Dunkirk thoughts

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2017)

It is a more brilliant film than I expected. A kaleidoscope of the events and incidents that comprise this disaster, it is a masterpiece of montage and collage. Or, more simply, a scrapbook; think of Eisenstein's Potemkin; the shot eye, the shattered eyeglasses, the baby carriage trundling down the steps, the teeming and stumbling legs and feet; this surely is the model for Nolan's great shuffling fragmented and eruptive scenes.
No simple narrative, no sentimental back story, not even a straight time line. This is a chaotic portrait of a chaotic event; the camera is restive and questing, searching almost, to reveal details and perhaps reasons, and not finding anything. Perhaps it is a bit British to pour so much into a defeat, but it was a truly great event. The sequences jump all the time, and time itself jumps too. Night and day, rough sea and calm sea, silence and explosions, dogfights cut to a close up face on a ship, and then an explosion of flaming oil on the surface of the sea which offers the stark choice of burning or drowning.
Back to the dogfight and perspective along the fuselage of a Spitfire, with a yellow nosed Messerschmidt lining up behind. There is what seems to be some arbitrary target practice into the hull of a stranded trawler, but those holes appear from an unknown source. The shells could be German or British; we are not told. Nothing is explained or concluded and nobody is blamed. The Spitfire points at the Heinkel. The residual tatters of social structure in decay is also hinted at, but at that time it was still, just about, holding; officers and gentlemen and merely men, the men in orderly queues. But there are rebellious elements, with individuals jumping that queue. We're getting onto a boat no matter what, so duck down, hide here, become a stretcher bearer so we can squirm to the front of the queue.
Cut to the darkness of night, and the clear calm day. Alternate with rough seas and mist. It is an effective kaleidoscope, as is the music. This score has been praised and criticised but I thought it was superb. Hints of Elgar were not swollen into full blown surges of sentiment, but kept as a telling hint, an indication of national character and resolve. There is no conventional summary or explanation, only a fuzzy imprecision. In fact I wanted more facts; I came out wondering how many 'small ships' were used? How many men saved, how many lost? No such neat answers but Google says: In nine days, 192,226 British and 139,000 French soldiers – 331,226 in all – were rescued by the 700 little ships and around 220 warships. The rescue operation turned a military disaster into a story of heroism which served to raise the morale of the British. The success of the operation inspired Churchill's famous "we shall fight on the beaches" speech: We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender
Sticking my neck out after little time to think about it I would say this is Nolan's masterpiece.