Octang Frye

Going to see Dunkirk tonight on 70mm IMAX. Can't wait - that tagline choked me up:

When 400,000 men couldn't get home,
Home came for them.

Let you know how it goes.

scrubbedexpat099

Always wondered what happened.

scot47

Does it have a happy ending ? Do the Germans win ?

scrubbedexpat099

robin1234

Hadn't heard of this film till I saw this thread, thanks Octang! I just read the review in the guardian, the reviewer praised it highly. "Horribly appropriate for these Brexit times."

https://www.theguardian.com/film/201...st-film-so-far

Among other things, he praises the music score. The reviewer says the film entirely concentrates on the scene at Dunkirk, and the rescue, so doesn't include the military campaign that led to Dunkirk.

I don't know where this was filmed, I had a quick look at the IMDb page but didn't see this..

rebs

Parts of it were filmed in Weymouth - Weymouth shines in Christopher Nolan's new Dunkirk trailer – but there’s something not very 40s in the background! (From Dorset Echo)

ian-mstm

Dunkirk (2017) - Filming Locations - IMDb

Ian

Octang Frye

For the most part, I really enjoyed it. To say it's intense would be an a understatement. Triptych storytelling, depicting a week on land, a day at sea, and an hour in the air, with the three threads coalescing in the final act.

I usually like Hans Zimmer's music, but the score in this is a little overbearing and sometimes unnecessary - it seems to use a Stuka's scream and a ticking clock incessantly. Nerve jangling nonetheless.

Weymouth and Dorset feature prominently - my old stomping grounds... may have blubbed a little - I think the theater was just dusty; I don't know.

Only criticism of the film is that it didn't show the scale of the number of people on the beach, nor the number of "little ships" - there were 800 - and the fact that they went back, and back, and back, and back, and back, and back... Some text acknowledging the sacrifice of the rearguard action protecting those on the beach would've been welcome too.

There are some brilliant flashes of British stoicism and humour, and the overall Dunkirk Spirit is seen at the end of the movie - not just in the bedraggled, exhausted soldiers - but in the civilians welcoming these defeated men home as heroes. It really choked me up.

In all, a tense, taut, time-slipping movie (it's a Chris Nolan so you know time is non-linear) which depicts the anonymity, desperation and heroism of this often overlooked but pivotal event. Definitely recommend it. It's loud, flawed, repetitious at times - but it stays with you when you leave the theater. I can't wait to see it again.

P.S. Tom Hardy. Never had a crush on a guy before. Jesus. Let's send this guy after Kim Jong Un.

P.P.S. it's shot in 65mm or 70mm IMAX - they even put IMAX cameras in the Spitfires. Definitely watch it in that format.

dc koop

Why did Hitler order the Panzer divisions to halt their advance thus allowing the mass evacuation of some 350,000 survivors of the BEF ?

It seems it was the first of several bad decisions he made that led to Germany eventually losing the war

scrubbedexpat099

The general consensus is that it was due to power play within the German High Command, there were a number of practical reasons to do so as well.

scrubbedexpat142

Keitel's memoirs certainly confirm that, also an opinion that the Generals abrogated responsibility to Hitler. He also praised the French, writing "...thanks largely to the gallant stand made by the French, who fought us to the finish there."

morpeth

I am not sure the decision was that critical to Germany losing the war, and Hitler always wanted to have peace with Great Britain. He even offered German soldiers to help maintain British Empire. Also logistical reasons, the rapid advance strained supply lines, and after all the objective was to knock France out of the war, which was achieved. There was also the issue of imposing his control on the upper echelon of the German army.

morpeth

Look forward to the movie ! I grew up with stories about Dunkirk. Both my mother and grandmother were always very insistent about swimming lessons for the children and grandchildren :from story of one of my uncles that so many British men didn't know how to swim that many ended up drowning or almost drowning.

dc koop

That sounds like the most plausible explanation. A gesture of goodwill on the part of Hitler since he hoped for peace with Britain perhaps. Hitler didn't know Winston however and the 350,000 BEF plus Free French who managed to be evacuated formed the nucleus of the Army that was to defeat his Afrika Korps and later the force that landed on D-Day. So therefore I think he did make a serious mistake which was the first of several.

His greatest mistake however was attacking the Soviet Union and later his direction of the battle of Stalingrad

caretaker

In Canada most of us had to read The Snow Goose in school early on, could have been as early as grade 5 or 6, so Dunkirk got a little attention beyond history class. Imax movies aren't in the plan, but I look forward to seeing this after it's theatre run.