Dunkirk

18 September 2018

Dunkirk 2017

• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance, Tom Glyn-Carney, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Mark Rylance – BFG, Wolf Hall, Twelfth Night, The Other Boleyn Girl, Angels and Insects, Prospero’s Books
• Tom Hardy – Legend, Mad Max Fury Road, The Dark Knight Rises, Tailor Tinker Soldier Spy, Inception, Gideon’s Daughter
• Kenneth Branagh – Wallander, My Week with Marilyn, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Sleuth 2007, Shackleton, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rabbit-Proof Fence, How to Kill Your Neighbour’s Dog, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Wild Wild West, Hamlet, Othello, Frankenstein, Much Ado About Nothing, Swing Kids, Peter’s Friends, Dead Again, Henry V, Fortunes of War
• Cillian Murphy – Transcendence, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, The Dark Knight, Sunshine, Batman Begins, Cold Mountain, Girl with the Pearl Earring, 28 Days Later
• Why? History
• Seen: 16 September 2018      

       The scenes from Atonement with James McAvoy were very strong and have stayed with me. Will this be as strong?

       Four hundred thousand British soldiers are crowded on the beaches of Normandy. Retreat. But where to go? One of the early disasters of the war.

       This is a collage of individual fates. Soldiers on sinking boats. Air pilots chasing and being chased. Civilians on pleasure and fishing boats heading to France to rescue a few.

       I’m sure it was even more confusing in reality but a confusing film is not a good film. It jumps back and forth, sometimes offering only seconds of a scene before switching to another for a few seconds. Sometimes it’s day and then it’s night and then it’s the same day again. There seem to be far too few soldiers on the beach and they’re far too orderly. And how can they all be so clean-shaven?

       There are moments of drama and the acting is good enough. The few moments Rylance and Branagh are on the screen are very good. They know what they’re doing even with the smallest roles.

       It’s very ambitious. It’s probably impossible to make a film about Dunkirk but they did try. Credit for that but it should have been a better film. It should have been a great film.

3 * of 5