The movie that was chosen to be watched and reviewed was Dunkirk. Dunkirk was released in 2017 and is categorized as a Drama/Thriller, directed by Christopher Nolan. Dunkirk was a movie about D-Day from World War II. It followed a soldier who was attempting to evacuate the beaches of Dunkirk because the Axis Powers were closing in on his location. He and a few of his buddies were waiting for a Naval ship to arrive so they can leave. However, things did not go as smoothly as it was planned out to be. They were bombed from the German Air Forces and their ships were being destroyed by German U-Boats. The movie showed them struggling to survive and hide from the Germans as the rescue boats arrived to finally take the Allied Forces back to safety. The soldiers were not only rescued by the Navy, but also a civilian using his own boat to help save lives of those being stranded at sea when their ships sank and their airplane went down. After everyone had been rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk, more than three hundred thousand soldiers from the Allied Forces were saved from an almost eminent death. Overall, it was a very good and informative video. It told a lot about the time period and the conditions the soldiers may have faced.
However, just because the movie was really good and had a lot of history behind it, does not mean that it is perfect with no flaws. The first problem that I immediately experienced during this movie was the lack of dialogue and context. Throughout the entire movie, only a handful of words were spoken. This left me lost at some places because I did not understand what was happening as the characters did not talk about the situations which would have easily been filling in the blanks. An article posted on a website called “The Guardian” addresses this issue. The article says, “We’re told little about how the army has come to be beached or the threat it faces.”
The second major issue I discovered in this film were the three different stories taking place at the exact same time. Every so often, the movie would swap scenes and flip between the soldiers on the beach, the civilian boat attempting to rescue people, and the fighter pilots. The reason for this was to show the three different sides taking place, however, combined with the lack of dialogue, it made the movie extremely hard to follow. An article from the “Vulture” addresses this briefly. “What we don’t know at first about the crossing threads is that the cutting is not just among different locations but different time periods.” This is saying that other individuals found the scenes switching to be confusing as well. The article says, “There’s a great deal to hold in our heads” meaning one has to sit down and think about the movie and what the scenes are depicting. A second article from “Shore Scripts” states that, “… although the three narratives occasionally bump against each other and ultimately kind of intersect, there’s no direct connection…” This becomes extremely hard and confusing as there is not much context to help fill in the blanks.
However, just as there were some things that the movie did wrong and maybe should have been fixed, there were things it did very well and excelled at. One of those was definitely the character outfits. The producers paid exceptional attention to detail with the outfits. The classic metal turtle shell shaped helmets that are associated with World War II, was worn by every character and soldier. The clothing they wore was also very well represented. The clothing matched almost exactly to that of what the real World War II outfits looked like. Christopher Nolan also did a very good job of making sure the Naval ships, airplanes, and weapons were from World War II. The equipment that was shown in the movie was the exact same the soldiers would have used while they were on the beaches fighting to survive. The massive ships and airplanes were also represented perfectly and existed during the time period as well. This made the movie feel as if it was actually taking place during World War II, rather than present day and just being recreated. If the movie would have added more dialogue and explained what was happening better in each scene that took place, I feel like the movie would have been even better than what it already was. The movie would have been a lot easier to follow for the average viewer. However, if you happened to be into history and the World War II era, the movie would have made perfect sense and the lack of dialogue would not have affected you. However it is easy to appreciate the amount of time and effort director Christopher Nolan took in making sure the outfits, props, and equipment were accurate of the time period the movie took place in.
Dunkirk was a very interesting and enjoyable movie. The director was able to do this in various ways. One of the first ways that director Christopher Nolan did this was through action and suspense throughout the movie. One specific scene in which this was shown was a scene where a German fighter plane was approaching a beach full of allied troops waiting for rescue ships to arrive. Suspense filled as the plane flew closer and closer, preparing to open fire. At the very last second, an allied fighter plane appeared out of nowhere, saving the helpless soldiers. Using action and suspense made the time era of the movie incredibly interesting as it grabbed your attention. Nolan used action in various ways to make the era interesting. Throughout the movie, there were several different scenes in which combat took place. An aerial combat scene between two fighter planes was a prime example of this. One airplane was chasing the other and the next moment the other would flip positions and have the advantage by chasing the other instead. Bullets were shot from the aircraft left and right, bullets flying. These scenes are scattered throughout the movie making it very enjoyable to watch. Christopher Nolan did an excellent job at understanding he will need action or the movie would not be entertaining to watch. He managed to keep the audience hooked and on the edge of their seat for the entire movie, not just for a few scenes. Someone never knew what was going to happen or when something was going to happen, this was a job well done by Nolan.
Nolan had many different choices for movies to make, however, he went with Dunkirk. I believe he chose this to represent history because of the significance it has in history. It is a day where over three hundred thousand troops were rescued from the beaches of Normandy as the German forces closed in. It is one of the most important days because of the amount of lives that were managed to be saved that day. This day is also considered one of the turning points of the war for the British and Allied forces. If the soldiers would have died on the beaches, it would have left their armies in shambles and weak. However, they made it out alive, making it a potential turning point. This is what makes this day so important in history and is one of the reasons I believe Christopher Nolan decided to represent this piece.