I didn't know about the Dunkirk incident before, but I watched the film "Atonement", and one of the five-minute long shots of the incident caught my interest, and then I checked some materials and became familiar with the cause and effect. The specific events will not be described here, but in one sentence, it is a relatively successful large-scale military retreat of the British and French forces. As a brainless fan, I also have a trace of worry in my expectations, because in Nolan's previous works, he has never dabbled in war-themed films.
Another important point is that this film is Nolan's director of a non-"completely original" film again after "Tracking the White Night" and "Batman Trilogy". Although the "Batman" trilogy has been extremely successful, the scripts of the previous films, such as "Brain-burning", "Inception", "Super-Space Emotional Masterpiece" and "Interstellar", were all written by Nolan and The hand of his brother Jonathan is an absolutely original masterpiece (well, I know that some people want to talk about Jin Min, it is undeniable that Jin Min has influenced Nolan's creation of "Inception", but as a brainless fan, I ignore it, hee hee ), for the overall grasp of the story, the overall rhythm control, and the magic of the ending, Nolan can carefully craft it repeatedly. But this time, in the face of a real history with known results, Nolan's control over the story is not as good as before. Therefore, the point of effort can only exist in the opening and progress of the story.
As we all know, Nolan is a well-deserved master in story building and suspense building. From the early "Stalking", "Memento", to the later "Deadly Magic" (skip the special Batman trilogy), to "Inception" and the last "Interstellar", he is best at Narrative from multiple time dimensions and multiple spatial perspectives, or parallel time and space in sequence, or staggered time and space in a disordered sequence, advancing in layers, setting a small climax at each plot point, and finally forming a big reverse at the end Turn. The complexity of the story has always been Nolan's pursuit, and it is also a topic that fans relish. I still remember when I first played "Interstellar" in theaters, the ultimate reversal of the story after Matthew McConaughey entered the black hole made my jaw drop. But as mentioned earlier, this time Nolan has no control over the ending of the story. Therefore, the best part of the film is before——
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me What is the Nolan style of "Dunkirk" in your eyes? Certainly brilliant narrative, prominent characters, sharp editing, tight rhythm, astonishing reversal, moving soundtrack and moderate suspense. As a brainless fan, I am very happy, because of the above, Nolan has basically done it. At the same time, I am also very sorry, because this time Nolan has actually done it in some places.
The film opens from the point of view of British soldier Tommy (Finne Whitehead), and begins the thrilling prelude with the sudden gunfire of the German army. Nolan came up this time to give the audience a dismay, which also set the tone of depression and suffocation for the whole film. Later, the perspective followed Tommy all the way to the beach, where a large army of more than 400,000 people was waiting for the arrival of the rescue boat. The camera then turns to Mr. Dawson, played by Mark Rylance, who, in response to the government's call, volunteered to take out a rescue boat and go out to sea to rescue the trapped soldiers, along with his son and his son's friends. After that, the last story line appeared, and the British pilot Farrell, played by Tang Laoshui, and two teammates were ordered to provide cover for the British army's great retreat. So far, the three story lines of Nolan's work have been explained, and the stories have begun to alternate among the three lines.
It is worth mentioning that the story lines of the three angles are completely narrated according to three time lines of different lengths. The main force is a week, Mr. Dawson is a day, and Tang Laoshi is only an hour. The time setting of the other way makes the suspense of the story increase sharply. The interaction of characters in the three completely unequal time and space of sea, land and air can be imagined. The structure of Nolan's story is very experimental. The scenes in each of the three story lines are very short in duration, and the switching is very frequent, so that the story presents a gripping effect, and then bursts out an excellent viewing experience. In the faces of the soldiers trapped on the beach, the audience will experience the feeling of despair; in Mr. Dawson's boat at sea to rescue the soldiers, the audience will feel the call of hope; In the old wet place, the audience will feel the unprecedented thrilling. The characters in the three story lines, whether they are waiting soldiers, rescued civilians or courageous pilots, are nothing but ordinary people in this war. Nolan deliberately weakened the characterization this time, emphasizing the film's overall Sexuality, using the parts to set off the whole, is not only reflected in Tang Laoshi, who hardly showed his face throughout the whole process, but also in the few lines, using compact picture editing instead of character lines to promote the narrative, supplemented by Hans Zimmer so far The most depressing soundtrack created, "Dunkirk" can be said to have opened up a new angle for the creation of war movies, and the degree of completion is quite high.
The positioning of "Dunkirk" can be said to be a "thriller war movie". In addition to the German raid at the beginning of the film, whether in the middle of the film, the deadly torpedoes suddenly fired by the Germans when the British soldiers cheered in the rescue boat at night, or the ruthless bullets intercepted by Tommy and his companions hiding in the rescue boat in the latter part Strongly embodies a sense of helplessness. Nolan has injected a powerful thriller into the film. In the whole film, there is not a single scene of the German soldiers as the enemy. The film is completely through the sound of bullets, torpedoes and other weapons and surprise shots, as well as British soldiers. Helpless panic look to create a suffocating horror feeling. Fear comes from the unknown. Nolan accurately figured out this point and made full use of it to achieve an excellent horror effect that directly hits the hearts of the audience.
In terms of character building, although the story is based on group portraits, there is no absolute protagonist, but thanks to Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh (not to mention Tang Laoshui, after all, the whole process covers his face...) Driven by the acting school, every main character in the film can leave a deep impression on people. I am most impressed by Mr. Dawson's son Alex (Tom Green), in the film, Mr. Dawson rescues the stranded pilot (Cillian Murphy) from the sea. A pilot who accidentally killed his friend George (Barry Keohan) who was following Alex because of war PTSD, before George was seriously injured and died, the remorseful pilot asked him what happened to the child. like? Alex replied angrily: Not good! His good friend took the initiative to follow to rescue the trapped soldiers, but was seriously injured to death by the person he rescued. Alex never thought that the result would be like this. But when the rescue ship sailed to Dunkirk, they rescued soldiers one after another, looking at their tired and frightened eyes, Alex understood that in this war, everyone is unfortunate, What the soldiers need at this time is not despair, but hope. So when George finally died and the pilot asked again, Alex was relieved, saying: He's fine. Under Nolan's training, the young actor Stiles has achieved an excellent control over the change of emotions, from resentment and incomprehension to relief and understanding, and his interpretation is very subtle. In addition, the resolute Mr. Dawson played by Rylance, the terrified and panicked pilot played by Murphy, the righteous commander played by Kenneth Branagh (including Tang Lao Shi, who covered his face almost all the way) )… They are all flesh-and-blood characters with distinct personalities. In this great retreat, they, as individuals, made contributions within their capacity.
Different from the same type of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Blood at Hacksaw Ridge" and other American-style World War II films that praised the beauty of human nature, the theme of "Dunkirk" is not grand, and it did not exaggerate much in the end. In Nolan's eyes, this film is to describe the difficulty and difficulty of the Great Retreat itself through the plot description of the Great Retreat in his own imagination. Compared with the previous "Interstellar", which showed abundant emotional power, Nolan basically abandoned the setting of tears this time, and suppressed the emotional rendering to a minimum, and only showed the heroic and fearless saving countless people at the last moment. Tang Laoshi's tragic and solemn ending, the restrained emotional layout and the theme of repression are completely in line with the theme.
Back to the soundtrack. "Dunkirk" is really the soundtrack of success and failure this time. Except for the ending part of the successful retreat, Hans Zimmer's soundtrack has never stopped since the beginning, and the style of depression and despair pervades the whole film. The disadvantage also appears here, that is, the soundtrack is really too full. If the thrilling escape sequence of Tommy at the beginning opens with a tense countdown clock and a tense soundtrack to set the tone of the whole film, then Mr. Dawson and his son sailed to Dunkirk at sea, but the sound still sounded. What is the suffocating rhythm? Replacing lines with visual language to advance the narrative is definitely a clever move, but it would be overwhelming if the soundtrack had the same function. In my opinion, the soundtrack of "Dunkirk" is a double-edged sword of the film. On the one hand, it shapes the style of the film, but on the other hand, it interferes with the narrative of the film, which is a pity.
In addition, the ending that is clearly disconnected from the overall rhythm is also a "slot" that has to be said. Due to the known ending, in the final stage, after the camera followed Tommy to complete the successful retreat, the overall style of the film suddenly became There is no transition between this and the suffocating and depressing style embodied in the previous 90 minutes, and the style change is relatively rigid. This "main melody" ending gave me the illusion of "was it really made by Nolan?" (fortunately, it was only for a moment).
There is no doubt that "Dunkirk" is definitely a movie worth watching. It still has a complex story structure, a touching narrative, prominent characters, and eye-catching editing... It is a typical promise Lantern return. In the realm of war movies, it's a rather risky endeavor, and that's probably the film's most important point. Nolan has done his best within the known framework of historical events and has given new ideas to the story. Unfortunately, the excessive use of the soundtrack makes the whole film "excessive force". But in any case, there is no absolutely perfect movie work in the world. It is our greatest blessing as movie fans to be able to coexist with a movie master like Nolan in the contemporary era.
Thanks Nolan, see you in the next movie.
Last sentence: Be sure to watch the IMAX2D version, definitely.
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