Just got home from watching this at the IMAX in Hemel. I have always enjoyed the epic period war films, and this is no exception. I wont ruin the film but it was brilliantly shot and directed. I am a big fan of Christopher Nolan movies in general (I hated Interstellar), and for me this is right up there with the best films of the year. In addition to some big names like Tom Hardy and Kenneth Branagh there are also some real unknowns in this film. Harry Styles, Fionn Whitehead and Aneurin Barnard played their roles as soldiers desperate for evacuation perfectly, so much so that my brother had not recognised Harry Styles until the credits appeared. The story is really engaging, and there are moments when the film certainly does provoke some strong emotions from the viewer. This is helped by an absolute awesome musical score by Hans Zimmer. Long story short if you are struggling for something to do one evening this week, you could do much worse than to go watch this at your local IMAX. Its run time of roughly 1hr30mins should suit both the avid cinema fan and regular viewer alike. 4.5/5
Went to see it in IMAX in Uxbridge this evening and it blew me away. I was speechless when I came out. Just a sublime film, with sublime performances, sublime direction, sublime score. Highly recommend it in IMAX. Just brilliant.
Hauntingly brilliant. The inclusion of Styles is done well and doesn't detract from the movie at all which surprised me. The score was superb as well.
Went to see it at Cineworld in Loughborough yesterday afternoon. Tremendous film. Glad 'Deal' got a mention as my Granny used to live just down the road from there.
Might I just add. I took my £1 bag of Co-op popcorn and 99p bottle of Diet Pepsi purchased from my local convenience store with me, saving me about £9 had I purchased the same items inside the cinema.
Shhhhh! Happy for the mugs to get ripped off in the cinema. It helps to keep the ticket prices down. I'm with you though. I always bring my own drinks and snacks.
Saw it last night - superbly tense, emotional and educational. Cinematography and score fab. Pleasantly surprised at the number of kids in the audience seemingly interested in the subject (although I guess some were there to see Harry Styles.)
Seriously, don't write off the movie because of him. He doesn't overshadow anyone and fits relatively well and puts in a decent performance.
I was (half) kidding Reids. I will go see it but i tell you when it comes to movies.. i'm a hard critic. We shall see.
I think you will like it Steve, I was concerned too however he it turns out he is actually a pretty solid actor. The relationship between his character and the other characters is brilliantly done, and I honestly forgot it was him I was watching.
£1 for a bag of popcorn - u wuz wobbed. But yeah, cinema prices just a total RIP off. Looking forward to seeing it my dad was on the HMS Shikari the last Royal Navy vessel to leave Dunkirk. No IMax where I live but suspect it will still be worth it. Apparently Harry Styles was selected on merit as the casting director had no idea who he was. If he brings youngsters through the doors who wouldn't normally see what their grandads went through then all power to him.
I'm not a big fan of films as a rule and certainly not a regular cinema goer but I was away on business earlier this week and next to a cinema so I went to watch this and it is a terrific film to watch. Definitely worth watching.
Saw it with my dad and son. Very intense and extraordinary film. All three generations captivated for the full two hours.
Absolutely brilliant. You just cannot imagine what it must have been like. Music is what makes it for me
I watched it today. Great film and the sound+special effects were incredible. One thing I was dissapointed with was the scale of soldiers,boats and planes shown. The amount of soldiers queing on that beach could easily be matched by the queues outside the Rookery (looked like 5,000 people) where it's meant to represent over 300,000. I feel as though the director (Nolan) should've spent a good portion of that budget on quality CGI just to emphasize the actual scale of the troops waiting for 'home' to arrive. In fact, in the film 'home' was around a dozen fishing boats. Seriously, i'm no director but had Nolan CGI'd in 300 boats approaching the shore with the soundtrack in the background, the scene wouldve been truly hair raising. Other than the scale really, I thought the acting was superb and the dogfights were very well done (albeit with only 6/7 planes shown). Just my humble opinion
I absolutely love Christopher Nolan. My top 10 films of all time probably contain about 5 of his works. Haven't yet got around to seeing this as I have just got back from holiday, but I'll definitely see this ASAP.
I was one of the Managers there until last month (moved to Cineworld Nottingham). I'll let everyone know to watch out for you and your Co-Op popcorn
I haven't seen the film, and critics have said that there weren't enough people and boats around, but not all 300,000 turned up at the same time and it was a very long beach.
True, but the beach looked empty at points lol. It gave the impression that all of the troops had finally been transported back home but then 10 minutes later you'd see a few hundred standing around so it would contradict the first impression. Either way, it's only one critique I have of the film. Other than that the film was very good
Oh really? Lol. Small world. My lad told me last night, Cineworld is fast becoming a pervert's paradise what with its shiny reflective floor.
That would get me the sack! It's shiny for sure but I wouldn't say it's that reflective! Your lad must be taking a long hard stare to see anything haha. Loughborough is definitely the nicest Cinema out of the 7 I've worked at.
Really enjoyed this tonight, also thought Harry Styles was good in his role! One thing though: Spoiler: SPOILER Why did Tom Hardy not use his parachute once he went past the last of the British soldiers on the beach applauding him?
Spoiler From memory, he was too low for the parachute to be effectively deployed. Also procedure for bailout required jetisoning the canopy, unhooking the radio leads and execute a half barrel roll to fall out of the cockpit. With no engine power the plane may have plummeted into the beach and potentially taking out soldiers. Interesting piece of trivia about the Mark Rylance character. That storyline is very similar to Sundowner yacht, which was sailed in Dunkirk by Charles Lightholler, who was the 2nd officer and most senior officer to survive from the Titanic.
Took Aethelred to see this a couple of weeks ago. It was OK I suppose. A wee bit gung ho Hollywood for my liking in places. The bit where the general stays behind heroically and stands on the top of the cliff saluting with the sunset behind him was particularly grating for example. Considering how Brits complain about the manipulation of history in all those "How the USA won the war" movies we see, I thought there might have been a little bit more mention of the French too (apart from a couple of shot of them looking surly behind sandbags). They did after all hold up the Nazis and gain the precious time that was needed for the evacuation. It also completely ignored commonwealth troops. I don't think there was one brown face in the whole film. That of course is not historically accurate. On the plus side, I really liked the Spitfire dogfight scenes - they were really dramatic. With the tremendous cinema sound, when the bullets from the ME109 were hitting the plane, it was like you were being shot up yourself. Excellent. I suppose our poor kids will have to put up with this being repeated every boxing day now for the next 50 years or so in place of 'the great escape' we had to put up with.
Some interesting points: The Port Commander who stayed behind was based on the real Port Commander of the day. He returned to Dunkirk after the British had evacuated to aid the French evacuation and died when his boat was hit by a torpedo. Completely agree that the French were not given enough credit for holding the lines. I have read criticism for this elsewhere, but the film was supposed to have more of a psychological edge. Christopher Nolan apparently did not want to get trapped down in telling the history of the battle, only to actually try and made a tense film about several individuals. I wondered this too, however the troops at Dunkirk belonged to either the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) or the French Army. As we have already said the French don't really feature in the film, although there were definitely people of different races, colour and creeds in their ranks. The BEF was a bit of a different matter; the majority of troops would have been white from England, Wales and Scotland. You can see the makeup of the BEF here: http://www.britishmilitaryhistory.c...ent_pdf/40.05.09_B.E.F._Structure_Diagram.pdf As far as I can tell the only commonwealth troops to fight with the BEF was a Canadian Division that was only deployed in June and evacuated soon after. I don't think at this stage the British had mobilised the Empire's forces. In fact when the BEF was reinforced it was with Irregular Territorial Army troops, not troops from the Empire. I'm sure there were several races in the ranks of the BEF, but they would have been spread very sporadically, so their absence from the film is actually not surprising. I thought the dogfight scenes were fantastic too.
Saw this this afternoon, absolutely loved it. I can't imagine watching it at home after seeing it with cinema sound. On the way home my daughter asked me what I thought of Harry Styles and I had to admit I'd completely forgotten he was in it. She had to tell me which character he was playing so fair play, I thought he was excellent. They had a special screening at Vue Watford today with subtitles, and as Mrs Diamond doesn't hear so well we decided to go for it. The cinema was pretty full of the "older" generation so no banks of mobile phones and such. Twenty minutes in I realised they'd forgot to put the subtitles on, (noticed after a few groups walked out). Doh!
