven director.

[Quickmoose]

Halb said:

Nolan does a lot better with large stories. He's not a character driven director.

Is it that simple?...Didn't Memento and possibly Batman have pretty big characters front and centre...
He does tough appear to love time manipulation, quite a bit too.....

[Halb]

Quickmoose said:

Is it that simple?...Didn't Memento and possibly Batman have pretty big characters front and centre...
He does tough appear to love time manipulation, quite a bit too.....

It can be that simple, I don't know if it is that simple. I like Nolan, always have, a director friend of mine who does do character driven stories pointed it out to me. I think what my friend said (it ws a while ago) was that Nolan doesn't do well with character...I'm sort of trying to recall the convo. he is certainly one of the best technical directors out there.
Batman as Nolan did it, wasn't really a character drive story, we know Batman inside out so it didn't need to be.
Memento is a better argument, but as you say, it has a lot of technical gadgery to improve the story. I've never watched it in chronological scene order, I hear it's not so good, but I have no urge to so I'm good.

[marcosgt]

Halmyre said:

RC1807 said:

TEKNOPUG said:

I see that Harry Styles is in it.......

- rather a shame then that they had to use dummy bullets in the filming.
Opportunities.
Missed.
And all that.

He's got sod-all acting experience; how did he get the gig? Surely they don't need him to pull in the punters, unless Nolan is pitching the film at pre-pubescents?

Lets give him a chance - I suspect the studio foisted him on Nolan as a condition for funding, but he's a ste singer, so maybe his talent's lie elsewhere

I wonder if this will be the story of how the US Navy saved the Brits from Dunkirk?

M.

[Mr Snrub]

lufbramatt said:

TheTrash said:

It'll be great, but there'll be the usual PH experts saying the sound levels are wrong or there was too much CGI, etc.

Nolan often uses loads of models and creates effects "in camera" rather than CGI so I've got high hopes for this!

Well I hope the sound mix is better than Interstellar! Generally when I watch a film I like to hear the actual dialogue over background noise

[Matt_N]

No doubt it'll be stunning, but Harry Styles? Wtf!

[lufbramatt]

Mr Snrub said:

lufbramatt said:

TheTrash said:

It'll be great, but there'll be the usual PH experts saying the sound levels are wrong or there was too much CGI, etc.

Nolan often uses loads of models and creates effects "in camera" rather than CGI so I've got high hopes for this!

Well I hope the sound mix is better than Interstellar! Generally when I watch a film I like to hear the actual dialogue over background noise

I saw it on bluray and don't remember having any issues with the sound tbh. I did have issues with the whole story just being a case of "mash all your favourite bits of Arthur C Clarke novels together", though.

[Eric Mc]

nicanary said:

Shakermaker said:

They had a teaser for this ahead of Suicide Squad, just a minute or so long, a load of soldiers on a landing craft, and then they all look up as you hear the noise of an aircraft coming towards them at high speed.

That sounds like part of the trailer. They're actually standing on one of the "moles" otherwise know as jetties, and the aircraft are Stukas which are aboout to sink the destroyer which they were planning to board.

My (adult) daughter watched the trailer and asked me what the dead whales were doing on the beach. The "whales" were dead soldiers covered in their greatcoats.

And landing craft didn't really exist in 1940. That's why all those little boats were needed.

[Eric Mc]

It would be nice if they included this relatively obscure story from the Dunkirk evacuation -

"Towards the end of May, 1940, a crew of the fledgling Irish Marine Service arrived in Hampshire to collect the second Vosper Motor Torpedo Boat ordered from Thornycroft by neutral Ireland.

As Operation Dynamo had just been instigated, signing over the craft was delayed until after the evacuation. Thornycroft personnel operated the boat to and from Dunkirk, with a volunteer Irish naval crew on board. The sailors wore a blue and yellow thread version of the Irish Defence Forces badge, the centrepiece being the interlocking letters "FF". The cap tally did not yet bear the current Irish Navy title "Eire" and evacuees are said to have interpreted the badge as the initials of the Free French. After the evacuation, the first (though unofficial) action by neutral Ireland's navy completed, the Irish crew obtained possession of the craft and sailed it to Ireland, where it served with the Irish Navy until 1952".

What this telling of the story doesn't mention is that Thornycroft had to request permission from the Irish Marine Service to use the boat - after all, they had just bought it.

[Nom de ploom]

I hope it is a human story and not a private ryan in reverse type thing.

i haven't seen a trailer but the premise is good as long as the balance is right

[nicanary]

Eric Mc said:

It would be nice if they included this relatively obscure story from the Dunkirk evacuation -

"Towards the end of May, 1940, a crew of the fledgling Irish Marine Service arrived in Hampshire to collect the second Vosper Motor Torpedo Boat ordered from Thornycroft by neutral Ireland.

As Operation Dynamo had just been instigated, signing over the craft was delayed until after the evacuation. Thornycroft personnel operated the boat to and from Dunkirk, with a volunteer Irish naval crew on board. The sailors wore a blue and yellow thread version of the Irish Defence Forces badge, the centrepiece being the interlocking letters "FF". The cap tally did not yet bear the current Irish Navy title "Eire" and evacuees are said to have interpreted the badge as the initials of the Free French. After the evacuation, the first (though unofficial) action by neutral Ireland's navy completed, the Irish crew obtained possession of the craft and sailed it to Ireland, where it served with the Irish Navy until 1952".

What this telling of the story doesn't mention is that Thornycroft had to request permission from the Irish Marine Service to use the boat - after all, they had just bought it.

Interesting. I didn't know that. Most histories of Dunkirk talk about the little boats in general terms, rather than looking at case stories.

The PR information about the film mentions Canadian forces, and indeed there were some Canadian troops brought over to bolster the BEF defences. My heart sank when I saw the mention - I thought it might be an excuse to include American actors in the film. The number of Canadians was relatively small.

[Eric Mc]

The Irish did not want to advertise their involvement. The official stance of "Eire" for the entirety of World War 2 was neutrality. The last thing they wanted to do was exacerbate any anti-British sentiment that existed in the country. This was particularly so because the Irish Prime Minister, Éamon De Valera, was a former IRA leader and a large element of his Fíanna Fáil party and supporters were very Anti-British and, as a result, pro anybody who was also anti-British e.g. the Germans.

In truth, De Valera was extremely pragmatic. He knew that Germany winning a European war would not be a "good thing" overall so he surreptitiously supported the UK - with growing confidence, as the war progressed.

Turning a blind eye to the Irish Navy assisting the evacuation of British troops from France was an early example of this pragmatism at work. I wonder what story would have been concocted if the ship had been sunk?

[Halb]

Nom de ploom said:

I hope it is a human story and not a private ryan in reverse type thing.

i haven't seen a trailer but the premise is good as long as the balance is right

Same. I do not feel a a need to rewatch Private Ryan.

I'm hoping for a feel more along the lines of a 40's Brit film, like Went the Day Well...I'd love that to be remade.

[NordicCrankShaft]

New trailer has been released. Looks very very good.

https://youtu.be/F-eMt3SrfFU

[Mr Snrub]

Looks good, and we're going to get some proper dogfighting sequences as we;;

[Art0ir]

TheTrash said:

It'll be great, but there'll be the usual PH experts saying the sound levels are wrong or there was too much CGI, etc.

He's gone as far as using cardboard cut outs of tanks and soldiers in the background apparently and 1500 extras in some scenes. Seems he's avoiding cgi as much as is practical for this.

Oh he also recommissioned a French destroyer from the 50s and if IGN is to be believed, spent $5,000,000 on a period aircraft to film with and then attach cameras to before crashing it into the ground.

Harry Styles also secured his role through the normal casting route. No studio foisting. Who knows, chances are he had a relativel connected one way or another to the events depicted.

Edited by Art0ir on Saturday 17th December 01:29