Christopher Nolan again proved why he is one of the greatest directors of our era with his release of Dunkirk on July 13, 2017. Nolan returned to his nonlinear roots with Dunkirk’s smooth yet complicated plot structure about one of the biggest military disasters of World War II.
Nolan called the cast one of the greatest ever, which included Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, and Harry Styles in his film debut. The cast has received massive praise for their performances as has the rest of the film which was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, which was surprisingly Nolan's first Oscar nomination for directing.
It was also the first film Nolan has made which was based on real historical events, something he's about to do again with Oppenheimer. What exactly was this battle of Dunkirk which Nolan sought to capture, and how truthful is his portrait.
What Exactly Happened at Dunkirk?
After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the British sent the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to join the French defenses. Although the war technically began in 1939, the fighting didn’t truly begin until April 1940 when Germany invaded Belgium. The Netherlands and France followed with Germany successfully invading both countries in early May 1940.
By May 21, 1940, Germany had pushed the BEF and the Allied forces to the northern coast of France along the English Channel. With troops having nowhere to go, Hitler called off his ground forces to conserve ammo and tanks but continued his assault from the air with the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe, tired from the two straight weeks of fighting, were ordered to stop the escape of the Allied forces.
Operation Dynamo
On May 26, 1940, Sir Winston Churchill gave the order for Operation Dynamo. Operation Dynamo was Britain’s last chance to rescue their entrapped troops from the Western Front. Churchill knew that this would be a turning point for the war and if Britain failed, Europe would be lost. His goal was to recover 45,000 BEF soldiers who were the only trained troops in England.
The Operation fully began on May 27th with a small fleet of destroyers across the channel to rescue the entrapped troops. This ended up being a massive disaster as the Luftwaffe easily attacked any approaching ship and made the rescue nearly impossible. The British Royal Air Force (RAF) helped prevent the rescue from being a total loss. But the RAF squadrons sustained heavy damage and a lot of the pilots ended up on the beaches with the troops they were trying to protect.
Knowing they could not risk sending any more of their military fleets, Churchill sent out an emergency call went out for small craft volunteers. This began a massive effort to rescue the stranded trips with the first of the “little ships” beginning to arrive on May 28th and by May 31st nearly 400 small crafts were taking part in the rescue effort. Over 300,000 British and French soldiers were rescued by the end of the evacuation on June 4th, although 17,000 sadly perished.
Dunkirk Pride
What happened at Dunkirk is considered a military disaster for both sides. For the Allies, it nearly cost them the war, and for the Nazis, it would ultimately be a major part of their later downfall. Military experts have questioned the choices of Axis leaders during this time in WW2, and have concluded that Hitler’s pride led to his decision-making, as he thought the British would leave and never return.
Although Dunkirk nearly lost the Allies the war, it boosted morale and energized England to fight. The British rallied around their troops and hugely supported the efforts that they made. This pride and knowledge would later help the Allies conquer the Normandy beaches during D-Day.
The battle of Dunkirk is a point of pride in England today and is called “Dunkirk Pride,” which saw a revitalization with the film’s release. Quentin Tarantino discussed his experience seeing Dunkirk in London on Bill Simmons' podcast The Rewatchables and said how proud the people of England were of the film. Tarantino even considered the film to be “the peak” of Nolan’s career. Critics and audiences clearly agreed as Dunkirk is a colossal achievement for the writer-director.
Christopher Nolan’s Dedication to Accuracy
Dunkirk is an explosion of intense war action that accurately captures the desperation that the men stuck on the beaches of Dunkirk felt. Nolan originally got the idea when he sailed across the English Channel to Dunkirk and realized the difficulty the civilian ships face during the journey across the rough water. Which led to his dedication to accuracy for the film.
Nolan proceeded to cast actors that were around the ages of the characters they were playing and attempted to cast unknown people in the roles of the young soldiers. He used World War II planes and was able to adapt others to either look like the plane or be able to carry an IMAX camera. Nolan reunited with Interstellar cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and Hans Zimmerman to create a cinematic masterpiece that leaves audiences at the edge of their seats while delivering an accurate portrayal of the agony felt by those soldiers.
Nolan received permission from the French government to film on the beaches of Dunkirk and rebuild part of the mole (concrete jetties that protected the beach) that allowed thousands of men to be rescued. The film has such little dialogue that he almost shot Dunkirk without a script. The film heavily relies on the emotions of its actors and the intricate telling of its real story. With the added tension of Zimmerman’s score and the beauty of van Hoytema’s cinematography, it is hard to deny Dunkirk’s place in cinematic history.
Dunkirk is currently streaming on Hulu.