Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

Discussions on WW2 and pre-WW2 related movies, games, military art and other fiction.
rcocean
Member
Posts: 686
Joined: 30 Mar 2008, 01:48

Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#1

Post by rcocean » 19 May 2021, 00:00

Who would've thought some guy who made comic book movies could make such a great war movie? After hearing all the British bitch about " why doesn't Saving Private Ryan have some Tommies?" Its good they stepped up to the plate and made their OWN great war movie. but where were the Yanks? I expected Tom cruise to show up in spitfire at the end :lol: to get some more box office $$$.

Favorite scene: RAF shoot down a ME 109, then wonder where "Force leader" is.

OpanaPointer
Financial supporter
Posts: 5644
Joined: 16 May 2010, 15:12
Location: United States of America

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#2

Post by OpanaPointer » 19 May 2021, 01:59

People got confused with the three different time lines:

Blokes on the beach: Several days

Blokes on boats: Several hours

Blokes in the air: Less than two hours.

All that in a single two hourish movie.
Come visit our sites:
hyperwarHyperwar
World War II Resources

Bellum se ipsum alet, mostly Doritos.


User avatar
Ivan1987
Member
Posts: 35
Joined: 28 May 2019, 14:26
Location: European Union

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#3

Post by Ivan1987 » 19 May 2021, 21:14

I thought the movie was OK. I especially enjoyed the part with the fishermen coming to help.

User avatar
Sheldrake
Member
Posts: 3726
Joined: 28 Apr 2013, 18:14
Location: London
Contact:

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#4

Post by Sheldrake » 20 May 2021, 00:56

Good bits
1. It was shot on location - eve the aerial shots show the real place. I can take you to where it was filmed and we can have lunch on one of the ships used in the film.
2. It was broadly based on true events. Not the whole truth but the things shown did happen.
3. It showed the chaos that accompanied defeat.
4. It shows the French army in a good light.

Bad bits -
1. The British army are not shown in a fair way. Its is a disaster movie with the Army as victims. The hero is a an who is basically a deserter. He throws away his weapon and makes no effort to rejoin his unit. No British soldiers take any actions against the enemy except futile rifle fire against stukas. The movie shows a Bofors on the mole that never fires a shot. No one above the rank of lance Corporal says anything sensible. The colonel is there to hear what great stuff the navy is going to do. Hisatorically the pier of boats was organised by the CRE at Bray Dunes and he was in a deck chair on the promenade with Bren guns taken from units as they were taken off the beach and lined up on the railing on the sea wall. Anyone who wanted to poop off a few rounds at hun aircraft could do so.

2. The shaking man episode is anachronistic. He was an officer who had deserted his men and lost his nerve. I cannot believe that in the 1940s the skipper portrayed by Mark Rylance would not have appealed to the man's sense of duty and told him to pull himself together. Officers are better paid and treated. In return they are expected to make the effort.

3. As will all movies it distorts time and place. Dunkirk was merely one of the last acts in one phase of a battle fought over four or five countries by millions of men.

OpanaPointer
Financial supporter
Posts: 5644
Joined: 16 May 2010, 15:12
Location: United States of America

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#5

Post by OpanaPointer » 20 May 2021, 02:01

Ivan1987 wrote:
19 May 2021, 21:14
I thought the movie was OK. I especially enjoyed the part with the fishermen coming to help.
Everybody with a boat that met the specs was hauling mast for France.
Come visit our sites:
hyperwarHyperwar
World War II Resources

Bellum se ipsum alet, mostly Doritos.

LineDoggie
Member
Posts: 1275
Joined: 03 Oct 2008, 21:06

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#6

Post by LineDoggie » 20 May 2021, 02:37

rcocean wrote:
19 May 2021, 00:00
Who would've thought some guy who made comic book movies could make such a great war movie? After hearing all the British bitch about " why doesn't Saving Private Ryan have some Tommies?" Its good they stepped up to the plate and made their OWN great war movie. but where were the Yanks? I expected Tom cruise to show up in spitfire at the end :lol: to get some more box office $$$.

Favorite scene: RAF shoot down a ME 109, then wonder where "Force leader" is.
WORST CRAP ever.

You want a good Dunkirk Movie get the John Mills version from 1958

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27krpiz ... diocanalUK

or for the French view "Weekend at Dunkirk'' 1964
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R40QcAo ... arshid1970
"There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are dead and those who are going to die. Now let’s get the hell out of here".
Col. George Taylor, 16th Infantry Regiment, Omaha Beach

manfredzhang
Member
Posts: 117
Joined: 07 Feb 2008, 05:52
Location: Canada

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#7

Post by manfredzhang » 20 May 2021, 04:20

LineDoggie wrote:
20 May 2021, 02:37
rcocean wrote:
19 May 2021, 00:00
Who would've thought some guy who made comic book movies could make such a great war movie? After hearing all the British bitch about " why doesn't Saving Private Ryan have some Tommies?" Its good they stepped up to the plate and made their OWN great war movie. but where were the Yanks? I expected Tom cruise to show up in spitfire at the end :lol: to get some more box office $$$.

Favorite scene: RAF shoot down a ME 109, then wonder where "Force leader" is.
WORST CRAP ever.

You want a good Dunkirk Movie get the John Mills version from 1958

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27krpiz ... diocanalUK

or for the French view "Weekend at Dunkirk'' 1964
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R40QcAo ... arshid1970
Agree. This movie sucks.

User avatar
Ivan1987
Member
Posts: 35
Joined: 28 May 2019, 14:26
Location: European Union

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#8

Post by Ivan1987 » 20 May 2021, 10:56

OpanaPointer wrote:
20 May 2021, 02:01
Ivan1987 wrote:
19 May 2021, 21:14
I thought the movie was OK. I especially enjoyed the part with the fishermen coming to help.
Everybody with a boat that met the specs was hauling mast for France.
Yeah, I know that. It was shot very well. :)

OpanaPointer
Financial supporter
Posts: 5644
Joined: 16 May 2010, 15:12
Location: United States of America

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#9

Post by OpanaPointer » 20 May 2021, 13:10

Anybody else notice that the Spit burning on the beach didn't have an engine. There's a shaft running back to the cockpit from the prop, probably an motor back there to turn it.
Come visit our sites:
hyperwarHyperwar
World War II Resources

Bellum se ipsum alet, mostly Doritos.

Wat Tyler
Member
Posts: 34
Joined: 06 Apr 2020, 18:30
Location: Staffordshire

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#10

Post by Wat Tyler » 20 May 2021, 21:25

Is that the spitfire that seems to travel an awfully long way after being shot down? The model or cgi or whatever it was seemed very poor at that point. Unless i missed it i don't think the three different timelines was properly explained which probably accounts for the confusion. But by far the worst aspect of the film i found was the music. It won an award as far as i can remember but to me it was just frankly irritating.

OpanaPointer
Financial supporter
Posts: 5644
Joined: 16 May 2010, 15:12
Location: United States of America

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#11

Post by OpanaPointer » 20 May 2021, 22:18

The timelines weren't explained, I think the filmmakers assumed we'd pick up on that. Having a Spit in the air for a couple of days works if you're doing Star Wars.
Come visit our sites:
hyperwarHyperwar
World War II Resources

Bellum se ipsum alet, mostly Doritos.

gebhk
Member
Posts: 2623
Joined: 25 Feb 2013, 21:23

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#12

Post by gebhk » 21 May 2021, 08:47

The problem for me is the suspension of disbelief thing. And, alas, I've seen one or two photos of the actual Dunkirk in 1940, the beaches and the aftermath. For one thing the town of Dunkerque was well and truly ploughed over by the Luftwaffe - and I would think anyone who had an inkling that the film was supposedly about an event where an enemy air force was doing its damnedest to bomb the proverbial out of the forces on the ground would expect to see at least some bomb damage. No sign of that in the film - in the ridiculous scene of the shot-down Spitfire flying sans engine, it passes along a seemingly infinite pristine frontage of a nice modern seaside town. The scene is eerily reminiscent of some of the shots in the 'Oh what a Lovely War' musical. Alas I don't share the enthusiasm that the film was shot on location (sorry Sheldrake!) when the location doesn't look anything like it did at the time. Even the streets in the first part of the film look like they've been donkeyed for a week - not a speck of dust out of place, let alone garbage and the debris of war - presumably so as not to put off potential tourists.........

The beaches were crammed with men and material. The few blokes standing around in the film just don't look anything like it. I understand the creators consciously eschewed CGI...'cos cardboard cutouts are just sooo much better. The too-clever-by-half mucking around with the timelines merely aggravates the 'suspension of disbelief' problem adding zilch to the film as far as I can see.

I don't buy the 'its not a documentary, it's an artistic expression blah, blah' argument. Nothing wrong with that per se, but if that's what you want to do then don't call it 'Dunkirk', because real people fought and died there and they deserve better than to be the subject of someone's fantasies. Do what Wajda did with Kanal and film an action roughly set in the period but not tied to a specific historical event or historical people. Of course then you won't get those folk who actually think they're going to see a historical film about Dunkirk because that's what it says in the advertising, to cough up their entrance fee, right?

Given the many various treatments this subject could have been given, it's unfortunate that Nolan chose to follow the same broad format as the Leslie Norman film of 1958 with which it inevitably must be compared. And there is little doubt that the Nolan film does not come out well out of this comparison. Just adds to the perennial question - why, if people lack the imagination to make their own film, do they feel the need to remake great films that don't need remaking when there is so much garbage around that could do with a remake?

rcocean
Member
Posts: 686
Joined: 30 Mar 2008, 01:48

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#13

Post by rcocean » 21 May 2021, 16:47

it's unfortunate that Nolan chose to follow the same broad format as the Leslie Norman film of 1958. I haven't seen the film but how similar is it to Nolan's. Obviously, the general story is the same, the British got away! So, when you say "Broad format", you mean the same characters? Or the the same splitting of the story between air, sea, and Land?

gebhk
Member
Posts: 2623
Joined: 25 Feb 2013, 21:23

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#14

Post by gebhk » 23 May 2021, 12:19

Hi PCOcean

The Noland and Norman films do not share characters but they share the splitting of action between sea and land albeit there is no British air component in the Norman film as it was not directly relevant to the events on the beaches). However, I was referring to something a bit more fundamental - ie that a film about an event a big as this can be approached from two extremes - the top-down and bottom-up (landscape vs still life/portrait, if you will). The top-down approach puts the viewer in the God-like position of looking down as the totality of the action unfolds - and that is your focus. You may on occasion swoop lower to look a detail, but you are at all times aware of 'the big picture - in effect you are telling the story of the event, much as a history might. I don't think a film of this nature has been attempted about Dunkirk albeit the eponymous BBC docu-drama is a very credible stab at it, given the limitations of the budget and format. At the other extreme you focus on one or more person or a group of people and through their experiences gain some insight into the background event. Both the Nolan and Normal films follow this latter format.

Rather than blather on about it, I would strongly recommend you watch the Norman film (if for no other reason than it is one of the best films in its genre ever made - it is available on DVD) and make your own mind up. I would also recommend the BBC 3-parter, also called Dunkirk.
Last edited by gebhk on 24 May 2021, 08:56, edited 1 time in total.

Larso
Member
Posts: 1974
Joined: 27 Apr 2003, 03:18
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Movie Dunkirk - Anyone else think its one of the best?

#15

Post by Larso » 24 May 2021, 01:04

It came together very well in my opinion. My over-riding memory is my stomach was tensed for so long, it hurt when I got up to leave. The scenes inside the sinking ship were extraordinary! There's been a commendable run of excellent world war movies recently (Hacksaw Ridge, Greyhound, 1917 to name a handful) and this sits well amongst them.

Post Reply

Return to “Movies, games & other fiction”