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Dunkirk - Barney's Incorrect Five Second Reviews

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01 Aug 2017 15:47 #251970 by Black Barney

I grew up on Dunkirk street. I lived in a town where all the street names have some sort of historic significance. All I knew of the event growing up was that it was a large retreat in early WWII. That certainly doesn't mean much on its own, it's hard to understand or fathom the logistics in moving 400k men off a beach that has only one pier large enough to dock ships.

Christopher Nolan has succeeded in doing something very special here, making you not only understand these things but feel what it was like to be there on that beach. Feel the impending dangers from all sides, from sea, land and air. You will feel the sense of purpose in being the owner of a pleasure boat and being tasked with saving human lives. You'll certainly feel the moments of panic and terror, but you'll also feel the pride as a Spitfire clears dangers for helpless troops on the ground.

I luckily got to see this in 70mm and would strongly recommend doing the same. Anyone that waits to see this on their iPad is doing both the film and themselves a disservice. It's visually striking in many ways, most of which are following thtee RUF pilots as they try to provide air cover. Even just the wide expanse of the beach is something that needs to be seen on 70mm to be felt.

This war movie will set the tone early that it is not your typical gore-filled war movie. An early dropped bomb sends a handful of soldiers up into the air, and you are sitting there bracing for body parts to rain down on the beach, but they never come. You are spared what they were not. The movie delivers the full sound and fear of having dive-bombers coming right for you, without the need to show the gritty aftermath. I think the movie is the better for it as well.

I loved the newspapers at the end as well. I had my hopes up pretty high for this movie and it surpassed them. Must be seen on the big screen.

 

Heart rating: 4.5 stars

Brain rating: 4.5 stars

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01 Aug 2017 15:59 #251971 by Cranberries
We are going to see this in IMAX tomorrow. Grandpa is in town and so it is party time. Will this permanently damage my thirteen-year-old daughter?
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01 Aug 2017 16:15 - 01 Aug 2017 16:17 #251972 by Black Barney
No, she'll be fine. It'll make for a good discussion. Getting shot, drowning, getting strafed, getting blown up, bumping your head on a bulkhead....all of these things are done in a very non violent way. Besides, she'll have her eyes glued on one Harry Styles the entire time.


I really owe a note of thanks to my fellow fatties here for lowering my expectations on this. It really blew me away. When I saw the spitfires in tight formation though, I did get pulled out if the movie shortly and thought about this place, "I wonder if Barnes is complaining about something popular right this second..." but then I was right back into it
Last edit: 01 Aug 2017 16:17 by Black Barney.
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01 Aug 2017 16:51 #251976 by Frohike
Ok, I guess I should see this in a theater. Your advice reminded me of Lynch's:

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01 Aug 2017 23:34 - 01 Aug 2017 23:37 #251979 by Sagrilarus
There were scenes in this film that were just plain weird. I don't understand why it gets a free pass. I was dissecting scenes on my first watching.

Some films seem to get forgiveness before they're even released, while others deemed failures equally early. This one certainly seems to be the former.
Last edit: 01 Aug 2017 23:37 by Sagrilarus.

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02 Aug 2017 07:39 - 02 Aug 2017 07:49 #251984 by Black Barney
War movies tend to get that

Which scenes gave you pause?

And it's gone well beyond getting just "passes", The reviews are the strongest I think I've seen this year, it goes well beyond just getting a thumbs up

And it does have its fair share of detractors too. I think almost 10% of critics said it was bad. That's high for a war movie not done by an anti Semite

My point is, I think people are being honest and transparent with their reviews on this one.

Maybe it's one of these films that's more if an experience than a proper movie, like Gravity. There were times that it felt like a thrilling ride. But that Spitfire evoked so much emotion in me that I think it's clearly a well-plotted motion picture. I only got yanked from the movie once or twice and suspension of disbelief is everything with this one.

I'm really surprised I preferred it to The Big Sick, i wasn't expecting that at all. Maybe 70mm is really important?
Last edit: 02 Aug 2017 07:49 by Black Barney.

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02 Aug 2017 14:16 #252007 by Sagrilarus
The one part of the film that had an emotional impact on me was the two beers through the train window.

There seems to be an "in" crowd and an "out" crowd in Hollywood. If you're out your projects are going to get kicked to the curb before they're even assembled. That's the impression I get at any rate. I don't know what Nolan's rep is in Hollywood, but this movie seemed to get a big tailwind before it was even released.

I didn't intend to see it because, you know, it's a withdrawal of troops. Just not a whole lot of excitement to men boarding troop ships. But my wife wanted to see it so I went with her figuring I'd enjoy the airplanes if nothing else. Granted there were some pretty glaring technical errors in the aircraft thread, but given Nolan's real goal -- localize an individual and tell his story -- I think there was an opportunity for success. I found myself analyzing the director's decisions instead of immersing in the film, but each of us is different.

But I can't help but think that if Roland Emmerich had released this exact same film it wouldn't be getting the same reception.
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02 Aug 2017 21:55 #252040 by Cranberries
I loved the British planes in this movie. Just huge Rolls Royce engines with wings. I saw this with my three teen kids, wife and father-in-law today, in Imax. It wasn't as powerful an experience as Gravity or Interstellar (Imax), but it was a strong movie and I'm glad I watched it. The emotional moment for me was that flicker of decency when the shell shocked soldier asked how the boy was doing, and his brother replied that he was going to be ok. I got a little teary once or twice but that was the scene that hit me. Like the boy became a man at that moment, and realized that the shell shocked guy needed to heal and it wasn't his fault.

Something about it reminded me a bit of The Thin Red Line. The moments of incoherence and "dreaminess" or something.

Watching a movie like this on Imax (only five bucks on Tuesdays in my city) makes them about 20 percent better. I'm just not going to watch anything besides Imax from here on out. If it's worth seeing in a theater then I'll wait for Tuesday to roll around and do Imax. In fact, the trailer for Justice League, in Imax, felt amazing, whereas on my laptop it felt like a crappy cartoon. Fortunately, during the extended, Imax Imax Imax Bladerunner trailer my family interrupted me about 12 times.

WHO HAS THE POPCORN?

GRANDPA CAN'T SEE ANYTHING WHERE ARE YOU SITTING?

I DON'T WANT TO HOLD THE POPCORN YOU TAKE IT

I don't think they realized that the Bladerunner trailer in IMAX IMAX IMAX is a sacred and rare thing. I'm going to go see some crappy movies in Imax and see if they're magically transformed too, like the Planet of Valerian Root or whatever that mess is called.

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02 Aug 2017 23:06 #252045 by Black Barney
I saw it on 70mm instead of IMAX and I'm hearing that I did the right thing. I got to see an extra 50% of footage


Sag, good idea trying to talk about a particular scene to explain your thoughts, I'll try and do the same. I knew Nolan had succeeded and done something special very early on. When the soldier first walks onto the beach, walking out of Dunkirk... and sees thousands of troops lined up, waiting.... and it's deafly quiet except for the wind .... how did you FEEL in that moment?

In that moment I felt the enormous sense of defeat and impending doom as they all just have to wait.... wait for ships or something worse. I also felt as lost as he was. It was just a big moment and the visual of the beach was insane in the format I saw it in

Right there I thought he pulled it off and we haven't even had the Spitfires yet

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