The Battle of Dunkirk took place over an eight day period in late May, early June of 1940 in an area of France, Dunquere, 47 miles across the Straight of Dover in the English Channel from the famous white cliffs. The Nazis overwhelmed allied forces, leading to one of the most famous and heralded retreats in history. 338,226 men were saved, British, French, Polish and Dutch. 68,111 were captured or killed. Waiting on the beach or piers, and once aboard a ship, those men were sitting ducks for German bombers and fighter pilots. Each side lost more than 100 planes. What made the evac of Dunkirk so memorable was the participation of British civilians in small craft. Last night I watched Christopher Nolan's 2017 take on the event, courtesy of Netflix. He took a unique approach, making it a tale of survival. There is little character development but much personal character, a bit of it negative although perfectly human. It seems almost a documentary. Despite the presence of brilliant actors such as Mark Rylance, Kenneth Brannagh and Tom Hardy, there is no star. Nolan, a Londoner, also wrote the screenplay. 48, he may be the best director of his generation. Not only does he make terrific movies, they are boffo at the box office. At one point Brannagh, the officer in charge of the operation, gazes through the fog using binoculars and soon spots a fleet of civilian craft heading toward the beach. It reminded me of the scene in
The Longest Day (1962) when the Nazi officer looks out from his bunker and sees the D-Day fleet, the scene accompanied by the chilling main riff from Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony, the death knell for the Nazis. Made on a budget of $100 million,
Dunkirk returned $500 million worldwide. 389,000+ users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a consensus of eight on a scale of ten. It won three Oscars for technical excellence, and received five other nominations, including Best Pic and Screenplay. It's not a history lesson. It's an authentic depiction of men at war, desperate to survive. One of the final scenes has a character reading Churchill's subsequent address to the nation from a newspaper, words so fitting for Memorial Day. "... We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets; we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender..."
Here's a list of Nolan's full length features. He wrote the screenplay for all except
Insomnia:
2017
Dunkirk
2014
Interstellar
2012
The Dark Knight Rises
2010
Inception
2008
The Dark Knight
2006
The Prestige
2005
Batman Begins
2002
Insomnia
2000
Memento
1998
Following
My thanks to the kind folks who bought books today, especially to Sacha's grandma, who insisted on paying for the four books she selected despite having donated four.
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