Dunkirk (film, 2017)

The film takes place in 1940 in France . At the beginning there is a message that 400,000 soldiers are in Dunkirk and are waiting for salvation.

The film has a non-linear structure and is divided into three time lines: pier (one week), sea (one day) and air (one hour).

Mol (One Week)

Six British soldiers roam the deserted streets of Dunkirk in search of food and water when they are suddenly attacked by German soldiers. Five of them die on the spot, and Tommy ( Finn Whitehead ) escapes and reaches the beach, where he meets with the rest of the British army, waiting for the evacuation. He also meets a young soldier Gibson ( Aneyrin Barnard ), who bury someone’s corpse in the ground. Tommy silently helps him.

Soldiers on the beach notice an approaching German bomber . He drops bombs on the beach and many are injured or killed. Tommy is preparing to accept their fate, but the bombs do not hurt him.

Tommy finds a wounded soldier left to die on the beach. He and Gibson pretend to be doctors, to get on the arrived ship and evacuate. They pass by a group of Frenchmen who are also trying to get on a ship, but they are denied this. Tommy and Gibson are ordered to leave the ship, and then they hide in a small structure located at the pier to wait for another ship. A few minutes later, the ship on which they tried to get caught is attacked by even more German planes and sinking, although Tommy manages to save a soldier named Alex ( Harry Styles ) from death.

At the same time, the Royal Navy commander Bolton ( Kenneth Branagh ) and Colonel Vinnant ( James D'Arcy ) are standing on the docks and thinking about possible negotiations for the removal and safe return of the soldiers home. They decide to use boats, as this is the only option in which most soldiers will survive.

Tommy, Gibson and Alex get on to another British Red Cross ship, where they get some food and water. Alex meets Tommy and says that Gibson is somehow wandering around intensely. Suddenly, a torpedo enters the ship and water begins to flood the lower deck. While the ship is sinking, Gibson (who has been outside all this time) manages to open the hatch for Tommy, Alex and several other soldiers; they join a group of soldiers in boats and return to the coast.

There, the surviving British team up with a small group of Scottish soldiers. They go to the boat, which should leave the place as soon as the tide begins. The soldiers are hiding inside, but technically they are located in Germany, and soon the bullets from German soldiers using the ship for training firing begin to hit the ship. Because of the bullet holes, the ship begins to sink. Alex offers to kick Gibson out of the ship to lighten the weight, backing up with the accusation that Gibson is a German spy, because throughout all the time he did not say a word, "trying to hide his accent." Gibson begins to talk and it turns out that he is a Frenchman who took the uniform of another soldier (the one he buried on the beach) to evacuate.

The boat comes out of Dunkirk, but begins to sink. All soldiers are selected, with the exception of Gibson - he hooks and drowns for something.

Sea (One Day)

The Royal Navy begins to requisition civilian ships in order to rescue soldiers in Dunkirk. Mr. Dawson ( Mark Rylance ) takes his own ship, refusing to give command over him to the officers. Together with him, his young son Peter ( Tom Glynn-Karni ) and their acquaintance George ( Barry Keogan ) swim away , who claims to be useful to them.

The boat swims past a sunken British ship. In the water they find a frightened soldier ( Killian Murphy ). Mr. Dawson asks for his name, but the soldier is silent. George brings him tea, but a soldier knocks a cup out of his hands. When he finds out that the boat is heading to Dunkirk, he is desperately trying to take control of the boat from Dawson. Their subsequent struggle leads to the fact that George falls to the bottom of the boat and bangs his head hard. Peter tries to take care of his wounds, and the soldier calms down and quietly sits on the edge of the boat. George begins to lose his sight. Peter reports this to his father, but he replies that they have gone too far and returning for help is pointless.

Air (One Hour)

Three pilots of Spitfire fly around the sea to help the military. The squadron leader and two pilots - Farrier ( Tom Hardy ) and Collins ( Jack Lauden ) notice several Nazi Messerschmites and go after them. One of the Germans knocks out the leader of the squadron, leaving Farrier and Collins together. Farrier’s fuel meter in the plane is broken, but he decides not to return to base and continue the mission.

After some time, Farrier and Collins fall into battle again, and the second is hit. He manages to land successfully on the water, but he gets stuck in the cockpit without the ability to open the hatch and begins to sink. At the last moment, he is saved by Peter, as Mr. Dawson managed to get to the fallen plane. Collins is boarding. From one dialogue, it later becomes known that Peter’s elder brother was a pilot of the British Royal Air Force and died in the first weeks of the war.

At this moment, all time lines converge into one.

Final

More British ships appear on the horizon to save the soldiers. Soldiers who left a sinking ship (Tommy, Alex and others) notice a minesweeper and move in its direction when it is hit by one of the German bombers . Oil from a sinking ship hits a soldier in the water. Farrier manages to bring down the plane before it strikes again. The German He 111 falls into an oil puddle and sets fire to it, which leads to the death of several more soldiers. Farrier runs out of fuel and heads towards the beach for a safe landing.

At the same time, Peter, Collins, and the frightened soldier carry as many soldiers as they can. Among them are Alex and Tommy. Alex goes downstairs and tells the Dawson that George is dead. When a frightened soldier (whose name has never been mentioned for the whole film), not knowing what happened, asks about the guy’s condition, Peter lies and says that George is in order.

Another German bomber appears in sight, but Farrier knocks him down. He lands his plane ashore, sets it on fire, and soon becomes captured by the Germans.

The Dawson are returning home. Peter takes the photograph of George to a local newspaper in order to be remembered as a hero.

Bolton and Vinnant mention saving 338,000 people (although only 30,000 were planned). Bolton remains in Dunkirk to ensure that France can evacuate. He oversees the departure of Vinnant and the remnants of the British army.

In England, British soldiers are sent home by train. Alex thinks they will be met with contempt due to defeat. He sees a newspaper with a message from Winston Churchill regarding the evacuation and asks Tommy to read it. While the guy is reading the message, they arrive at the station, where a man approaches their window and gives them two bottles of beer. The rest of the people greeted the soldiers with applause. Tommy finishes reading Churchill's statement, which exalts the courage and efforts of the soldiers for their incredible salvation. The message continues and reminds the public that wars are not won only by evacuations, but ends with the words that you can never give up.

The announcement of a new painting by Christopher Nolan took place in September 2015. Warner Bros. Premiere Date appointed on July 21, 2017 ^[8] . Later, Variety published information that the film will show the Dunkirk evacuation of the English, French and Belgian units during World War II. The film itself was called "Dunkirk." Filming began in May 2016 in the places of the described events ^[9] . The roles in the film were performed by Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy and other actors. As in the case of previous paintings by Nolan, Emma Thomas was involved in the production of Dunkirk. The music for the film was composed by Hans Zimmer , for whom Dunkirk became the sixth joint project with Nolan ^[10] . The film was the seventh consecutive collaboration of Michael Kane and Christopher Nolan. The actor voiced a radio message at the beginning of the film ^[11] .

To achieve the highest image quality and presence effect, the final IMAX movie format was chosen ^[12] .

As is customary when creating such films, the most spectacular scenes were shot on an original frame with a step of 15 perforations, and the rest of the material was shot with more convenient equipment in the usual wide format with a frame step of 5 perforations for subsequent enlargement when printing. However, according to the creators, the picture uses more of the original negative IMAX than in any other film shot in the same format ^[13] . An IMAX camera was installed in the cockpit of one of the three Spitfire aircraft shot in the picture to shoot scenes of air combat, which was not easy, given its weight and dimensions ^[14] .

A few digital special effects were generated with a resolution of 6K and subsequent photo output to a widescreen double-negative . Scenes shot in large format are printed in IMAX film copies from the original negative , and all the rest are enlarged from the widescreen double-negative. The latter also acted as a source for contact printing of 70-mm wide-format film copies and optical translation into a 35-mm wide - screen version ^[13] . In addition, a master copy for digital film screening was scanned from a 70-mm double negative. The premiere of the film from IMAX format film took place in 100 cinemas around the world, the rest of the cinema network showed large-format, wide-screen and digital film copies ^[13] . The film was released in Russia on digital film copies of DCP with a screen aspect ratio of 2.39: 1.

For shooting many scenes inside the fighter’s cockpit and views from it, the Soviet Yak-52TW was used instead of the original Spitfire . ^[15]

Filming began on May 15, 2016. The premiere was originally planned for July 21, 2017 ^[16] . The Russian trailer for the film was released on December 14, 2016 ^[17] .

The world premiere took place in London on July 13, 2017, in Russia the film was released on July 20 ^[18] .

The film received rave reviews from critics, directing and staging were especially noted, many spoke of it as the best in Nolan’s career ^[19] and the best among military films ^[20] . On the Metacritic website , the film received a rating of 94 out of 100 based on 53 reviews ^[21] , and on the Rotten Tomatoes website , it has 92% of the approval ratings based on 413 reviews with an average rating of 8.7 / 10. The critical consensus of the site reads: “Dunkirk presents us with a very emotional sight ... embodied in life by a wonderful film crew, showing respect for historical facts” ^[22] .

Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian awarded the film five out of five stars and called it the best work of the director: “Nolan from the very beginning surrounds the viewer with horror and chaos (war) and amazing pictures of brilliantly set scenes on the big screen, especially the scene with a pontoon filled with soldiers who falls into the foaming sea due to the bombing of enemy aircraft ” ^[23] .

• Lloyd B. Unknown War: the film "Dunkirk" (Russian) // "MediaVision": magazine. - 2017. - No. 7 . - S. 35-37 .

• Official site
• "Dunkirk": War through the eyes of a deserter // Stoletie.RU