How would you rate the movie "Dunkirk"?
There is no answer to such a straightforward question. Because the viewing angle of this movie is different, the results and feelings obtained will naturally be much different. Since its release on September 1, various well-known public accounts and related We media have published Criticism, interviews with the director or surrounding introductions of the movie "Dunkirk", through various ways to "anatomy" the film, what you get is Dunkirk from different angles.
So, which point of view is relatively fair and accurate?
To be honest, it is really difficult to choose, especially in this kind of historical film, because it involves elements such as war, human nature, history, zz, and suspense and thriller, it is even more difficult to judge.
From a screenplay perspective, the film is too inclined to incite fear rather than incubate it.
This will be discussed in detail later.
From a historical point of view, the scenes shown in the film and the battle between the "British and French Allied Forces" and "Germany" are compressed to the extreme, so that the image of the opposite party in the film is not created at all, and history is abstracted. Lack of objectivity.
historical impact structure
In the anti-war movie "Apocalypse Now", history appears as a big background and lays the groundwork for the opposite sides in the film. In the movie, we see the change of consciousness of the protagonist and the display of war scenes. The objective scene is reproduced to express an anti-war theme. In the process of this presentation, both sides of the war are shown by the camera. The film is expressed through plots and quick editing many times during the filming process” The theme of "anti-war", at the same time, shows the absurdity and powerlessness of war through a hidden line-the change of consciousness of the protagonist, which further shows the ideology of the whole film.
The same is true of Kubrick's film "Full Metal Bullet", and a series of subsequent films, such as "Schindler's List", "The Pianist", "Life Is Beautiful", and "The Pianist at Sea", focus on The presentation of personal values described in the war has a certain subjective color, and it is also a transition for war films to transform from genre films to literary films.
From rethinking war ("Full Metal Bullet"), to discovering the brilliance of human nature ("Schindler's List"), to today's "Dunkirk", the war genre has experienced three periods of transition, to today's The "Dunkirk" can basically be said to be out of the shackles of genre films and form a new style.
This style benefits from the removal of the essence of the historical event "Dunkirk Retreat", and uses the large scene of historical events to express personal powerlessness - this performance does not magnify the characters, on the contrary, Instead, the dimensions of the characters are removed, and the characters are flattened and singled. Therefore, we have seen many protagonists, seen the stories that happened in different time dimensions of sea, land and air, and saw how they started and ended, how they were connected, and the protagonists. Where will the destiny go.
script influence structure
When many film critics praised this film, they deliberately avoided discussing the rationality of the film itself from the three-act structure of the script. The guide of the audience's emotions is also the "skeleton" of the story. With this skeleton, the story will become well-founded and rational. Only on the basis of ensuring the logic and appreciation of the story, in the form And the idea is not out of the norm or even unique, the overall quality of the film will have a qualitative improvement.
Prior to this, the three-act structure of the script was the basic part and the "foundation" of the film. Through the dramatic extension or recombination of the three-act structure, a visual impact or an emotional turn was created to achieve the The purpose of conveying emotion to the audience is the most effective and direct expression of audiovisual language.
The film "1942" is also describing the "retreat" process of a group of people, focusing on the changes in human nature, and in this characterization process, the story, as the main frame of the film, provides the possibility for such changes. It's just that the film's intention is not obvious, and it lacks tension, which leads to the failure of the film's own style to be established and reduced to a middle-level film.
In "Dunkirk", the story is non-linear, and similarly, time is also non-linear. We see that time, day, and week are constantly changing and advancing, but this advancement is really uninteresting, especially It is in the constant climax of music that it is difficult for us to focus on one point or one thing.
emotional image structure
For "Dunkirk", every second is life and death, the story of the next second is impossible to predict at all, life and death are only in an instant - so, the story of this film is unknown, he did not use The traditional three-act structure expresses the drama and tension of the film, but in a subjective way: the suspenseful music is very subjective, and this subjectivity is also displayed with the atmosphere of the film itself, that is to say, Knowing that music is the externalization of a character's inner world , we can quickly draw other similar conclusions: the three-line narrative and the non-linear time are set up to express a kind of panic and unease, through the seemingly chaotic In fact, there are extremely clear structural lines to express a common point - to live.
Just like the emotions shown by the characters in the film, the depression and anxiety shown in the film, as well as the intricate story line at the first viewing, in fact, when you watch it for the second time, you will already understand that what I want to express here is nothing more than It's just a hope of life. No matter how flustered and disturbed the characters in the film are, their only purpose is to leave Dunkirk and return to their hometown, and the structure, form, and music outside the story are their only purpose. It is to create an atmosphere of the unknown.
Through this kind of construction, the inner world of the characters is simulated, and then the audience can walk into the movie and experience the cramped emotions and behaviors together with the characters in the movie.
Experimental and ornamental
As an innovative work, Nolan's efforts may be disliked by many people, but as long as you watch the film a few more times, you will find the wonder of the film itself, although it is separated from the most important part of the three-act structure of the script. Conflict establishment and the principle of wanting to promote and suppress first, but the film has chosen a very tricky point in both emotional and historical restoration, which we can call here: a sense of powerlessness, which is similar to what Freud described There are differences in "powerlessness". The powerlessness of war comes from a spiritual externalization of the loss of self-will. As a member of the Dunkirk Evacuation Movement, I know that the hope of life is slim, but as long as there is meaningful hope, have to fight for it.
For a country, the end of a war represents victory or defeat, while for a soldier, it is just living or dying. In these two choices, they have gone through countless wars, looking for victory and hope.
War, however, has no meaning per se for the individuals involved in it.
Seeing this, Nolan wanted to express his thoughts and attitudes through this film. By mixing the two types of suspense and war, the form of the whole film was innovative. It is because of this innovation that the viewing quality of the film is greatly reduced, and instead, the quality of the film is greatly improved. It's still hard for me to think of this film as a perfect work in spite of the structure of the script, but it's good enough, not only of high quality, but also full of creativity.
To sum up, this is a rather avant-garde work, and it is worth reading more.
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