Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Zanele J — 13 Jul 2018

A film review by Zanele Jiane.

"We shall fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that's bloody well all we've got" Winston Churchill - 4 June 1940.

A Sea in the Judean Christian literature is a symbol of chaos. The British and the French armies are sandwiched between the sea and the ferocious German army. Deep in the sea, help is gradually approaching for the army aching for a glimpse of their home. The whole movie is an attempt to make sense out of the chaos of evacuating 300000 soldiers from Dunkirk, a town in France.

The film's striking feature is the cinematography; this is due to the IMAX format of capturing the movie. Director Christopher Nolan collaborates with a new partner, Hoyte van Hoytema and not with his a long time work partner Wally Pfister. This change is impressive and serves the film with fresh inspiration which is an offshoot of the unfamiliar dialogue between director and cinematographer.

While Dunkirk is a war film, violence is almost non-existent. The story is told entirely on the surviving party's point of view, more like "Escape from Alcatraz", and the civilians who orchestrate the rescue operation. Our job as moviegoers is to watch them escape the sparse but vicious attacks from land and air.

The pacing of the film is quiet, and the central character role is shared among a spread of noteworthy individuals, gracing us with rousing portrayals.

All in all, Dunkirk was for me hard to follow, as it is a silent film, a lot of hard work is required to understand it, I have since watched it three times, I finally succeeded when I switched on the Subtitles.

Nolan's wisdom is seen in the concluding scene where Fionn Whitehead read Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech from a newspaper article, this is a great move as we remain in the war setting without switching entirely to a formal political setting, away from the mess we are now accustomed to, the speech, an essential part of the film's conclusion, is placed within a familiar setting.

Tom Hardy can only be fully seen near the closing scenes, and he concludes the film in an emotional bend. We each character saying their goodbyes in different ways, even the fighter plane that played a pivotal role in the movie is reduced to flames as it burns to ashes; the leaping flames, some reflecting on Tom Hardy are similar to "xenolinguistic" form of goodbye between two alien entities.

Cillian Murphy plays his entire role almost wholly guilt-ridden and is lastly comforted by the father of the boy he killed accidentally due to his cowardice and selfish ambition in a time of war.

This gesture of comfort is woven in with the few final scenes as the soldiers are embarrassed for not fighting, one blind man congratulates the soldiers, giving each a blanket (as did the father in the story of the prodigal son), the soldier responds, "We only survived" to which the old blind man replies "that's enough". They are shocked at the reception, because they feel unworthy of it, they are deemed heroes nonetheless by those who did not fight in the war, their tears are dried by the blind, the old, and the prepubescent, they receive the embrace akin to that of the prodigal son received from his loving father who was looking for his son.

"Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea... He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.".

Revelations 21 verse 1 and verse 4.