Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" (July 21, 2017) - Part 3

[Squaremaster316]

Impeccably crafted, relentlessly tense and emotionally gripping, Dunkirk represents Nolan at his finest and represents precisely why he is universally regarded the greatest modern day director?in the business.

When you can take a scene as simple as

Spoiler

transporting a wounded soldier to an escape vessel

as toe-curlingly uneasy as that five-minute scene, you know you've got a modern master at the helm.

 

[Gold Samurai]

I want to watch it again at least one more time with subtitles.

Yeah. I could barely understand Hardy's character through that mask

Deja Vu

 

[GunBlade]

Poor guy just wanted to take a dump.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah subtitles would've really helped my viewing experience. But you can argue that Nolan wants to make sure his audience is paying attention and not being passive viewers.

Also can anyone tell me, did Dawson commit a serious crime by leaving the port without the Navy officers on his yacht?

 

[Anita18]

Also can anyone tell me, did Dawson commit a serious crime by leaving the port without the Navy officers on his yacht?

I don't think so. IRL the Navy allowed civilians to take their own boats if they were short on personnel. (The film later shows dozens of little ships steered by civilians. Surely not all of them defied the Navy. )

Since there was enough crew on the pier when Dawson leaves, they likely would have preferred taking the Moonstone for themselves, but all in all, not a big deal.

Spoiler

We DO find out later that Dawson has his own reasons for going himself - he wants to save other soldiers since he couldn't save his RAF son, who was shot down 3 weeks into the war.

 

[David H.]

The moment the clock stops has to be one of the most relieving moments I've ever experienced in a movie.

 

[TheVileOne]

I don't think so. IRL the Navy allowed civilians to take their own boats if they were short on personnel. (The film later shows dozens of little ships steered by civilians. Surely not all of them defied the Navy. )

Since there was enough crew on the pier when Dawson leaves, they likely would have preferred taking the Moonstone for themselves, but all in all, not a big deal.

Spoiler

We DO find out later that Dawson has his own reasons for going himself - he wants to save other soldiers since he couldn't save his RAF son, who was shot down 3 weeks into the war.

But why not accept the Navy officers on his Yacht? Doesn't want them calling the shots, to make sure there's enough room as possible?

 

[Anita18]

But why not accept the Navy officers on his Yacht? Doesn't want them calling the shots, to make sure there's enough room as possible?

Read what I wrote in spoiler tags.

We find out later why he's so desperate to do it himself.

Also, they maxed out the life vests that were assigned to the boat, so they know how many people the Navy expects the Moonstone to hold.

 

[titansupes]

Read what I wrote in spoiler tags.

We find out later why he's so desperate to do it himself.

Also, they maxed out the life vests that were assigned to the boat, so they know how many people the Navy expects the Moonstone to hold.

That revelation also retroactively adds an extra bit of "oompf" to Dawson's--

Spoiler

-- reaction to Collins going down, and he's son telling him "There's no chute, he's probably dead."
"And he might be alive! Maybe!"

 

[TheVileOne]

Read what I wrote in spoiler tags.

We find out later why he's so desperate to do it himself.

Also, they maxed out the life vests that were assigned to the boat, so they know how many people the Navy expects the Moonstone to hold.

It doesn't really answer my question.

 

[FunkMiller]

It doesn't really answer my question.

It was simply a case of "I trust myself to do a good job of this more than I trust them to do it".

 

[TheVileOne]

So basically he trusts the Royal Air Force, but not the Navy.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

So basically he trusts the Royal Air Force, but not the Navy.

I think you are being obtuse on purpose here.

 

[jmc]

I watched Inception yesterday for the first time in a while and strangely enough I see what Nolan meant by wanting to stretch the third act climax into a full movie. One of the few issues I have with Inception is that the emotional core of the film gets a bit lost when they hit the 3rd layer of dreaming, but the spectacle is still in full force. Dunkirk is very much the third act spectacle of Inception stretched out to 107 mins.

 

[Faora]

Domestic: $102,836,220
+ Foreign: $131,300,000
= Worldwide: $234,136,220
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=chrisnolan2017.htm

 

[StormC]

Where the heck are these .GIFs coming from?

 

[FunkMiller]

Where the heck are these .GIFs coming from?

It's the expression on Nolan's face that really sells it t:

...and those are some great numbers. Glad it's playing well overseas. This is a very British movie, so great to see it's being embraced elsewhere as well.

 

[Brother Jack]

...and those are some great numbers. Glad it's playing well overseas. This is a very British movie, so great to see it's being embraced elsewhere as well.

I saw it again last weekend with my dad. His biggest complaint amounted to "it was too British". He said he could barely understand any of the dialogue.

Though to be fair, with the sound mixing, especially in IMAX, a lot of the dialogue is hard to hear. I'm not sure Nolan has completely learned his lesson with that after Interstellar (and Dark Knight Rises to a lesser extent). I think he still mixes the music too loud.

 

[Kreem Pi]

What did Harry fangirls think about the flick? I just realized that we haven't much heard from them.

 

[FunkMiller]

I saw it again last weekend with my dad. His biggest complaint amounted to "it was too British". He said he could barely understand any of the dialogue.

Though to be fair, with the sound mixing, especially in IMAX, a lot of the dialogue is hard to hear. I'm not sure Nolan has completely learned his lesson with that after Interstellar (and Dark Knight Rises to a lesser extent). I think he still mixes the music too loud.

Accent issues too, I'd say. I understood every word t:

 

[Blitzkrieg]

https://***********/BORReport/status/892124573272915969

BoxOfficeReport.com
@BORReport

Dunkirk grossed $26.611M this weekend. 10-Day total stands at $101.317M.

 

[TheVileOne]

I think you are being obtuse on purpose here.

I'm not being obtuse at all, I'm just curious about that particular subplot and what it means to refuse a requisition of Navy officers for a civilian yacht. Is it a slap on the wrist, do they just move on and forget about it? I'd like to know. None of the explanations really justify why he refused their presence on the yacht. I get he had personal reasons for wanting to help, but that doesn't mean he had to ignore the Navy officers.

And the reason I mention this is because the scene plays out the way as like one of those scenes where people are disobeying direct orders from superiors to follow their hearts and do the right thing in a movie even though it's technically illegal or against the rules.

Look in Star Trek 3, Captain Kirk and his crew disobeyed orders to take the Enterprise to rescue Spock. Enterprise gets destroyed and then they return to Earth and save the planet. As a result, Kirk gets demoted for "breaking the rules" and not following orders, but for his actions he's rewarded with captaincy of a new Enterprise.

 

[godisawesome]

I view the we're-taking-this-ship-not-you-scene as being mostly a non-issue for the Navy men; they're requisitioning civilian ships to rescue hundreds of thousands of men, and as long as those ships end up at Dunkirk and pick up men, they probably don't care who's piloting the damn thing. In real life, the Navy flat out emptied whole harbors of ships even if the owners weren't aware of what was happening. If anything, that crew that silently watches our protagonists sail away probably just shrugged and presumed they'd be manning a boat regardless.

It's also important to note that The Sea's protagonists are *not* part of the military. They're not subordinate officers or enlisted men, so there's really no "insubordination" at work here. They could theoretically be placed under arrest, but why? What would you gain from stopping men who crewed a rescue ship and successfully brought back a boatload of soldiers? As civilian volunteers? They're not getting any glory or money, they're not part of the chain of command, they're just some civilians who pulled men out of fiery water and brought them home.

Kirk and your regular military archetype characters are part of the military, and thus subject to the "reckless maverick" characterization. These guys aren't.

Saw this a second time last night. It was better on the Imax, but is still a damn good movie. Nolan's mastered his technique and remains an incredible storyteller.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[StormC]

I went to see The Big Sick tonight, and Dunkirk played in the theater next door, causing the wall to rattle loudly the whole time. It was very distracting.