If you turn away from emotions, you can conclude: with "Dunkirk" Christopher Nolan approached the "Oscar" as never before. The American Film Academy in general favors him, but historically he tries not to give big awards to fiction or comics. Based on real events and by any measure, the impressive "Dunkirk" is another matter. In "Dunkirk," there is a huge crowd scene and dizzying shots, but it takes, after all, not with a sweep or special effects, but with form and content.
In form, this is not a military blockbuster, but an author movie, and a rather radical one. Information, and indeed text, the viewer is given very little: the film is designed for direct sensory perception. There is no ecstasy of bloodshed and incessant action, as in the best Hollywood samples of the genre, from "Saving Private Ryan" to "Hacksaw Ridge" (there is no their sticky moralism). "Dunkirk" does without the extra "little man." This is not a soulful melodrama about suffering, but a sweeping symphony of meeting a person and fate. Musical allusions are justified: the tremendous rhythm of the narration compensates for the seeming blankness of individual episodes; the sound of the ticking clock permeates the whole picture, not allowing the public to relax even for a moment. Moreover, fantasizing on the themes of Elgar, Hans Zimmer again proves a striking fact - approximately Nolan he is able to write live, touching and individual music, a little resembling his typical Hollywood soundtracks.
Even more enthusiastic epithets deserve the operator Hoyte Van Hoytema, already shot for Nolan "Interstellar" (for Sam Mendes "Specter", and for Spike Jonze - "Her"). His gray-blue palette stretched to the size of an IMAX screen — watch “Dunkirk” preferably in this format — turns the film into a fascinating visual experience, sometimes literally dizzying. Detachment and the effect of the presence of schizophrenic combined in this picture, equally objective and abstract, dedicated to the fate of man and the indifference of the elements.
Actually, the elements here are all four, as required by the canons. A land where more than three hundred thousand British soldiers are stuck: the small town of Dunkirk and its gigantic beach, which is well shot through from any point. The water that goes to the Dunkirk British ships, large and small. The air from which military pilots cover the evacuation of the army. Finally, the fire coming from heaven and earth, instant death, not personalized in the film in any way: we will not see a single German either on the large or even on the middle ground. The heroes of the film do not fight with them, but with the war itself - the fifth and most powerful element.
On the ground, thousands of the doomed are fighting with her, but we already single out from them the unsure commander (Kenneth Branagh), and three frightened soldiers to death, in whose eyes the whole of occupied France is a giant sinking ship. Harry Styles, a member of the popular British boy band One Direction, who was cast by Nolan on a common basis, by the way, play one of them,; the director learned about the main profession of a young debutant later. At Sea - Mr. Dawson (Oscar winner and just a wonderful actor Mark Rylance), the captain of a small boat with the proud name "Moonstone", went to Dunkirk from England. There are several pilots in the air, one of whom, a certain Farrier (Tom Hardy), is running out of fuel, but he does not intend to return home until he hits the target.
Actually, "Dunkirk" only in rare moments looks like a monumental fresco: each story told here is essentially a chamber one. Some are saturated with traditional pathos of a completely Hollywood character; others are full of British restraint and dignity. The same Tom Hardy entire film does not remove glasses and masks, does not move, and usually silent. He, however, is no stranger - after the role of Bane at the same Nolan. Only temporary counterpoint plots the plot lines into a single fabric and gives them a common scale: one fits into the conditional hour, the other - per day, the third - in the whole week. Games with time - Nolan's signature trick (remember "Inception", "Memento" and especially "Interstellar"); and Hans Zimmer, by the way, used as a sample the ticking of the director's pocket watch.
Nevertheless, this is all about form. As for the content, not every viewer knows the striking story of the evacuation of the British army from Dunkirk in 1940. In England, everyone knows her. It is reflected in literature and cinema - perhaps the most touching is the touching "The Snow Goose" by Paul Gallico, "Atonement" by Ian McEwan and his screen version Joe Wright. For many, perhaps, weirdly, such a detailed and dramatic conversation about soldiers who retreat, leave the battlefield. However, it would be more appropriate to think that today art can speak on this subject, with what feelings and thoughts to recall the terrible lessons of the bloodiest war in history.
https://youtu.be/T7O7BtBnsG4[DUNKIRK - OFFICIAL MAIN TRAILER [HD]](https://youtu.be/T7O7BtBnsG4)
Nolan has a clear answer to this question. Like a plane that has run out of fuel, it plans by air, and its pilot still hopes to land, each of the "Dunkirk" heroes is trying not to win and not to die heroically, but to survive. If possible, survive without losing the human form, which is much more difficult. Sometimes this is the only possible victory. We, today's viewers, will read this unexpected thought in the eyes of those who manage to return from Dunkirk.
The illustrations are used in agreement with the Depositphotos photobank
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