Masterpiece captures the true Dunkirk spirit
DUNKIRK (Cert 12A; 106mins)
REMEMBER the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan? Bullets whizzed through the air. Bodies slumped to the ground. Blood coloured the grey Atlantic seas. It felt like you were on the beaches in Normandy in 1944 experiencing every intense, terrifying moment. Dunkirk sustains that intensity for the entire film.
Director Christopher Nolan has created a stirring evocation of everyday heroism that combines expert storytelling with cutting-edge special effects.
The result is a stunning reinvigoration of the kind of old-fashioned Second World War drama we have not seen since the 1969 film Battle Of Britain. It is thrilling, heart-pounding and incredibly emotional.
It is estimated there were close to 400,000 British troops on the French coastline in 1940. The Nazis were advancing, France was on the brink of surrender and the troops were sitting ducks. Enemy bombers would swoop down and pick off soldiers or destroy carriers that had braved the English Channel to try to rescue them. The nation would be lucky if 10 per cent of the men made it back home alive.
Dunkirk was not just one story, it was thousands of stories and Nolan reflects that by creating a mosaic of individual experiences.
Young soldier Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) will do anything to survive and get home. Stoical RAF Spitfire pilots Farrier (Tom Hardy) and Collins (Jack Lowden) risk everything to police the skies.
A small armada of sailboats, tugs and trawlers head towards the trapped soldiers at Dunkirk, collectively providing what Winston Churchill would call the miracle of deliverance and Dawson (Mark Rylance) sets sail from England with his son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) and friend George (Barry Keoghan), determined to play his part in helping to bring the troops home.
They are tales of bravery, craven cowardice, self-protection and self-sacrifice. Nolan maintains a sense of urgency throughout, cutting between events and even (unnecessarily) juggling with the
timeline in a bid to keep us engaged and involved.
The sound design ensures that every speeding bullet and devastating explosion is felt. The cinematography captures gliding planes in the sunlit skies, a downed plane descending into the ocean and terrified men trapped in oil slicks and sinking vessels. The whole film has a visceral impact.
The ensemble cast all serve the demands of the story. Harry Styles makes a promising acting debut as young soldier Alex, Fionn Whitehead cuts a charismatic figure as Tommy and Kenneth Branagh invests Commander Bolton with heartfelt feeling as he scans the horizon hoping that salvation is on its way.
Effectively understated in places, Dunkirk captures a vivid sense of chaotic events that brought out the best and worst in people and allowed the country to snatch hope from the jaws of bitter defeat.
It is a potent reminder of what happened during one of the darkest moments in the Second World War. When Hans Zimmer’s music swells on the soundtrack, Dunkirk brings a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye. Highly recommended.
SCRIbE (Cert 15; 89mins)
FRANçOIS CLUZET is one of those actors who never disappoints and he is the best thing about Scribe, a conspiracy thriller in the style of 1970s classic The Conversation.
Cluzet plays Duval, a loyal insurance clerk who works himself into a nervous breakdown. Unemployed, divorced and trying to maintain his sobriety, Duval then accepts a job that seems too good to be true. Every day he enters an apartment to provide a typewriter transcription of recordings.
He is to ask no questions and tell no one about his work. Inevitably his curiosity is aroused, especially as the content of the tapes suggests all kinds of murky deeds involving high-ranking politicians.
But once the cat is out of the bag, the plot starts to feel far-fetched and it never quite adds up.
CITy OF GhOSTS (Cert 18; 92mins)
YOU will need a strong constitution to endure City Of Ghosts but the reward is a powerful documentary about a group of extraordinary Syrians who dared to challenge the savagery of IS. The city of Raqqa was seized in March 2014 and IS have met any opposition with executions. RBSS (Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered In Silence) is the name adopted by journalists who have risked their lives to let the world know of their city’s suffering.
The footage of relentless atrocity has often provided the only record of Raqqa under IS and many RBSS members have paid with their lives. City Of Ghosts salutes RBSS while reminding us how little was being done to bring the nightmare to an end.
VICTIM (Cert PG; 96mins)
BACK in cinemas to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, 1961’s Victim marked a step towards the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Dirk Bogarde is a distinguished barrister implicated in a murder investigation that leads the police to blackmailers exploiting gay men criminalised for their sexuality.
A tense British thriller graced by fine performances from Bogarde and Sylvia Sims.