Dunkirk (The Movie) 2017

[BruceHMX]

So this weekend I took my Son and a few of his ROTC buddies to see Dunkirk. Like most of us I had been waiting for this film after seeing the previews. I was very impressed with the accuracy of the equipment which included piles of Enfield's literally. The story was good but the choppy way the director filmed it at times was hard to follow. It also has the longest silent Spitfire landing ever filmed. Not sure how it stayed in the air so long after shutting down. But I still give it a good thumbs up It had very little digital fake items implanted, no love story(so not a chick flick), and seemed to be historically accurate.

Would like to hear everyone else's comments, thoughts and questions.

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[Bob Womack]

To begin, I am a sound designer for video and film. I'm lifting a good part of this from a post on another forum.

I went to see the movie in 70mm last night and I've read the technical write-ups on the director's intent and techniques. I'm fascinated! The sound design techniques are just as ground-breaking and intense as the techniques were that were used in Apocalypse Now, the most pivotal sound design back in 1979 when I was first getting into sound design. The use of triple, non-parallel plots, each utilizing the snowball effect, was also extremely interesting.

Back to the sound design, did anyone besides me notice that Zimmer was using Shepherds Tones sequences to ramp up tension throughout the sub-scenes? Specifically he used Shepard–Risset glissandi, smooth, continuous moving tone formations that seem to either ascend or descend, based upon the note clusters chosen. I found my heart racing with that little technical manipulation.

And going to the three plot lines, land, sea, and air, the plots are portrayed as occupying a week on land, a day at sea, and an hour in the air. Did anyone besides me notice that the three plots intersected in non-linear ways? If you compare the three, you find, for instance, that the air plot involving one flight of three Spitfires (max air time of two hours but portrayed as one hour) intersects with the land plot in the morning of one day, intersects with a sea plot in the middle of the next day, and then intersects with the land plot on the last day of the battle at the end of the film.

It all makes sense in the context of Christopher Nolan's idea of portraying no back story and not engaging in character development but simply putting a bunch of characters in the various positions from which the battle was fought, land, sea, and air, and asking the question, "Who will make it out?" However, it makes no chronological sense at all and anyone who attempts to piece together the narrative from a chronological perspective will come a cropper and be confused.

There are also numerous glaring technical errors that must be set aside for the movie to be enjoyed but I somehow found myself sucked in: consciously manipulating my suspension of disbelief and willingly surrendering to some of the tropes in order to experience the film.

I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the subject as long as you start with a willingness to suspend chronology altogether and engage in a POV mashup. Also, even more than A Bridge Too Far, another movie that chronicled a failed WWII operation, this movie indulges in a "set 'em up and shoot 'em down" operation. Very much like that movie, the anticlimax leaves you with a hollow feeling in a very postmodern way but this time with less of the heroics and display of the best of man to give balance.

Oh, and I enjoyed the slow-timed quotation of Elgar's Nimrod used for the heroic theme.

Bob

[philb]

hi, why does it take the spitfire over 1hr to fly to Dunkirk ??.....when its on fire at the end wheres the engine gone ???.....Dunkirk was over about 10 days, why are most of the soldiers all clean shaven ???.....me109 with yellow nose cone, didn't do that to 1940........wouldn't watch it again

[enfield303t]

hi, why does it take the spitfire over 1hr to fly to Dunkirk ??.....when its on fire at the end wheres the engine gone ???.....Dunkirk was over about 10 days, why are most of the soldiers all clean shaven ???.....me109 with yellow nose cone, didn't do that to 1940........wouldn't watch it again

It is unfortunate you couldn't see the big picture of why the movie was made. The one hour, one day one week presentation was well done IMO. There is a point where nit picking is endless and serves no good end.

Seeing as the burning Spitfire was a mock up I bet they weren't worried about having a appropriate engine or any engine at all. I saw the engine was missing but it really wasn't a big deal was it.

The sound was worth the admission alone, will go to see it again.

[Badger]

Bob....

I assume those air combat scenes were computer generate simulations?

If so, they were some of the mos realistic I've ever seen ...

Regards,
Doug

[garrettbragg12]

Bob....

I assume those air combat scenes were computer generate simulations?

If so, they were some of the mos realistic I've ever seen ...

Regards,
Doug

If I remember correctly the Spits and Buchon (cloned as a 109) were all the real deal. The Stukas and Heinkel were large scale RC models!

I personally thought the aircraft scenes made the entire movie. I'm a mustang guy, but they really showed off those 3 Spits!

[Bob Womack]

Bob....
I assume those air combat scenes were computer generate simulations?
If so, they were some of the mos realistic I've ever seen ...
Regards,
Doug

The director tried to do as much "in the camera," meaning with actual camera shots, as possible. The aircraft interiors were done in studio with a cockpit reproduction mounted on gimbals. One thing I noticed was the level of detail of cockpit sound, rattles and so forth, that was used in the aircraft interiors.

Bob

[Gil Boyd]

Well...........in answer to that John Romain a friend who owns the Aircraft Restoration Company, based within the wire of the Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire UK, owns the Spitfire and the messerschmidt that you see in the film.

The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Lancaster/Spitfire/Hurricane have all just undergone a full strip and reassembly service at his hangers at Duxford to enable them to fly for another 10 years+.
Another good mate there John Smith, physically crashed originally at an airshow and has taken 10 years to rebuild the Blenheim which now flies there too.

[Gil Boyd]

Calgary Veteran of Dunkirk

[Flying10uk]

I use to know a chap, long since passed, who had been in the Royal Engineers during WW2 and had been evacuated at Dunkirk. He told me that while many allied vehicles had had their engines wrecked by being run with no oil until seized, as instructed, there were also a significant number that were left where this was not carried out. He went on to tell me that in some cases where the engine had been wrecked and if it couldn't be repaired by the Germans they sometimes replaced the engine with a German made engine. When he returned to France following D-Day, he found that the Germans were still using British lorries/vehicles that had been captured in 1940. When these vehicles were recaptured, and if still serviceable, he said that British/allied forces put them to good use, once more.