Dunkirk

A war film set in France in 1940. Four hundred thousand soldiers are trapped on a beach. The enemy behind them, the sea in front, and nobody can find enough ships to take them off. The film tells three lines together. A week on the beach, a day at sea and an hour in the air. The three do not run at the same speed and they end at the same moment; because of that some scenes appear twice, from two angles. On the beach two young soldiers look for a way onto a ship and every attempt fails. At sea there is a civilian boat. A father, his son and a friend set out from England; the navy does not have enough ships and civilians have been called. In the air there are three fighters. Their fuel is limited and one pilot keeps the count by hand because his gauge is broken. What the narrative is interested in is not victory but getting out: no battle is won in this film and the last speech says so plainly. There is almost no dialogue. The characters' pasts are not told, even their names come late, and the narrative rests entirely on the situation. Sound and music are the main instrument of tension. A tone that seems to rise continuously and the ticking of a watch run throughout. Real ships and aircraft of the period were used; digital multiplication in the crowd scenes was kept low. It was shot largely in large format and shown on film in some venues. The film won Academy Awards for editing, sound editing and sound mixing. Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and Kenneth Branagh are in the cast. Christopher Nolan directed. Who it is for: anyone watching for structure and technique. Who it is not for: anyone looking for attachment to characters; the film introduces nobody, deliberately.