Dunkirk (forthcoming in 2017)

I think there are quite a few good movies about WWI; Paths of Glory and the original All Quiet On The Western Front are a few.

 

I just came back from "Dunkirk." I enjoyed it, but I felt it was a little bit thin, storywise. The fragmented "Magnolia-like" structure got a little repetitious (like a little story was being stretched out) and for a "big" picture, it felt a little too intimate and, at times, claustrophobic to me -- the scene of hiding on the beached boat went on so long I was longing to get back to some some sense of epic scale -- I think that's what the best war movies do: they give you a sense of the huge mass of men and machines comprising the war juggernaut. I didn't get that here. Soliders kind of vaguely populated the beaches like lost souls in a Beckett play or an Ingmar Bergman film. I disliked the throw-away treatment of what little dialog there was, it was so understated, I think key points were given short shrift. And I often couldn't make out what they were saying. Likewise, the young actors all looked so much alike (dark eyes, dark curly hair -- or nordic blonde with chiseled chins) that I wasn't sure who I was watching. And none of the characters were particularly memorable. Mark Rylance was wasted. I liked the realistic aerial battles and obvious lack of CGI, but I almost wished they had broken out some more CGI at times, like for the big flotilla reveal -- as filmed it wasn't very impressive. And I never got the sense of a huge number of troops trying to leave. Maybe a few thousand, certainly not 200,000 or 300,000 as they suggested. That scene should have made you go "Wow." It was nicely made, but I was disappointed (and the teens I was with didn't like it at all). I coughed up for four tickets thinking my son's friends might take away a nice historical lesson, but I don't think it's one of the great war films. Saving Private Ryan was much more inventive. Again, overall opinion is: A bit thin storywise without a lot of heft or characterization, and some nice filmmaking but nothing groundbreaking. Stylistically, too many echos of Paul Thomas Anderson's visual and aural assault style.

 

It's on my to see list next.
How does it compare with Saving Private Ryan ?

 

My favorite war movies.... beside Dunkirk.

All Quiet On The Western Fron
Apocalypse Now
Full Metal Jacket
Paths Of Glory
Platoon
Saving Private Ryan
The Bridge On River Kwai
The Deer Hunter
The Thin Red Line

 

There are a few posts about this earlier in the thread. Here's one:

Dunkirk (forthcoming in 2017)

If you ask me, you'll like it, but not as much as SPR.

 

superb list man

 

It's a different beast, I think it's less hectic and (at times) more immersive. There are no 'pauses' for a recap or backstory interludes. The tension is there from the first minute and you're in for a white-knuckle ride of two hours.
For people with imagination there are quite a few scenes that are as gruesome as the SPR but without the actual limbs flying about.

 

The opening scene in SPR was too much for me in the cinema when it came out. Loud.

 

SPR/Hanks/Hollywood

 

This just about nails the differences for me. I'll just add that you'll cry a lot less at Dunkirk -- or at least I did.

 

Because biopics tend to suck. Fictional story elements tailor made to a film tend to work better. Save the real life stories for documentaries.

 

The age limit for voluntary enlistment in the British Army on the outbreak of war in 1914 was 18-45 (raised from the pre-war upper age limit of 38), so there would have been men aged over 70 who had seen active service. It is worth remembering that the majority of soldiers were not front line infantry men.

 

I hadn't thought of biopics. Sorry, I know I was vague. If biopic then one where the main focus is shot dead after 10 minutes and the camera shifts to the next guy, who lasts 15, and on down the line. What I'd really like to see, though it'll never happen and it would be difficult given it took place at night, would be the night time naval battles one and two of Guadalcanal. Japanese: two battleships, a light cruiser and fourteen destroyers bump unexpectedly into American: two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers and eight destroyers. Sound and fury.

 

I'll reply to italic parts in your review...

• The story is 'thin' and that might be just the power of it; it makes it easier to get into the head of the main characters; no back-story, no romantic interludes, hopes and dreams; just trying to survive and get home.
• The same goes for the claustrophobia; it found some 'claustrophobic' scenes the most powerful;
  Spoiler

  the torpedo-hit of the ship, the pilot who can't get out of his cockpit while his Spitfire is sinking....next to the Grand Scale it's fighting for your life to get to the surface for some air...
• I think some characters were memorable enough and this movie isn't about Great Characters, really. Having said that; mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) and Farrier (Tom Hardy) were as heroic as characters can get. Especially Dawsons back-story is very subtly told in one of two remarks.

 

Spoiler

I would have ditched the plane in the sea [or parachuted out before impact] near the exiting small British boats.Surely one would have picked him up.Good pilot's were more valuable than the planes.

 

Although Hardy's character couldn't be expected to know this, there were many stories since that any RAF personnel who found themselves on the beach were vilified (or worse) and denied access to the boats. Both the army and navy were extremely angry at what they perceived to have been the RAF letting them down by failing to intercept the Luftwaffe air attacks. Some survivors who had been on the beach for days claim not to have seen an RAF plane during the whole evacuation.

 

Indeed, I find the comment about mass scale of troops and deployment to be important but a bit antithetic to the experience of an individual soldier. Talk about a claustrophobic and powerful war movie, Lebanon takes place for long sequences inside a tank. It is really a harrowing experience and for those who like strong surround soundstaging, that's another reason to see it.

Amazon.com: Lebanon [Blu-ray]: Reymond Amsalem, Ashraf Barhom, Samuel Maoz: Movies & TV

I will say this about Nolan's movies. They always reward repeat viewing. I've never walked away from the first experience with any of his films thinking I fully understood what I just saw. He loves illusions within illusions and multifaceted joining of plot lines.

 

Interesting story in The Guardian 'We thought the war was lost': readers' stories of Dunkirk

 

Something a little more modern, though. They are great films, but inaccuracies abound. The look and feel of both encapsulated Hollywood in their time.

I guess I'm saying that I would like to see the Saving Private Ryan of the Great War. That sort of production, which isn't over the top: dramatic enough in size and scope to carry a film off of a Hollywood set lot.

I know it's OT, but since Dunkirk is a very British film that's doing quite well at the moment, it just makes me wonder how a film based upon The Somme, where 19,240 British soldiers were killed on the first day, might do.

 

I must have seen a different movie. I didn't like it. I would almost say hated it. After ten minutes I wondered how soon it would be over. Tedious, boring, dull. Minimalism can be interesting, but it wasn't here. No feeling of connection with any characters, sometimes unintelligible dialog, no basic setting of the the situation to let anyone in the audience who didn't know about Dunkirk to have any understanding of the action. I didn't feel any of the scenes depicting sinkings or attacks were exceptional. Just one after another "here's another horrors of war" moment. And despite how well shot it may have been, I still don't like the CGI results in many cases. The out-of-gas Spitfire over the beach especially.

No feeling of the magnitude of the event. No inspirational moments. The arrival of all the civilian boats played as very underwhelming.

I'm a big fan of war films, but I'll never watch this one again. Far too many better ones out there.

 

That should be a crime

 

Sure, but very few modern ones. There are so many great stories from that period, but nobody bothering to tell them these days. There's this perception the whole war is nothing but muddy trenches. Here's an example of a lesser known piece of WWI that could make an interesting story.

 

I thought that was true, as well.

 

Yes, like the sounds of the men being crushed between the boat and the pier. Didn't need to see a closeup of what that does to a body.

 

That's a movie I'd pay to see. I wonder how they would depict the incredible stupidity and insensitivity of the British High Command, who sent those 19,240 soldiers charging over open ground into the mouths of German machine guns? Didn't they teach Pickett's Charge at Sandhurst in those days?