It’s Oscar season — why isn’t anyone talking about ‘Dunkirk’?
Of the nine films vying for Oscar’s best-picture honors Sunday night, there’s one that’s being ignored like tofu at a steak cook-off: “Dunkirk.”
Many exhausting online skirmishes have been waged for and against Martin McDonough’s tale of revenge through outdoor advertising (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), Guillermo del Toro’s monsterand-me love story (“The Shape of Water”), Jordan Peele’s interracial-dating-trauma drama (“Get Out”), Greta Gerwig’s Catholic-high-school catharsis (“Lady Bird”), Luca Guadagnino’s love letter to summers in Italy with a shirtless Armie Hammer (“Call Me By Your Name”) and Steven Spielberg’s journalism-still-matters broadside (“The Post”).
Even Joe Wright’s darkestof-dark-horses “Darkest Hour,” with its Golden Globe-, SAGand BAFTA-winning central performance from Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, has been part of the awards-season conversation.
But the World War II-set “Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan’s dazzlingly immersive retelling of the German assault on Allied troops on the French coast and subsequent evacuation, largely has been absent from much of the prognostication. That’s despite being nominated in eight categories, earning sterling reviews (93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, 94 percent on Metacritic), Nolan’s imprimatur and an impressive box-office take ($500 million globally).
Oddsmakers put its chances of winning the best-picture statue at 40-to-1, behind “Billboards,” “The Shape of Water,” “Lady Bird” and “Get Out.”
That’s not disastrous as the odds are apparently much worse for “Phantom Thread” and “Darkest Hour” (200-to-1). But, more tellingly, “Dunkirk” has been overlooked at many of the major awards leading up to the Oscars. It went home emptyhanded from the Golden Globes as well as the SAG Awards and claimed only a best-sound trophy at the BAFTA Awards on Nolan’s British home turf.
One of the problems with “Dunkirk” is timing. The film was released in July and, even though it was re-released in theaters in December, it had lost much of its momentum as its autumn competitors were dominating moviegoers’ conversations. Also, it’s unusual for a film with no recognition for its actors or screenplay — the film is intentionally lacking in character development and dialogue — to waltz away with the top honor.
That’s only part of the equation, though. Back in 1998, Spielberg’s similarly intense World War II film, “Saving Private Ryan,” was released that summer but was still electric with Oscar buzz by the time awards season rolled around. It would go on to win five Oscars, including best director, and best motion-picture drama at the Golden Globes.
But a lot has changed in 20 years. “Dunkirk,” for better or worse, feels like a movie out of its time.
As Hollywood wrestles with the fallout from the sexual-harassment scandals and pushes for more diversity in subject matter and casting, “Dunkirk” is resolutely old-fashioned, a bombs-bursting-in-air, battle hymn to wartime testosterone, set in an era of stark good and evil.
If this were 1971 (when “Patton” won best picture) or 1957 (when “The Bridge on the River Kwai” won), it’s easy to assume that “Dunkirk” would be more of a shoo-in than it is today.
Still, there’s a way that “Dunkirk” might find its path to the podium Sunday night. As Vox recently noted in its breakdown on Oscar probabilities, the traditionalism of “Dunkirk” could work in its favor with some voters. Along with “The Shape of Water,” it’s certainly the most breathtakingly cinematic of all the best-picture nominees.
Adding to that, as Oscar voting is based on a preferential system, in which voters rank their choices, a film that is broadly well liked may not be the first choice of many voters, but it might be their second or third. Depending how many rounds of voting there are, “Dunkirk” could benefit if “Billboards” or “Water” has lots of haters. As Vox noted, “Even if not everybody loves ‘Dunkirk,’ everybody at least admires it.”
More than likely, though, “Dunkirk” will have to be satisfied with recognition in various technical categories. That might be cold comfort to Nolan on Sunday if he leaves Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre without a statue. But that doesn’t dim the fact that he created one of the year’s most bracing moviegoing experiences.