After the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, British Prime Minister Churchill delivered a speech in the House of Commons:
We must be extremely careful not to cast this evacuation as a victory. The war You don't win by retreating.
This illustrates an important attribute of the Battle of Dunkirk: as a strategic retreat, Dunkirk preserved large numbers of manpower and became the basis for the counteroffensive four years later; Behind the strategic retreat is a large number of casualties and material losses. No embellishment or beautification can conceal its "retreat" nature.
And this is what Christopher Nolan is trying his best and most needs to be remembered by his audience.
Like previous Nolan films, "Dunkirk" showcases the best and worst of one of the most successful directors of our time: excellence and ambition, Charlie Cove With Mann-style emotional alienation and overwhelming masculinity, this World War II epic movie full of Nolan characteristics is not so much a war movie that challenges "Hacksaw Ridge" but a documentary disaster movie - - "Dunkirk" did not make a breakthrough innovation in war films, but carried out a Nolan-style multi-layered and non-linear deconstruction - this is the same approach as "Memento" and "Interstellar" Very similar.
From the first frame to the last, "Dunkirk" is a monumental cinematic achievement, offering a stunning visual spectacle. The film is almost completely static for most of its time: the frontal battlefield ends before the film begins, a somewhat different narrative setting than Leslie Norman's 1958 version. Nolan, together with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and scorer Hans Zimmer, contextualized the Nazis’ sense of power and oppression, surrounding the audience and the play in a chaotic and terrifying way from the beginning. middle man. Some of the inspiration may have come from Joe Wright's 2007 Atonement, but Nolan brought a huge and unique confidence to his script, which successfully translated into a rare and spectacular screen experience.
This kind of spectacular feeling derived from real shooting can almost only be seen in movies such as "Flight 93", "Titanic" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" - considering that the latter are not Without the blessing of IMAX and high-definition photography, the older generation of filmmakers would be a rare miracle. If it weren't for the more entertaining and commercially popular "The Dark Knight", "Dunkirk" would almost be Nolan's best movie - the image style of "Severe Love and Weakness" finally meets the most suitable The subject matter is gratifying.
As a traditional film "hand-maker", Nolan, like Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson, is a defector and purist from mainstream films. Even though his work is closer to a craft than a work of art, Nolan and "Dunkirk" provided the audience with a completely immersive "hell-like" experience using 65mm film and IMAX.
Steven Spielberg has "Saving Private Ryan", Terrence Malick has "The Thin Red Line", Clint Eastwood has "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "Our Fathers" Flag,” not to mention Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” and Francis Coppola’s “Apocalypse.” War movies are an all-round assessment of outstanding directors. Now, Nolan also has his own war movie calling card.
Although it is different from its predecessors in narrative techniques, "Dunkirk" also inherits the tradition from "All Quiet on the Western Front", depicting individuals in the background of the times from bottom to top. destiny choice. Unlike most battles that have been filmed, Dunkirk was not a victory in the traditional sense, but more of a helter-skelter and hasty retreat, as the German offensive forced a major withdrawal of British troops during World War II. Nolan is obviously interested in the theme of "war and individuals". He has created a series of heroic civilian images from multiple angles. He cleverly uses his good interweaving techniques to depict the three different time and spaces of land, sea and air. outlines a heroic rescue operation.
If we take away the typical complex narrative structure from "Dunkirk", the movie itself has a certain similarity with the classic war films of the era of Lee Marvin or John Wayne. of. And Nolan successfully created suspense by manipulating time and space in complex ways. The three clues alternate and reach a climax in the third act (which is simply a replica of "Interstellar"), cleverly integrating the historical twists and turns into his script. In "Dunkirk", the so-called protagonist is just a tool used to create suspense: one second the pilot is rescuing the navy, and the next second he is the one who needs to be rescued, achieving an interesting contrast.
There is not a single German perspective in the film. This bold attempt makes it significantly different from most war movies. "Dunkirk" thus focuses its target on Britain itself and elevates it to populism and everyday heroes, rather than allowing individual commanders to dismiss Fang Qiu. One of the most representative plots is that Churchill's famous speech was not made by the Prime Minister himself, but was read aloud from a newspaper by an ordinary soldier.
Such nuances are what Nolan achieved in "Dunkirk": on the one hand, he provided a very immersive experience through complex and (too) shocking sound design. Screen Experience - Hans Zimmer's drum beats and noise create a wonderful sense of discomfort and terror. At the same time, image and sound technology are also used to create a higher sense of reality. Photographer Hoyte Van Hoytema has almost combined the most common horror elements in the film: fear of heights, fear of fire, fear of water, claustrophobia, fear of the dark, and fear of separation, giving it more horror in the IMAX size. The sense of pressure and presence are lifelike.
In "Dunkirk", whether it is the British soldiers on the beach, or the aircraft and ships, they are only a small part of the huge historical drama - in a microscopic situation, depicting An organic whole's way of survival. This scattered point of view of the overall situation gives "Dunkirk" an unusual look and feel, and also sows the seeds of crisis.
The first thing to bear the brunt is that the realistic story itself lacks enough drama, and scattered narratives will lead to a lack of focus and cohesion (especially the amount of lines that are precious words). Even if it is only 107 minutes, it is still There are few impressive plots and more atmosphere shaping. Many characters in "Dunkirk" can be said to be failed in shaping, but they obviously lack the backbone and the finishing touch. This makes the whole film fade into white water in terms of characters, making it difficult to leave a deep impression.
The movie does not put much effort into introducing the characters, and focuses too much on the timeliness of the survival state, which eliminates the uniqueness of the characters and naturally alienates the connection and distance between the audience and the story. The subplots also tend to be marginalized in the film, making it difficult to accumulate enough emotional power. This also makes us suspect that the appeal presented by the entire movie does not come overwhelmingly from our hearts, but is a sensory illusion caused by specific images and sound effects.
Due to the changeable time span, "Dunkirk" has scenes from noon to night. We can often see the same action scene from different angles, but under Nolan's scheduling, sometimes It's hard to tell whether this is a replay of the previous clip or a completely different set of footage. These two main problems have long existed in Nolan's movies - do you still remember the widely criticized and highly embarrassing "Fighting" group scene in "The Dark Knight Rises" - design deficiencies, and sometimes appear Like going off-axis, it suddenly adds to the already complex and confusing structure of the film, and invisibly increases the audience's confusion and need for understanding.
Another problem that has persisted throughout Nolan's career is the tendency to overuse Hans Zimmer's scores. The extensive use of chords, battlefield environment noise, and drum elements virtually increases the audio-visual pressure on the audience.
But the key to this problem is that Nolan’s movie itself already has enough visual expression, and there is no need to work so hard to pursue auditory help. When 1 + 1lt; 2, it is not the optimal solution—— Looking back at "The Amazing Spider-Man" and the DCEU, you will find how important Hans Zimmer's addition to the movie itself is.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, "Dunkirk" does not and cannot exaggerate the importance of this strategic retreat, especially Christopher Nolan as a British person. The collective heroism and Hitchcockian suspense creation give the entire movie a retro and contemporary feel that is most scarce in today's movies. Compared with the R rating of "Saving Private Ryan", "Dunkirk" is rated PG-13, expressing another kind of shock of war.
"Dunkirk" is not a movie about politics and great men. In fact, Nolan rarely chose the perspective of a survivor, which once again reflected the cruelty of war. At this time, Nolan's coldness finally met the most suitable subject matter without sensationalism or hypocrisy. It is a landmark film A representative work of great significance, it is also worthy of debate and affirmation.
After the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, British Prime Minister Churchill delivered a speech in the House of Commons:
Large tracts of land in Europe and many ancient and famous countries, even if they have fallen into or may fall into Even in the clutches of the secret police and all the evil institutions of Nazi rule, we remained unwavering and undismayed. We will fight to the end. We will fight in France, we will fight at sea and in the oceans, we will fight in the air with ever-increasing confidence and ever-increasing power; we will defend our islands at any cost. We will fight on the beaches; we will fight where the enemy has landed; we will fight in the fields and in the streets; we will fight in the mountains; and we will never surrender. Even if this island, or a large part of it, were conquered and starved, which I do not believe for a minute, our imperial subjects abroad would still have to fight on, under the armed protection of the British fleet, until the New World God sees fit to use all his power and power to save and liberate this old world.
The struggle for a better tomorrow will never become outdated at any time.