'Dunkirk'
The Ringer's Sean Fennessey and Chris Ryan are joined by writer-director Quentin Tarantino to rewatch the first movie in a three-part Rewatchables series handpicked by Quentin Tarantino. To begin the series, they set out for the coast of France to retrieve their men to rewatch Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk,' starring Fionn Whitehead, Tom Hardy, and Kenneth Branagh. Where does it rank on Quentin's best movies of the decade list?
Cast
Fionn Whitehead as Tommy
Tom Hardy as Farrier
Mark Rylance as Mr. Dawson
Kenneth Branagh as Commander Bolton
Cillian Murphy as Shivering Soldier
Harry Styles as Alex
Barry Keoghan as George
Jack Lowden as Collins
Aneurin Barnard as Gibson
James D'Arcy as Captain Winnant
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Written by: Christopher Nolan
Cinematography by: Hoyte van Hoytema
Music by: Hans Zimmer
Notes
- $150 million budget, $526 million at the box office – won Oscars for Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Film Editing with five other nominations including Picture and Director.
- Quentin Tarantino chose this as part of his handpicked three-part Rewatchables series. He had it at #7 on his decade list before it jumped to #2 after his third viewing.
- Tarantino saw it in London at a huge Piccadilly Circus theater where the young British staff were 'proud of it' – a British movie about a British event. He looked around during the Armada scene and 'all the Brits were crying'.
- Nolan's wife Emma Thomas inspired the film – during a 1990s boat trip across the Channel toward 'Dunkirk', they hit rough weather and a simple crossing took 19 harrowing hours.
- The ticking clock in Hans Zimmer's score was recorded from one of Nolan's own pocket watches, then put into synthesizers. The ticking doesn't stop until Alex and Tommy are safely on the train.
- Mark Rylance's character Mr. Dawson is based on Charles Lightoller, second officer of the 'Titanic', who took his yacht Sundowner to 'Dunkirk' at age 66 and packed it so full that 55 men were aboard.
- Nolan rebuilt 900 feet of the Mole pier from original blueprints at a cost of $900,000. He mounted cameras on real reconditioned Spitfires and had cameramen floating in the water with actors.
- Films Nolan cited as inspiration: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (which Tarantino compares the crosscutting structure to), silent films Greed (1924), Intolerance (1916), Sunrise (1927), plus A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, 'Saving Private Ryan', The Wages of Fear, and Alien.
- Nolan compared casting Harry Styles to casting Heath Ledger as the Joker – he auditioned thousands of young men and said people underestimated Styles.
- This is the first time Nolan was nominated for Best Director, which Fennessey calls strange given his body of work.
Categories
The British soldiers seeing the civilian Armada arriving – 'the emotional payoff of everything you've been watching.' Also the opening scene (leaflets falling, the chase through the streets), the stretcher run across the Mole (where Zimmer's score truly kicks in), the sinking ship/torpedo, the sea of fire sequence, and Tom Hardy gliding in silence after running out of fuel.
Hans Zimmer's score – Tarantino calls it 'the score you could define the decade by' and says it was a crime it didn't win the Oscar. The time-shifting structure rewards repeated viewings – Tarantino didn't fully understand the temporal crosscutting until his 4th viewing. Mark Rylance's quiet, still performance. Christopher Nolan's virtuosity – Tarantino says this is Nolan's '2001' and his Apex Mountain, putting himself 'up with the greatest in the world.'
The time-shifting gimmick – will it become a Nolan crutch or a hallmark? The Cillian Murphy PTSD sections are everyone's least favorite part of the film, though they work within the fabric because you're never there for long. Some period inaccuracies: the Luftwaffe didn't paint fighter nose cones yellow until later in 1940; the top of the Weymouth Sea Life Tower (built 2012) is visible in some shots.
None – first time this has happened. The deliberate choice to cast unknowns meant there were no what-ifs. Michael Caine has an uncredited voice cameo as the RAF Flight Leader (his 7th Nolan collaboration).
Cillian Murphy – he's the only one with a truly dramatic, emotional performance. 'He's the only one that has a really dramatic moment.' Most of the film is sheer terror and survival, not acting.
Barry Keoghan as George – 'the Dion Waiters Award.' His eagerness to be useful and his tragic death are the film's emotional heart. Tom Hardy does the most with the least screen time, carrying the air sequences with almost no dialogue – 'a movie star even though you never see the bottom half of his face until the second last shot.'
Christopher Nolan – yes. All three agree. Tarantino: 'He put himself up with the greatest in the world.' It's his '2001' – he is Warner Brothers' Kubrick. Sean argues Dark Knight is more important (the most important movie of the century for resetting industry brain chemistry), but concedes that might be Batman's apex, not Nolan's. After 'Dunkirk', 'what comes for him is anything he wants.'
Almost impossible to nitpick. The Luftwaffe nose cone colors are wrong for 1940. A modern tower is visible in the Weymouth shots. Chamberlain's appeasement strategy is everyone's real nitpick. The Murphy boat section is the weakest thread but never drags because Nolan keeps the cuts short.
It could have been done as a miniseries – 'that's how most people would think to do it.' Thank God Nolan didn't. He made it lean instead. 'Checking in on the Belgians, Episode 6' – the opposite of what makes this great.
Was Farrier (Tom Hardy's character) eventually rescued or hauled off to a German POW camp? Consensus: he's in a German prison for 5 years. If you could only watch one of the three storylines, which? Tarantino picks the Fionn Whitehead beach story; all agree the air sequences are the blockbuster thread but you can't spend the whole movie up there.