Dunkirk

[Engine Doctor]

Watched it for about 20min yawn ! A poorly made film hyped up in the adverts ,very disappointing. I hope this company doesn't make any more historical movies ,war or otherwise .

[Cuban8]

Apparently, this film is Christopher Nolan's masterpiece according to some reviews that I've read. We're obviously missing something here..... worryingly, there is talk of a remake of The Battle of Britain with Ridley Scott's name in the frame. Alien V Spitfires?

Edited By Cuban8 on 07/08/2017 15:11:09

[Denis Watkins]

Wikipedia report, despite our feelings

Box officeEdit

As of 6 August 2017, Dunkirk has grossed $133.6 million in the United States and Canada and $180.6 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $314.2 million, against a production budget of $100 million.^[6]

That is a better return on your money than my bank gives !

Edited By Denis Watkins on 07/08/2017 15:58:50

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

while I have a lot of sysmpathy with many of the views expressed here - and indeed share a fair proportion of them. But I can't help but feel that we are not a very represenative audience!

Being who we are and having the interests we do:

1. We certainly know an awful lot more about the avaition aspects than the vast majority of the general public who would watch this film - most of which wouldn't know a He111 if got up a bit them!.

2. The vast majority of us probably know a lot more about the general historical context as well. Almost certainly we would tend to be more knowledgeble on the specific aspects of military history.

The long and short of it is,....the film wasn't made to please and inform the likes of us. Be honest, most of us would much prefer a really good documentary to a film anyday! But it's not a documentary, its a film - a work of fiction, made to entertain, not inform. We like things that inform - we tend to award value to things in relation to how informative and historicially accurate they are. That why we like forums - they are full of information! That being the case this type of film is never going to please most of us.

Unless,....we can for a couple of hours take off our slightly nerdy aviation hats and just have good wallow in a bit of fantasty. Maybe we shouldn't judge it against the history books - instead just accept it for what it is, something designed purely to entertain Jo Public?

Just a thought,....

BEB

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 07/08/2017 16:22:02

[Cuban8]

'Gravity', a film that anyone with even the slightest knowledge of space technology could drive a horse and cart through in terms of lack of its technical fidelity, was for me, fabulous. Absolute tosh really, but what a roller coaster ride and spectacle to keep you on the edge of your seat. A good film needs a solid story despite the pretensions of its director IMHO.

[Trevor Crook]

Further to firing a Spifire's guns on the glide, in his biography "Fly for your Life", Bob Stanford Tuck describes how he did just that when he was shot down over France. Gliding in to force land with a dead engine, he was shot at by a gun battery dead ahead, and returned fire, accurately, then crash-landed successfully.

[Dave Hopkin]

I for one found it a brilliant portrayal of a historic event - no not as a historical docudrama - but as a dam good attempt to explore the human feelings in circumstances like that and a worms eye view of a very short period of time

[Devcon1]

Just watched it in our glorious monoscreen replete with draped curtains and stage with steps either side, the pay booth still has the fixings for the old ticket dispensers.

Well it wasn't a documentary but for my mind it was a very sincere attempt to convey some human feelings, emotions and experiences from a pivotal moment in our history.

I thought some of the flying sequences were excellent and captured the essence of what was going on in the skies.

A film that provided a further reminder to me of the price paid by people of that time.

I walked behind a group of about 8 teenagers with two adults on the way out and overheard them saying they enjoyed it with one asking why the Spitfire pilot opened his canopy then closed it before ditching.

Well worth the watch...

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

The music plays a very big part in this film, more than in most. As there is less dialogue to convey the feelings and emotions of the characters, so the music has to do it. My son is a musicologist and modern classical composer, he has recently written a blog piece on this. I thought some of you might be interested to read a musician's view of the music in Dunkirk. (Also, Owen is of course from a younger generation - he's 23 - so its interesting to read his perceptions of Dunkirk as an historical event.)

Anyway here is link if you are interested - Dunkirk Music

BEB

Edited By Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 08/08/2017 08:03:23

[The Wright Stuff]

Posted by Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 08/08/2017 07:43:13:

The music plays a very big part in this film, more than in most. As there is less dialogue to convey the feelings and emotions of the characters, so the music has to do it. My son is a musicologist and modern classical composer, he has recently written a blog piece on this. I thought some of you might be interested to read a musician's view of the music in Dunkirk. (Also, Owen is of course from a younger generation - he's 23 - so its interesting to read his perceptions of Dunkirk as an historical event.)

Anyway here is link if you are interested - Dunkirk Music

BEB

Very interesting, BEB, thanks for sharing. Elgar's Nimrod may be slightly 'typecast' to this type of theme, but it never fails to generate a tear or two...

[stu knowles]

I went to the Imax at Sheffield to see this and was lucky enough to find a couple of bits of cotton wool in my pocket, which I stuffed into each ear throughout the film The sound volume was painful! That apart, I thought it entertaining, a few bits that jarred with the geek in me but most wouldn't notice. Some parts were a bit careless / low budget but all in, I enjoyed the film

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

I went to see it yesterday. I liked it very much. It's certainly unconventional - but I think it works. The sense of a lack of structure, in terms of simple one thread narrative, fitted well with the fact that in reality I don't suppose that the people involved in the actual event had much sense of it being structured either! It's an unsettling film - the feeling of continuous tension right from the opening and sustained throughout is palpable. But again that is deliberate and no doubt reflects how the characters felt.

I thought the ending - with the Spit landing on the beach - was a bit "corny" - but I can forgive them that!

Over all - yes, a good film I think.

BEB

[Devcon1]

Fascinating insight to the soundtrack BEB, thanks for the link.

Scheduled to watch it again this Friday during the wet spell....

[David Davis]

Posted by stu knowles on 09/08/2017 14:04:59:

I went to the Imax at Sheffield to see this and was lucky enough to find a couple of bits of cotton wool in my pocket, which I stuffed into each ear throughout the film The sound volume was painful! That apart, I thought it entertaining, a few bits that jarred with the geek in me but most wouldn't notice. Some parts were a bit careless / low budget but all in, I enjoyed the film

My father was wounded and captured at Dieppe. He used to say that the noise of battle was absolutely deafening so maybe they've got that bit right.

[Dave Hopkin]

After watching the film and experiencing the sense of tension the music score creates I stumbled across this **LINK**

In youtube - apparently its a muscal "optical illusion" thing that tricks the brain..........

[Cuban8]

I still stand by my criticism of 'Dunkirk' and Christopher Nolan's method, but I've just come across this regarding the flying sequences. You do have to take your hat off to the production crew.

[Trevor Crook]

I've just watched a few clips of this film on YouTube, mainly for the flying sequences, which I found impressive. They went to the trouble of using early mark Spitfires with the correct period black/white underside scheme. I thought the gliding landing at the end was particularly well portrayed. In most films, if an aircraft engine stops it plunges, out of control and wailing, into the ground!

I'll see if my library has the DVD so I can judge the film as a whole.

[G-JIMG]

Just seen The Darkest Hour. In one 5 second scene, it did a better job of portraying the magnitude of the flotilla of small craft than Dunkirk did in the entire movie.

[Nigel R]

I thought it was excellent.

I rather liked the three storyline thing.

The film is like the 'historic novels'. Enjoy it as such. I wasn't expecting a documentary. Poetic license is always taken with films to some extent.

[Jonathan M]

I'm looking forward to seeing The Darkest Hour in the cinema. But from what I understand it is (a film about the political side of things almost entirely filmed indoors), I don't think it can be compared in any respect to Dunkirk - which I really enjoyed, knowing beforehand that it was a very abstracted 'time-shifting' take on the three military components of the evacuation.

These two films are completely different perspectives of events of that period in history, by very different film-makers.

At least - certainly since Spielberg changed the entire game with Private Ryan, or maybe even since A Bridge Too Far in the late 70s? - thank goodness they've mostly stopped making the sort of war-film tripe we were previously fed.