Dunkirk

Dunkirk has been nominated for Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Production Design, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing at the Academy Awards. There are no acting nominations among these, and that’s because this is a war movie with lots of action and sometimes long drawn out scenes of waiting. Waiting to see if a soldier will escape detection by the enemy, waiting to see if the boats sailing across the English Channel will arrive in time to save the Allied troops, and waiting to see if any RAF pilots will prevail in the skies over the Germans. The historic evacuation of Allied soldiers from certain death by the Nazis, who have them surrounded and pinned in on the beach, occurs in May 1940.

The film is rated PG-13 for intense war experience and some language. I will first provide you with a few pointers to make your viewing of Dunkirk, if you haven’t already seen it, more enjoyable and less frustrating for you.

Number one: Turn on the subtitles on your TV. I am shamefaced to admit that I have difficulty hearing what British actors are saying due to their accents. Additionally, with the near constant drone of airplanes, boat engines, and screaming men, I had trouble hearing the dialogue. You will thank me for this tip if you’re watching the film at home.

Number two: At the beginning of the movie, the “Mole” is referred to. I looked this up and the mole is a long concrete jetty that protects a beach. It is not referring to a spy. Knowing this helps you understand what Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) is talking about when he describes the difficulty of getting any large craft close enough to shore to take on any men. The Nazi bombing had rendered the harbor useless, and the only way large ships could get close enough to shore to rescue anyone was by sidling up to one of the two moles.

Number three: The film alternates between three points of view during the relatively short time of the Dunkirk rescues. These are labeled at the beginning of the film. The “Mole” scenes on the beaches of France take place over the space of one week. The scenes at sea where the British civilian craft are deployed to rescue the troops encompasses one day. The planes flying overhead take one hour. If you understand this when you watch, you can see how these three points of view move forward to meet near the end of the film.

I liked Dunkirk. The writer/director Christopher Nolan did a good job showing what it may have been like for the three groups of men, and a few women who were nurses or were on board some of the ships that came for the rescue. The musical score with its percussive tones, composed by Hans Zimmer, accompanied the film’s action well. It is a different type of war movie, in a good way. I recommend that you see Dunkirk.