Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017)

El Duda · 02-02-2018 7:38pm

NIMAN wrote: »

Dunkirk.

Its probably been said by many of the folk who don't like it, but the awful scale of things in the film ruined it for me. Everything appeared so small, so few. Handfuls of soldiers on beaches, flotillas of 6 boats arriving from England to rescue what we are told in the end was 300,000 men. Was wasn't CGI used to create a sense of enormity in this film?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYhZv7Ial9s

I think this scene shows the scale fairly well tbh ^ Skip to 3mins

NIMAN · 02-02-2018 9:46pm

El Duda wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYhZv7Ial9s

I think this scene shows the scale fairly well tbh ^ Skip to 3mins

Ah, no it didn't.

You any idea how 400,000 people would look?

Clue: nothing like that.

david75 · 02-02-2018 9:53pm

Someone a few pages back had the facts of this. It wasn’t 400,000 lads on the beach that was the entire troop complement in the whole region or something and the beach in the day wasn’t all packed up thousands of soldiers in it, it was in fact really well dispersed. They’d have been sitting ducks for the Germans otherwise. So the film is pretty accurate in that regard.

Cool episode on history hit pod on how accurate was Dunkirk w WWII historian James Holland. This is a great podcast too if you’re looking. https://itunes.apple.com/ie/podcast/dan-snows-history-hit/id1042631089?mt=2&i=1000390625884

Del.Monte · 02-02-2018 9:56pm

That clip wouldn't have me rushing out to see the movie.

buried · 02-02-2018 9:57pm

Del.Monte wrote: »

That clip wouldn't have me rushing out to see the movie.

Have you seen it Del?

david75 · 02-02-2018 10:05pm

Das Boot is the only war movie worth watching anyways

Del.Monte · 02-02-2018 10:05pm

david75 wrote: »

Someone a few pages back had the facts of this. It wasn’t 400,000 lads on the beach that was the entire troop complement in the whole region or something and the beach in the day wasn’t all packed up thousands of soldiers in it, it was in fact really well dispersed. They’d have been sitting ducks for the Germans otherwise. So the film is pretty accurate in that regard.

Cool episode on history hit pod on how accurate was Dunkirk w WWII historian James Holland. This is a great podcast too if you’re looking. https://itunes.apple.com/ie/podcast/dan-snows-history-hit/id1042631089?mt=2&i=1000390625884

They don't appear to be well dispersed in this picture.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/7-photos-from-the-dunkirk-evacuations

Del.Monte · 02-02-2018 10:07pm

david75 wrote: »

Das Boot is the only war movie worth watching anyways

And "The Train".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuyme-U9-es

buried · 02-02-2018 10:11pm

david75 wrote: »

Das Boot is the only war movie worth watching anyways

'Full Metal Jacket' too, watched that last night. I love the way you are dragged into the bully dehumanization along with the characters in part 1 and then thrown "into the $hit" with them in part 2. The tension of the battle scenes in the destroyed town infrastructure is brilliant too, something I found to be lacking in 'Dunkirk' but as I said, hard to do that in a large area of open ground like a sea or open desert. 9/10 for Full Metal Jacket tho

david75 · 02-02-2018 10:13pm

I probably should have said WWII movie

the list of Great War movies is pretty huge I guess. Still don’t get Apocalypse now. Haven’t watched it in years though

Del.Monte · 02-02-2018 10:14pm

buried wrote: »

Have you seen it Del?

Nope, but I'll probably buy the DVD at this stage.

buried · 02-02-2018 10:16pm

Del.Monte wrote: »

Nope, but I'll probably buy the DVD at this stage.

Yeah, you should definitely watch it. Its well shot anyways.

budgemook · 02-02-2018 10:18pm

Del.Monte wrote: »

They don't appear to be well dispersed in this picture.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/7-photos-from-the-dunkirk-evacuations

This is pretty much how the film Dunkirk looks but people complain because it doesn't look like a battle scene out of Lord of the Rings or something.

david75 · 02-02-2018 10:43pm

budgemook wrote: »

This is pretty much how the film Dunkirk looks but people complain because it doesn't look like a battle scene out of Lord of the Rings or something.

As in the pic It’s certainly wasn’t 400,000 lads all at once. Dunkirk happened over an entire week. The film doesn’t give you a time frame at all but seems to be focused on one day.

budgemook · 02-02-2018 11:23pm

david75 wrote: »

As in the pic It’s certainly wasn’t 400,000 lads all at once. Dunkirk happened over an entire week. The film doesn’t give you a time frame at all but seems to be focused on one day.

The film explicitly gives a timeline of one week for the guys on the beach.

david75 · 03-02-2018 12:05am

budgemook wrote: »

The film explicitly gives a timeline of one week for the guys on the beach.

Does it? I didn’t get that. The historian fella I linked above didn’t either.
The Nolan timeloop thing is too much in this film also. It’s memento all over again.

budgemook · 03-02-2018 12:25am

david75 wrote: »

Does it? I didn’t get that. The historian fella I linked above didn’t either.
The Nolan timeloop thing is too much in this film also. It’s memento all over again.

Are we still talking about Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk? It’s a week on the beach, a day on the boats and an hour in the planes. It comes up in text during the movie to tell you.

Anyway the point is that the scenes on the beach in the movie are pretty consistent with photos of the actual event yet people criticize the movie for not getting the scale right.

david75 · 03-02-2018 12:46am

budgemook wrote: »

Are we still talking about Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk? It’s a week on the beach, a day on the boats and an hour in the planes. It comes up in text during the movie to tell you.

Anyway the point is that the scenes on the beach in the movie are pretty consistent with photos of the actual event yet people criticize the movie for not getting the scale right.

Don’t remember any text on screen when I saw it? No matter though. The senses of battle fatigue and bewilderment was the point I took away from it. I was just responding to the post earlier someone being disappointed it wasn’t gore fest on the beach.

budgemook · 03-02-2018 12:54am

david75 wrote: »

Don’t remember any text on screen when I saw it? No matter though. The senses of battle fatigue and bewilderment was the point I took away from it. I was just responding to the post earlier someone being disappointed it wasn’t gore fest on the beach.

It’s definitely there but I think a lot of people missed it. Whenever someone tells me they are going to watch Dunkirk I tell them to pay attention to the timelines.

Tony EH · 03-02-2018 1:31pm

budgemook wrote: »

This is pretty much how the film Dunkirk looks but people complain because it doesn't look like a battle scene out of Lord of the Rings or something.

'Dunkirk' is a film best watched knowing the history of the real event. Otherwise ignorant preconceptions will lead to disappointment.

Tony EH · 03-02-2018 1:36pm

budgemook wrote: »

Are we still talking about Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk? It’s a week on the beach, a day on the boats and an hour in the planes. It comes up in text during the movie to tell you.

Anyway the point is that the scenes on the beach in the movie are pretty consistent with photos of the actual event yet people criticize the movie for not getting the scale right.

Men were told NOT to bunch together and therefore not be an obvious target for the expectant Luftwaffe attacks. The soldiers who made their way to the beaches were informed to use the entire beach front - miles of it - and wait for a transport to arrive and take them back to England.

Nolan reproduced, in his film, an image of how this looked in reality.

Tony EH · 03-02-2018 1:40pm

david75 wrote: »

Don’t remember any text on screen when I saw it?

david75 · 03-02-2018 3:56pm

Never noticed that. that’s probably a good thing to the films credit. It is very immersive even if you don’t like it. The score as well does a brilliant job.

budgemook · 03-02-2018 5:57pm

Tony EH is right - it's a film that does benefit from knowing a bit about it before you go in

NIMAN · 03-02-2018 7:24pm

Tony EH wrote: »

'Dunkirk' is a film best watched knowing the history of the real event. Otherwise ignorant preconceptions will lead to disappointment.

Forgetting how many were or weren't on the beach, it's still only an average film.

Tony EH · 04-02-2018 12:52am

I didn't find it so. I thought it portrayed the events pretty well and didn't trot down the bombast road, like so many war films do. Only with the air scenes did I feel let down.

All in all, I felt it was a good film and well made.

seiphil · 17-02-2018 9:51pm

Off to see Dunkirk again today in this big bastard!

igCorcaigh · 19-02-2018 8:35pm

Just saw this, and was quite impressed, more than I expected. Visually mesmerising and emotionally engaging.

evil_seed · 20-02-2018 1:04pm

This was my fave movie of 2017. I think it's a good bet for the Oscar. Between that and Get Out

budgemook · 20-02-2018 1:09pm

evil_seed wrote: »

This was my fave movie of 2017. I think it's a good bet for the Oscar. Between that and Get Out

40/1 on PP.

Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017)

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