War movies are about hope and heroes. And Dunkirk has both. But it does not preach heroism. If anything, the movie is very low on dialogues. In fact there are not even meaningful glances, hat tips, or gestures of bravado. The movie is a matter-of-fact portrayal of an important chapter of the Second World War. As director Christopher Nolan said: “It was an important story to be told”. And he tells it well. Cerebrally, it is the simplest Nolan movie - this is about the heart and not the mind.
Dunkirk incident is before the Fall of France, the horrors of concentration camps, and the glory at Normandy. In the early part of the war, the British and French forces are pushed to the French north-coast by the advancing German army (just referred to as the ‘enemy’). The soldiers are trapped on the beach of Dunkirk waiting for rescue, or ‘deliverance’ as the movie puts it. The enemy is in such a strong position and the British air and navy so disadvantaged that it is estimated that barely 40,000 out of 400,000 would be evacuated. The fact that by the end, more than 300,000 are evacuated is what is called the Miracle of Dunkirk.
The war is being fought on land, sea and air and the movie makes three neat sections for them with a little joining of dots in the end to give coherence. Each section is headed by a major actor – Kenneth Branagh on land (or the Mole, name given to the pier which extends into the sea), Thomas Hardy in air and Mark Rylance in the sea. It is a movie by a British director, with largely a British crew, showcasing British valour. For the British soldiers, rescue means transportation across the Channel and the movie squarely focuses on them (French army is stopped from boarding the British evacuation ship). ‘Home’ is barely a few miles away and more than one character says ‘It is so close, you can almost see it’.
The movie is not as hard hitting as a Schindler’s List or a Saving Private Ryan, but neither is it kitschy. It is taut, well-paced and true to the story. And dialogues, being minimal, are punchy. Only towards the end does the sheen of steadfastness crack with indulgence into heroism, giving some lose moments I felt. But that is the path the movie had to take. The first half of the movie is plain, factual and exact, the audience knows that it is not that difficult movie. Then the second half had to give a victory, a lofty pat on the back. In the cinema hall, after the first half, a group near me was totally bored. By the end of the movie, another group could not help but clap when the evacuation succeeded.
Focusing on a few soldiers and their struggle to find a way to safety, Dunkirk presents the tension of those few days tersely. Two soldiers desperately cling onto a medical stretcher as a way to freedom, then on to a large vessel which is torpedoed, then back to Dunkirk, then hiding inside a stranded ship waiting for the tide to come back instead becoming shooting practise for the Germans, then stranded in an oil spill and finally rescued by a small pleasure-boat. But at all times, the tension is under the surface. It can be deduced only from worried faces - of the soldiers, of the Commander on the Mole, of Mr. Dawson on the boat and of Farrier in his Spitfire. Yet everyone holds on to their positions unflinchingly. Only on two occasions does the tension simmer to the surface, which is a far cry from most war movies wherein almost each scene is about conflict – of battle or of people desperate for survival. But Dunkirk goes about its business without fuss. There are numerous shots of long queues of soldiers and how they duck, sway, and shake with each torpedo attack before retaking their position - stoically, and steadfastly. For a war movie, this one has no blood, sweat or tears - neither of desolation nor of loss. Death is not pondered upon. Even towards the end when the Naval Commander wants to stay back on the mole ‘to help the French’, the Army Colonel just makes a respectful gesture before saluting off.
Central to the Dunkirk evacuation was the courage of the humble boat owners who answered Navy’s desperate call for help. And Mark Rylance’s Mr. Dawson exemplified that. He has the most dialogues and the does the most explaining, if at all. I found the ‘Sea’ part the best because of him and because of the courage of young, untrained, patriotic British, epitomised by Peter and George. They were not thinking but just going with the flow, driven by their hearts.
The end part has several beautiful moments – excerpt of the famous Churchill ‘We will fight them on the beaches’ speech; a soldier’s doubt on the worthless endeavour he had undertaken, saying “All we did was survive”, but the old, blind man who is cheering and distributing bread to the evacuated soldiers at night responds “That’s enough”. It showed the combined doggedness of a nation willing to stand together, overlooking personal misfortunes and miseries. The same thing shone when Peter does not tell the evacuated soldier that George has died after he pushed him, because that would torture the soldier for life.
Finally, a hat tip to the music which can be integral to a movie with few dialogues. Hans Zimmer creates tension and victory with his music.
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