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 Dunkirk 

Rate This Film
A 50%  50%  [ 9 ]
B 28%  28%  [ 5 ]
C 6%  6%  [ 1 ]
D 6%  6%  [ 1 ]
F 11%  11%  [ 2 ]
Total votes : 18

 Dunkirk 
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The Kramer
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Yeah this was excellent. I saw it on Thursday at a normal theater, but really wanna see it on a bigger screen. Too bad we only have a lIemax around here. :(

But even at a normal theater I was blown away. Every shot and every sound is expertly placed. Zimmer's score is so intense, especially "Super Mariner". The bullet bass and ticking clock kept me on edge the whole way through. And then there's the horror that comes when you realize that noise isn't part of the score, but another german bomber and all you can do is get down, hold your helmet and hope you don't get hit. Which is about as effective as duck and cover.

The editing is also great, there was a few times at the beginning that I wasn't sure what timeline we were in. And the timelines converge so well. The movie never really bothers to build the characters beyond their roles in the evacuation. Its very mechanical and detached, which works for the intensity but I wanted a little bit more. Yet even after an hour of being numb, Nolan manages the nail the big heart swelling patriot "home came for us." He must have learned this Spielberg magic from his time on Interstellar , so atleast something good came from that. :P It was really impressive and kept the movie rolling as the timeline gimmick went away.

Killing the boy on the boat was a weird choice, the movie is grim enough as is and it didn't advance the story. It's the one true flaw of the film and will definitely hurt its word of mouth. Other than that, Dunkirk is a colossal cinematic success. Churchhill would be proud.


Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:48 am
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The Kramer
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Post Re: Dunkirk
1. The Dark Knight
2. Memento
3. Batman Begins
4. Inception
5. Dunkirk / The Dark Knight Rises
7. The Prestige

8. Insomnia
9. Interstellar

I hate ties but it's a neccesary evil here.


Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:50 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
I wonder how many people actually know that Dunkirk is a bad movie, but have to pretend to like it because of the RottenTomatoes score?


Tue Jul 25, 2017 6:08 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Probably 100% of people. And 100% of haters hate it because they want to show their anger at its Rotten Tomatoes score.

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Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:42 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
tree and a half wrote:
I wonder how many people actually know that Dunkirk is a bad movie, but have to pretend to like it because of the RottenTomatoes score?
Is the rottentomatoes score really that great? A similar score isn't helping the also excellent War of the Apes very much. Plus Spider-Man, Baby Driver and The Big Sick all scored about the same. Plus you don't get any political for liking Dunkirk unlike other films, such as those that rhyme with Bloon blight. :P


Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:25 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Flava'd vs The World wrote:
Plus you don't get any political for liking Dunkirk unlike other films, such as those that rhyme with Bloon blight. :P

But there might be a perceived intellectual kudos for liking "a Nolan film", as the joke goes.

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Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:47 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Nolan is definitely a master craftsman, but I'd be lying if I said this wasn't one of the least enjoyable Nolan films I have ever seen. Sure on a technical level it's impressive, but that's really all I got from it. Not having any characters you can truly latch on to or care about really hurts any film IMO, especially a War film. It's a shame too because their are some really talented actors in this including the younger cast members, but they aren't given much to do beyond be reactionary to the chaos around them. The merging timelines was a clever idea, although I don't know if it was executed as well as it could have been and I also found the dialogue hard to understand at times.


Wed Jul 26, 2017 10:21 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Dil wrote:
I also found the dialogue hard to understand at times

I experienced this as well and from a technical standpoint I found that could be improved as it feels annoying to not have been able to catch a certain bit of dialogue. But it's minor and the film is such an immersive experience that I couldn't really gripe about it (I found Interstellar to be having this issue and in a more severe way too).

But I don't get the complaints on the lack of character development in this, sure maybe it isn't really there, but I don't see the need for every film to have very fleshed out characters. There perhaps isn't one lead, although I think the boy who the film starts and finishes with carries a lot of story on his back and by the way he experiences the events around him I know enough to be engaged with what he's doing and where he's going. But it's an excellent ensemble too with fitting performances around.
I found Dunkirk a unique experience, exciting and dominating the senses in a way that make me just love the film.


Wed Jul 26, 2017 10:43 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
The dialogue didn't bother me at all. Do you think every word is easy to grasp in a war zone? I don't, and I appreciated any and all ways that this realism could be transferred to me.

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Wed Jul 26, 2017 10:59 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
1. The Dark Knight
2. Inception
3. Interstellar
4. Memento
5. Batman Begins
6. The Dark Knight Rises
7. Dunkirk
8. Insomnia


Thu Jul 27, 2017 12:55 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Dil wrote:
I'd be lying if I said this wasn't one of the least enjoyable Nolan films I have ever seen.

Bravo! It takes courage to tell the truth in the face of the Nolanite echo chamber.


Fri Jul 28, 2017 5:04 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
tree and a half wrote:
You've got to give Christopher Nolan his full credit: without failed experiments like Dunkirk, the quest for storyless cinema would never move forward. It starts off as "Tree of Life: WW2 Edition", then on to a disjointed series of snappy war action clips. It's a post-war movie-war movie. So atomized that it's perfect for splicing apart and assembling your own cracking good war movie at home - just add your own story!

I've been reflecting on my review comments above, and I now believe that Nolan doesn't particularly care about the box office success of Dunkirk, because it is actually intended as his audition tape for getting future work as a virtual reality director. Dunkirk clearly demonstrates that VR's biggest challenge will be in establishing an open-ended narrative structure that can sustain dramatic energy.


Sat Jul 29, 2017 5:42 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
What I like, well love, about Nolan is that he just makes the films he likes to make in the way he likes to make them. And glad he's getting the production budgets to realize his visions. The VR stuff is just lol.


Sat Jul 29, 2017 7:59 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Master fucking Piece

A+

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Sun Jul 30, 2017 12:41 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
This is a one-of-a-kind movie experience that should not be missed but that doesn't mean its a great movie. The characters are just characters and do not feel like human beings, I know they are soldiers but I don't see fear in their eyes, they are just playing their part while music builds all the tension. The ending with news and train appreciation is not as rewarding, I see that the dead-boy gets the fame but its not like he was there in the movie for more than 4 scenes. The rest of the cast is wasted as well, specially Cillian Murphy and Branagh's character. The plane scenes are just gorgeous to look at and should be given credit for technical achievement but they come out repetitive in terms of Hardy killing enemy planes and getting too much focus with depleting oil tank, the same could have been done to other fighters who die/fall, before that happens. The final does pay off when Hardy lands the plane and gets caught. The central character who carries the film does enough but there isn't much emotional attachment and the mysterious hand in the water is just obvious from the get-go. The multiple timelines work fine in terms of narration but I can see why it is confusing to many, I'd say that it wasn't handled well given that its a specialty of Nolan.

The music is again brilliant as it is in Nolan movies but is too loud in a few scenes. The visuals are great specially the aerial scenes they just reminded me of how Gravity used visuals to create an immersive experience, this takes that to another level. I am very impressed of the focus that Nolan has as a director and writer here, its an awe-inspiring work to handle such HUGE crew the way he does and show the brutalities of war. There are few better directors at the moment who can match him at this scale and produce a visual masterpiece and create the need for watching a movie in cinema halls.

Its a movie that has to be experienced in a movie theater, preferably in IMAX. There are obvious flaws but it covers them so brilliantly that its difficult to not overlook them. I guess that's the reason Nolan kept it so short.

7/10


Sun Jul 30, 2017 3:27 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
stuffp wrote:
The VR stuff is just lol.

"My pitch to Warner Bros was 'we’re going to put the audience into the cockpit of a Spitfire and have them dogfight the Messerschmitts',” Nolan explains. “We’re going to put them on the beach, feeling the sand getting everywhere, confronting the waves. We’re going to put them on small civilian boats bouncing around on the waves on this huge journey heading into a terrifying war zone. It’s virtual reality without the headset.” -via


Sun Jul 30, 2017 3:31 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Alright tree, I see that point, and I can't deny Dunkirk relies heavily on the realistic feel of experiencing the films events. And that's its strength, I think it delivers a stronger narrative through it and not the other way around.


Sun Jul 30, 2017 5:28 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Nolan is just aggrandizing his film's structure. He is adding flare to his sales pitch. It is not meant to be taken literally. Dunkirk is not virtual reality. It is not only absent a headset, it is absent a crucial element; user choice. Nolan takes us where he wants us to go and shows us what he wants us to see.

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Sun Jul 30, 2017 5:40 am
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Okay, as you can see from my register date/post count, I am a lurker supreme on this board, and am hardly ever compelled to post, but I just got back from the theater from this one and feel like I possibly need psychiatric treatment...

Am I missing something here? This was, easily, the most boring movie I have ever seen. Nothing happens. And for the record, of my favorite films of all time, I'd say a large portion or even most of them are "boring" in the sense they're mostly dialogue/character driven (There Will Be Blood, The Godfather I and II, Zodiac, and even my favorite action movies are the "cerebral" ones like The Bourne Ultimatum, Minority Report, Edge of Tomorrow etc.) so it's not like I came into this just hoping to see some mindless bloody carnage. It's just that nothing happens in this movie. I feel like there's not even a way to describe it other than that simple statement. Nothing happens During the first 20 minutes or so I figured the fact that nothing was happening was some ingenious tension-building technique playing off the audience's general expectations of a film: something really big must be happening soon, because something has to happen eventually; that's what a movie is, right? Then 20 minutes became 30, 30 became 40, 40 became 60, and as the running time neared its scheduled expiration, I sat in disbelief. (And, for the record, when the movie ended, the entire audience sat in dead silence and exchanged bewildered glances.)

I almost feel like my theater must have received the wrong cut, because that can't have been the movie so many people are raving about.

I'm sorry that this post is sounding trollish, but I'm seriously at a loss for words. I feel like there's some serious Emperor's New Clothes shit going on here. Somebody help me out.


Sun Jul 30, 2017 6:16 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Hey Ludovican,

From one lurker to another, thanks for posting!

I feel like Nolan was making a conscious choice not to show any enemy soldiers as a way of taking the war movie and making it a pure survival film. It's hard to reconcile gut feelings but I loved the way the minimalist approach because it (mostly) freed the film from propaganda and exposition, and felt true to the stoic British spirit. I also found it to be Nolan's most beautiful film to date. The action was shot with a clarity that exceeded anything in his Batman trilogy.

I know I'm personally puzzled to read people criticize the film for being immersive. That was one of the things I loved about it the most.


Sun Jul 30, 2017 7:05 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
That is the second time recently I've heard the expression "Emperor's New Clothes shit". What does that actually mean?

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Sun Jul 30, 2017 7:16 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes


Sun Jul 30, 2017 9:07 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
Thanks

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Sun Jul 30, 2017 9:10 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
I have seen it at a regular screening and as pointed out IMAX seems to be the way to go. Still, on of the most thrilling episodes of warfare captured an screen todate. Visceral and thought provoking regarding the rise of right-wing parties in Europe, which left many a bit uneasy in their seats.

A-


Mon Jul 31, 2017 12:32 pm
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Post Re: Dunkirk
This is kind of a tough one because on a technical level this is a masterpiece. Fantastic cinematography, score music, and of course sound design. Performances are strong, though absolutely nobody stands out as not one actor is given a whole lot to do. The lack of story is kind of surprising. I understand that the film is more about the experience and putting you in this situation, and that's fine, but it makes it hard to truly care about what happens to anyone. Outside of really admiring the film I can't say I'm a huge fan. I do believe the only way to see this is on the biggest screen you can find and for its technical merits alone I'd recommend seeing it. If you can't catch it in theaters though I don't know if you really need to see it.

The filmmaking on display here is an A+, but as a whole I'd give the movie a B/B+.


Wed Aug 02, 2017 3:30 am
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