{"id":21377,"date":"2017-08-13T15:03:22","date_gmt":"2017-08-13T05:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=21377"},"modified":"2017-08-13T15:03:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-13T05:03:32","slug":"dunkirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=21377","title":{"rendered":"Dunkirk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"dunkirkposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director: \u00a0<\/strong>Christopher Nolan
\nWriter: \u00a0<\/strong>Christopher Nolan
\nCast: \u00a0<\/strong>Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Fionn Whitehead, Aneurin Barnard, Kenneth Brannagh, Cillian Murphy<\/p>\n

Tick tick tick…<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ve read that when Christopher Nolan – the director, writer and creative force behind\u00a0Dunkirk<\/em> – reached out to Hans Zimmer to compose the score for his film, he handed him a pocket watch for inspiration.<\/p>\n

That pocket watch, with the relentless ticking of precious time ebbing away, ended up not just inspiring the soundtrack (which is fantastic) but the entire film. \u00a0Tick tick tick<\/em> as the Allies count down the hours until the German forces arrive on the beaches. \u00a0Tick tick tick<\/em> as the Allied soldiers try desperately to\u00a0survive a hailstorm\u00a0of bullets. \u00a0Tick tick tick\u00a0<\/em>as civilian ships race across the Channel hoping to reach their soldiers in time. \u00a0Tick tick tick<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Christopher Nolan’s\u00a0Dunkirk<\/em> is an impressive film and one of his finest works to date. \u00a0I was initially a little dubious about a contemporary WWII film carrying an M-rating but I needn’t have worried. \u00a0Nolan’s largely bloodless production still viscerally captures the horrors of war and the lower age classification broadens the audience Dunkirk<\/em>\u00a0can reach.<\/p>\n

Listening to Nolan’s interview with Simon Mayo on BBC Five Live, he explained that he wanted to celebrate the heroes who represented ‘the Dunkirk spirit’ and tell their story to a new generation of cinema-goers. \u00a0I think this is a very noble endeavour. \u00a0It’s also nice to see wider representation of the Allies in the Second World War, specifically seeing a production that focuses on British and French soldiers. \u00a0There are too many Hollywood films that make World War II look like a struggle solely between Americans and Germans.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"dunkirk2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With\u00a0Dunkirk<\/em>, Christopher Nolan once again asserts himself as one of the most assured directors in Hollywood, delivering a film with complicated themes and intricate composition, which he trusts\u00a0that his audience can follow.<\/p>\n

The film has a muddled chronology, telling three different stories spanning different lengths of time (I. The Mole, II. The Sea, III. The Air<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Dunkirk<\/em> is a film where actions speak louder than words. \u00a0There is very little by way of dialogue in the film. \u00a0Most of what happens speaks for itself. \u00a0In fact, if anything, I think the film could do with potentially less talking. \u00a0One of the film’s rare missteps is the eye-rolling material\u00a0that Mark Rylance is saddled with. \u00a0Rylance plays Mr Dawson, a civilian sailor who is heading out to save as many soldiers as he can. \u00a0Almost all of his dialogue is heavy handed exposition, clunkily describing exactly what the audience can see for themselves.<\/p>\n

That minor gripe aside, the rest of the film commands your attention and is a finely honed production where everyone hits their mark just so. \u00a0There’s Commander Bolton (Kenneth Brannagh), the desperate pier-master overseeing the evacuation of the Allies. \u00a0Aneurin Barnard has one of the most interesting roles as Gibson, a French soldier masquerading as an Englishman, hoping to\u00a0make his escape. \u00a0Then there’s Shivering Soldier (Cillian Murphy) a rescued soldier suffering PTSD which leads to a moment of tragedy shortly after he is plucked from the ocean. \u00a0And who can forget Farrier, the courageous spit fighter pilot, picking off Nazis from the skies. \u00a0The role of Farrier, who’s face is mostly obscured by his headgear, is expertly brought to life by Tom Hardy’s Magnificent Eyebrows.<\/p>\n

We learn precious little about each of these characters. \u00a0Just little facets of their fortitude and gumption as they face one life threatening confrontation after another. \u00a0Despite the film’s broad scope and cast of thousands, in many ways\u00a0Dunkirk<\/em> is also a very stripped back and lean film. \u00a0Unusually for a big budget WWII production, the film clocks in at a snappy 106 minute running time. \u00a0It has the pace and action beats of a thriller. \u00a0The film doesn’t ever really feel grandoise. \u00a0The few wide shots we see of the soldiers on the beach and the boats in the water don’t feel momentous. \u00a0The film sets its lens much closer to the action and follows its cast from moment to moment.<\/p>\n

Dunkirk<\/em> works so well because it is a masterclass in storytelling. \u00a0Like the pocket watch that inspired the soundtrack, the film is a triumph of craftsmanship. \u00a0Each shot, each edit and each action ratchets up the tension to unbearable heights. \u00a0The highlight for me was a sequence intercutting a pilot slowing drowning in his downed spitfighter and a French soldier’s deception slowly being uncovered by the English troops. \u00a0That passage of the film had me completely enthralled and holding my breath for the better part of a minute.<\/p>\n

What is there left to say about Christopher Nolan and his formidable body of work? \u00a0Fourteen features spanning two decades of film making and the Englishman is still showing the same passion, energy and creative flair that he did when he made Memento\u00a0<\/em>all the way back in 2000. \u00a0Impressively, he shows no signs of peaking just yet with\u00a0Dunkirk<\/em> having certain qualities that I haven’t seen before in any of his previous films. \u00a0Dunkirk\u00a0<\/em>is one of the year’s best and deserves every bit of success that comes its way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France are surrounded by the German army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[600,2062,2652,876,2441,2230],"class_list":["post-21377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-cillian-murphy","tag-dunkirk","tag-kenneth-brannagh","tag-mark-rylance","tag-tom-hardy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21377"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21390,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21377\/revisions\/21390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}