Christopher Nolan’s war concerto

Film review: Dunkirk

MANILA, Philippines - Ambitious, a visual feast and consistently intense via the intercutting of narratives and musical scoring, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk is a stunning achievement that puts his personal stamp on the war epic. If a concerto often has three major movements and features solo instruments playing against the full orchestra; the evacuation of British and French forces at Dunkirk would be the orchestra, and the three strands of narrative are the major movements that swirl, flit in and out, and in the Nolan trademark of collapsing time, converge at the film’s end to give us his version of resolution. More about survival, plucky determination and the “little people” who make up the casualties of war, than about actual warfare; the film may well spark debate as to whether it is the best Nolan film ever, or redefines the genre “war film.”

We mentioned collapsible time and in this film, one narrative is a week in the life of Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), a young recruit stranded on the Dunkirk beach and trying to just survive and board a vessel headed back to England. A second narrative is the one day of Ramsgate yachter Dawson (Mark Rylance), ready to volunteer and sail the 39 nautical miles across the English Channel to help save lives. The third narrative strand revolves around the one hour of fuel time of RAF Spitfire pilot Farrier (Tom Hardy). Ingenious editing and the more than dramatic Hans Zimmer score are crucial here as Nolan ratchets up the tension like a ticking time bomb across all three narratives over the 106 minutes of the film. A high-ranking naval officer Bolton played by Kenneth Branagh provides much of the exposition, keeping us acutely aware of the dire circumstances facing the mass of soldiers huddled on the beach — and how as things develop, the rescue operations manned by civilian seafarers may be their only hope of rescue.

Harry Styles in his im- pressive, understated film debut

This triple helix narrative structure is both the strength and weakness of the film. There are no extended scenes of gun battles or scenes of extended heroism. The most obvious act of selfless heroism would actually be civilian yachter Dawson, motivated by the death of his elder son who was a pilot, and had perished a few weeks into the war. Hardy’s pilot does go beyond the call of duty in trying to protect the evacuees; but Tommy’s exploits, along with a fellow soldier, and later on, a third (One Direction’s Harry Styles in his impressive, understated film debut) are really about the stubbornness to survive. We can sympathize with their plight; but theirs is not a story of valor or bravery.

Short on dialogue (other than Branagh’s naval officer clueing us in on what is happening on the bigger stage), it is the gloomy, grey-specked, yet very much alive cinematography of DP Hoyte Van Hoytema that affords us the scope and grandeur of the hostile sea and the impassive sky. The aerial dogfights and the treacherous waves have never felt so close or so real as in this film. In Tommy’s narrative, we are shown the relative futility and hopelessness of this chapter in History; as time and again, we are led to believe he may finally be on his way to rescue, only to be thwarted and driven back to the shore.

A tribute to all those unknown soldiers who perish or survive without us ever really recognizing their effort; I loved how, at the film’s close, rather than hearing the broadcast, it is Tommy, reading from a newspaper, Winston Churchill’s defining “We will fight them on the beaches” speech. Up to the final frames, it is the little people who remain in the bulls-eye target of this war story.