Dunkirk

[yogi]

Very impressive, but I wasn't quite overwhelmed like I was expecting and hoping to be - though I did hear someone absolutely sobbing when the boats arrived (spoiler alert!) which I could understand, the sheer relief for the soldiers and also the viewer that help was finally here.

There were some lovely small moments in amongst the spectacle and although whilst watching I was impressed by the scale of it all, I do agree in retrospect that the beach was a bit empty and could have been filled out using a little subtle CGI.

Plus it was great to see it in the Imax, they were very helpful in Manchester and let me use my free Vue vouchers and p*y the difference, worth trying on subsequent Thursdays. Overall 8/10

[raj101]

Nolan has really excelled in his work with Dunkirk.I personally think that his choice to make time the real antagonist Time rather than the advance German line was excellent as it creates a greater sympathy towards the poor soldiers: You can hold back German soldiers but can you really hold back time ?

There certainly was a theme about time there, carried over from Interstellar maybe.

This may have been why time is seen to run differently for the 3 or 4 groups portrayed. It would excuse the occasional shift of time at some points - (the film went straight from night to day at one point) but that may have been just plain old choppy editing.

[D-Fens]

It's a strange one, I've often questioned how soldiers could blindly follow orders amidst the chaos of war so the story on land felt real and unlike anything I've seen in movies before but that's only 1/3 of the running time.

I wonder if it was made now whether the young soldiers improvising a way home would become the focus of the film as we've had a year of renewed British victory in defeat so their narrative might be considered strong enough to stand alone.

The air scenes were technically sound but ultimately repetitive, I think the finale there would have had exactly the same impact if it was reduced to a single scene.

Which leaves the sea which was strangely underwhelming. When it did focus on the Dunkirk story we all know it got to me but it was like there was a reluctance to really go there. It didn't feel like 700 boats full of spirit coming to the rescue the focus made it feel like one, making all kinds of tangential stops which pulled me out of the experience.

But I completely missed the overriding structure, I thought the mole referred to a person not the place and had no idea what the timescales indicated, would need to see it again to properly process.

IMAX looked great, at one point I thought the room was filling with water. The sound was too loud though, it didn't add to the realism when the volume overwhelmed the clarity.

[Nanna]

Loved this film. Not a genre I would usually choose but husband and son were keen.
Rather than trying to tell the life stories of the characters the action was allowed to tell it's own story; and was all the more powerful for it. The lack of an "action hero" enabled the telling of the horror and heroism of all who took part.

[Florence1]

I really enjoyed this. It wasn't as harrowing as I expected it to be. The cinematography was stunning and the idea of three stories from the air, beach and the sea worked well. The little snippets coming from each soldier's perspective made you build up an idea of the chaos and the feelings of dread and frustration the soldiers must have felt. Overall a great film which gave me an insight how awful it was on that day.
8/10

[stuartboy]

Did anyone else notice that the three chapters were called "Mole", "Sea", and "Air", rather than "Land", "Sea" and "Air".

[kevinknapman]

Did anyone else notice that the three chapters were called "Mole", "Sea", and "Air", rather than "Land", "Sea" and "Air".

Yes it's what Kenneth Branagh was standing on for the duration of the film.
The wikipedia page for 'mole' even mentions the Dunkirk evacuation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(architecture).

[kevinknapman]

Did anyone else notice that the three chapters were called "Mole", "Sea", and "Air", rather than "Land", "Sea" and "Air".

Yes it's what Kenneth Branagh was standing on for the duration of the film.
The wikipedia page for 'mole' even mentions the Dunkirk evacuation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(architecture)
Edit: Link doesn't work. Just click on the 'did you mean Mole_(architecture)?

[McG]

Just had my second viewing of Dunkirk today . . .I went alone as I went with a large group of friends last time. I still found the film to be very good but noticed the lack of extras to be annoying! The numbers on the beaches looked no more than a few hundred and what I noticed more this time is that the soldiers on the destroyers were lined on the decks but only one deep instead of packed on deck. I know it's only a wee niggle but definitely should have been corrected before the final cut.
Marks 9/10

[prettyxcool]

I saw this at the PCC at a private screening for a media academy, which I was invited to.

So I did not see it in an impressive IMAX screen, but at the newly refurbished PCC - but the strange slope is still there where you look up at the screen and if there is someone tall in front, then that's it, your view is totally blocked as you try to look over their heads, which is really difficult as you are looking upwards. The seating is a lot more comfortable as they got rid of those hard leather seats, which were so upright, and so uncomfortable. But they really need to sort out the strange slope in the room where it still dips in the middle.

Wow, was this powerful, amazing, and dramatic. Not much spoken words, but the music is all that is needed, as it's about Dunkirk. The music is like a time bomb and so nerve racking it feels like it's another enemy stopping the British troops from getting home. You can feel how hopeless and desperate the situation is, stranded on a beach, bombs dropping from the sky, u-boats blowing up ships, and miles and miles of sea with nothing in sight to rescue them, as everyone waits to be rescued somehow, and even when they are, they are still not home and dry (excuse the pun!).

I was totally mesmerised and tense at the same time.

I really need to see this at the IMAX though, and get a better view without heads in my way!

9/10