Analysis of Dunkirk PDF

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Summary

Gives an in depth analysis on themes and cinematic methods used as well as criticisms on aspects of plot and development....

Description

Sam Glass DUNKIRK: PLOT SEGMENTATION The Mole (One Week) 1. Streets of Dunkirk a. Six British soldiers walk through the streets looking through houses for supplies. b. They are fired on by German soldiers and five of them die. c. The one survivor, Tommy, escapes to the beach. 2. Dunkirk Beaches a. Tommy sees another soldier, Gibson, burying a soldier and he helps him. b. German bombers fly over and drop bombs on the troops on the beach. c. Tommy and Gibson pick up a wounded soldier and carry him to the ship evacuating wounded. 3. Dunkirk Beach - Pier a. They are denied access to the boat and hide by the mole waiting for the next ship. b. The ship sinks and Tommy and Gibson manage to save a soldier, Alex from dying. c. Commander Bolton and Colonel Winnant discuss the best way to evacuate is using civilian ships, but the mole is the best path to the destroyers 4. British Red Cross Vessel a. Tommy, Gibson and Alex board a Red Cross vessel. b. The ship is struck by a torpedo and the three manage to evacuate. 5. Small boat a. The British soldiers join with Scottish soldiers and hide in a boat. b. Germans begin to shoot at the boat and the holes let in water. c. Gibson is accused of being a German spy and reveals he is French. d. The ship sinks but Gibson gets stuck on something and drowns. The Sea (One Day) 6. British Harbor a. The Royal Navy commandeers private boats to rescue soldiers at Dunkirk.

b. Mr. Dawson takes his ship to rescue soldiers with his son, Peter, and a young boy, George. 7. The Ocean a. They pass by a sunken ship and find a soldier who they take on board. b. The soldier learns they are heading to Dunkirk and tries to take control of the ship. c. He knocks George down who hits his head. The Air (One Hour) 8. The Sky Over the Sea a. Three Spitfire pilots spot German fighter planes and fight them. b. The squad leader is taken down and Farrier’s fuel gauge breaks. c. Collin’s planes is shot down and his cockpit gets jammed, but he is saved by Peter. 9. The Seas a. All stories converge, and more private ships show up to rescue soldiers. b. A ship is hit by German bombers and oil fills the ocean, covering the soldiers in the water. c. The German bomber is shot down as Farrier runs out of fuel and heads for beach to land. d. The Dawsons board people on their ship and Alex points out that George is dead. e. Farrier lands his plane and is captured by German soldiers. 10. Dunkirk Beaches a. Bolton sees off the last of the British troops and stays to rescue the French. 11. Train a. Alex has Tommy read the newspaper, thinking they will be treated poorly. b. They enter the station and a man gives them two beers. c. People welcome the soldiers back with applause.

Narrative

Christopher Nolan is renowned as a director for pushing the boundaries on standard film conventions. In his 2017 war film Dunkirk, Nolan seeks to push the boundaries of standard war movie conventions. Nolan pushes these boundaries through his narrative and style creating a unique war piece that truly captures the events that transpired at Dunkirk in 1940. The biggest shake up that Dunkirk adds to the war film genre is through its narrative structure. In the film, Nolan chooses to tell a story through three separate but connected points of view. The bulk of the story telling comes from the soldiers’ point of view. The film opens with six soldiers getting into a gunfight with unseen Germans. From that altercation, only one soldier survives, Tommy, who becomes the main focus for the film. Tommy is a young soldier and as such, he has very real human emotions that are portrayed throughout the film in his character development. The fear that Tommy feels drives the narrative forward. Tommy ends up hiding on the mole because he fears for his life and wants to escape Dunkirk beaches. He meets Alex because he saves him from the ship. The entire story arch for Tommy pushes along because he is trying to escape. This shows the general mindset of all the soldiers who are desperately trying to escape with their lives. Following Tommy along creates a restricted narrative structure. The audience only knows what Tommy knows, but the overall film is a middle line between restricted and unrestricted narration. The audience only has the information that Tommy has about his current situation, but they know a lot of information that Tommy does not. The audience knows that there is a pilot off the coast taking down German planes which makes the troops on the beach safer. The audience knows that there are civilian ships coming to the beaches of Dunkirk to rescue soldiers that way.

There is all of this positive information that the audience has that is withheld from Tommy that seems to slow down the pace of the film. With all the action hammering Tommy, the film moves at a fast pace, but the unrestricted narration tools slow that down and give the audience time to think. The Dawson ship connects the audience to the action in a way that viewing a soldier does not. It puts the audience in the shoes of someone like them. The Dawsons and George are just normal civilians, but when they are put under pressure they go out to serve their country. The same restricted and unrestricted combination of storytelling comes from the Dawson ship as well. They have no clue what the situation at Dunkirk beach is like, but the audience knows that the civilian ships are necessary and that soldiers are being bombarded by Germans. One of the big themes in the film is seen clear cut through the Dawson storyline. The big theme of bravery or courage shows itself because three ordinary civilians set off to essentially join in the war. The audience wants to root for them because everyone would like to believe that is how they would act if the situation called. It parallels with the other two stories by giving the three civilians a sense of duty and bravery that is seen in the soldiers and the pilots. The three Spitfire pilots are a spitting example of the ideal of bravery. The third storyline follows them as they approach and guard over Dunkirk beach. The trio starts by engaging the Germans in a dogfight that results in the loss of their squad leader and Farrier’s fuel gauge breaks. The restricted narration plays really well into the broken fuel gauge because neither the audience nor Farrier knows how much fuel he actually has left in his tank. This creates a sense of tension because the outcome of his situation is unknown. The overarching theme between the three stories is how they create suspense. The three different stories all play off each other and

Nolan chooses to cut between scenes at tense moments to create suspense. When Farrier’s fuel gauge breaks the action cuts away from the pilots for a while and al that time the audience has no idea what has been happening to the pilot’s or if the fuel gauge reading impacts his fuel consumption. This all comes together to create a legendary final moment for Farrier when he shoots down more German planes and then lands on the beach. He gets captured by Germans, but he goes down the most noble way possible. The three stories each give the audience a picture of different possible people in war. The three emotions are fear, courage, and sacrifice. The story of Tommy shows what a lot of audience members would assume themselves to be if they were in war, afraid. Tommy is not necessarily a coward but he is afraid of what will happen to him if he stays on the beaches of Dunkirk. This theme stands in direct opposition with the other two, which lends itself to making the story of Tommy so compelling. The Sea shows what it means to be courageous. Most people would like to relate to the three on the ship and think if the situation called for it, they would act in a brave way. The Dawsons and George respond to the call of duty by going to the battle themselves and risk their lives doing it. George ends the film as a hero from Dunkirk which is what results for the brave. Contrast that with Tommy being afraid of the fight, the brave go into the fight. The final theme of sacrifice comes from the pilots. It is their mission to protect the area around Dunkirk. They know that this could mean losing their lives and they all end up losing their lives. Farrier survives but is captured by the Germans. He nobley protects the troops on the beach to his last breath, but even still he knows it may not always be enough. It takes courage to sacrifice and it requires one to shed the fear and overcome the obstacles in place. Farrier does that and shows what it means to be a hero.

Style As previously mentioned, Christopher Nolan uses Dunkirk as a way to push the perceived boundaries on modern film making. He does so through the style he chooses to implement in the film. The overall scope of the film looks to transform the standard convention of creating a film through the eyes of one or two people to creating a film that tells the story of a historic event. The various editing and cinematography are the primary tools in Nolan’s arsenal to craft the telling of the massive evacuation of Dunkirk. The editing is the primary part of how Nolan creates this unattached and distant feeling for the style of the film. By focusing on the evacuation of Dunkirk over the characters it follows he paints a larger picture of the actual event. The editing is the main part of this. By alternating between three stories, Nolan creates a lack of real character development and some detachment from characters that increase the suspense in the film. The initial transitions between the mole, the seas, and the air establish the setting. For a film that spends so much time jumping around, the establishing shots for scenes are crucial. An example of an establishing shot would be when Tommy arrives at the beach and there is an extreme longshot of the beach that shows the vast amount of people at the Dunkirk beach. Then to change to the next storyline, the scene needs to be reestablished. A longshot of planes in the sky will change the scene from the mole to the air. The creative thing that Nolan does, is use characters as establishing shots later on in the film. Using a longshot to establish the scene is a popular thing to do, but what makes Nolan’s film unique is its ability to establish a scene by the characters involved in it. When the scene

switched to the mole there are some scenes that jump straight to a point of view shot from Tommy’s perspective. This tells the audience exactly where they are based on the character they see. The audience knows that Tommy’s story follows the ground soldiers hence that is the new location or that Farrier’s story follows the sky so a close up on him demonstrates that the scene is in the sky. The cinematography is meticulous in the film. Nolan makes sure that the camera movements are precise. The horizon is used as a focal point for shots, but also a metaphor. The horizon signals rescue and consequently hope. In each shot the horizon is kept toward the center of the screen for ground shots and when action ensues, the horizon is distorted. The scene where the beach is bombed, the bombs stop just short of Tommy. As the bombs approach the horizon disappears to the point where it is completely invisible, and then once the bombs stop it is clear again. The movement of the horizon plays well into the sky scenes. As the pilots maneuver around so does the horizon. On the seas the camera and horizon rock with the boat. This all comes together to create a specific idea for the audience that hope is on the horizon. The music from the film creates another specific layer to Nolan’s style. Th soundtrack for the film is composed by Hans Zimmer who has worked with Nolan in many other past films. Zimmer has a way of creating a soundtrack that builds up and creates suspense through the music. This is seen in the ticking found in the theme for Dunkirk. Zimmer adds a ticking noise to the soundtrack that escalates the soundtrack and builds with the action on screen. As the action grows, so does the music. But the music is not the only thing that adds a layer to the film. The sound editing creates different points of view throughout the film. When the beaches are bombed

there are a variety of different sounds that create a wholistic picture of the event. From gunshots fired in the distant to the closing in of the German fighters, the sound creates a scope that is much greater than just the main character. When Tommy hits the ground the bombs approach him and the sound becomes muffled. A bomb shockwave can distort hearing and that little feature adds to the depth and reality of the scene. The bombs get louder as they reach closer to Tommy. The sound and shots come together to create a realistic and wholistic picture of the film that would otherwise be lost without the two aspects. Nolan attempts to break conventions and establish his own style to the film to create a totally different piece. Like The Hurt Locker, Dunkirk attempts to put the audience in a real war situation, but Dunkirk focuses on the larger evacuation instead of individual characters.

Scene Analysis In the first bombing scene, all of the stylistic aspects that Nolan places throughout the movie show up in one scene. The bombing scene opens with an overhead shot that shows a German plane heading toward the beach. As earlier mentioned the music starts to rise in tension when the plane appears on screen. The next shot shows soldiers looking up at the sky and starting to spread. Tommy is just one in a sea of soldiers, and in the next shot the audience does not even know where Tommy is located. The scene shifts to an extreme long shot of the soldiers on the beach who are hitting the ground. We then catch a glimpse of a soldier shooting his rifle

up at the planes. The scene then does an L-cut to the extreme longshot again with the gunshots still firing in the background, and the soldiers now all laying on the ground.

What these first few shots do is consistent with the notion of creating suspense. Nolan sets up the scenario. The audience and the characters know a German plane is about to bomb the beach. The soldiers then duck for cover and from that point the audience is unsure of what will happen to the soldiers.

The shots continue with a long shot of Tommy on the ground and then it cuts to a medium shot of him with his head bunkered down. This shot is the meat and potatoes of the suspense. The bombs begin and they approach Tommy, the sound getting closer with each bomb. They then stop right before they hit him and sand falls on Tommy. The action stops as the sound of bombs and planes goes away and the music steadies itself. The next shot shows soldiers starting to get up, but some stay down lifeless. This adds to the realism that Nolan wants the film to have. The sense that 400,000 troops were needing to be evacuated but not all of them were going to make it.

The next shot follows Tommy rising from the ground and similar to the shot of the masses, some bodies remain lifelessly on the ground. The suspense is over, but the tension is still there. Nolan does a good job to create suspense but he also keeps tension in the film through the

characters. When one looks at Tommy’s face, he always seems to be questioning his surroundings, waiting for the next bad thing to happen. The scene ends with a soldier looking to the sky and at the sea asking where the air force is. This shows two things. One is the horizon. The bombing ends and the horizon is now level and in the middle of the screen showing the audience hope. Another is the unrestricted narration again. The soldier does not know where the air force is but the audience knows moments later where and what is happening with the Royal Air Force.

In conclusion, Christopher Nolan’s 2017 film Dunkirk pushes the boundaries of war movie conventions through its narrative and style. By using a split timeline, the film adds suspense and a larger focus on the evacuation of Dunkirk that goes against standard war movies that focus on specific characters....