Love them, or hate them, Christopher Nolan has delivered some epic movie of this generation and his take on a historic event was always going to be an interesting proposition, so when Dunkirk was announced it immediately started the headlines flowing. An ambitious project indeed, but if anybody could pull it off Nolan’s name would be on the shortlist.

Focusing on the massive evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940, as the German army closed in on the remaining Allied forces, cornered on the beach, who’s only escape route was across the sea to Britain. Dunkirk tells it’s story from three aspects, land, sea and air, each featuring it’s own characters who’s paths cross at differing moments and in varying ways through the course of the movie. We see Farrier (Tom Hardy) who is flying across the English Channel to provide air support with fellow pilot Collins (Jack Lowden) and their squadron leader. Mr.Dawson (Mark Rylance) who answers the call for all civilian boats to assist in the evacuation and set off to rescue as many as his small vessel will hold and Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) who is coordinating the removal of as many men as possible before they are overrun by the advancing German forces.

 

 

While these three stars may be the A-Listers in terms of the cast, their roles, while pivotal are not the central focus of the film and they are just another member of the ensemble cast. The most screen time and closest character to a protagonist falls to a young British soldier Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) who we see running from the German from the opening scenes in the movie, seemingly destined to fail no matter what he tries as one attempt after another to escape falls flat. There are numerous other players to varying degrees but, while the acting was strong all around this is not a character piece so the general anonymity of the cast was a great call since these people are just another number in a bigger picture. They can only try and do what they can in the moment and the choices they make can mean life or death alluding to the blind luck involved in making it through the moment. Turn left or right, step up or down, each decision could save, or kill you a few moments later. There is plenty of action, death and explosions but it’s not visceral. There’s little blood and no shots of bodies strewn around as there is no time for that, remaining unscathed from one moment is a bonus, it’s time to focus on getting through the next and there is little time to reflect before the next hazard appears. The horrors of war in this tale are all psychological.

 

This was the great selling point of the film for me, there’s no back story for the people involved so you don’t have a chance to really connect and engage with the characters, they are all just pawns. There’s no expositional speeches of how they came to be in the moment, nobody cares, it’s all about survival, by any means necessary. For long periods of the movie there is no dialogue at all, but there doesn’t need to be, the action on the screen is telling you everything you need to know and you feel like you are living the moment. The disappointment, the desperation, the fear and the hope are all played through a combination of imagery and Hans Zimmers superb score. There’s a massive feeling of a ticking clock through the majority of the running time thanks to Zimmer’s influence in making the tension so palpable through sound alone.

I particularly loved the moments in the skies, with the dog fights being superbly shot that’s to some excellent camera placement. There’s no over the top action, with barrel rolls and unrealistic manoeuvres. This is a small scale, high risk operation with thousands of lives at risk which all adds gravitas to the situation.

 

 

The movie is a story of a moment in time, not a story of the people involved. There’s bravery, sacrifice, selfishness, cowardice and heroism all on show but it’s not about the actions of the few it’s about the big picture of allowing as many as possible escape the moment , re-group and prepare to fight the enemy another day.

It would be wrong to call this an enjoyable movie in terms of entertainment value but as a spectacle, needing to be watched on the big screen for full effect, it has to be admired for the epic movie that has been created with very little CGI used and it’s a movie which deserves to be added to the list of classic war films. Nolan may still polarise audiences but for me he has cemented his position as a genius of modern cinema with this latest effort.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10

© Darren Jones 2017

Marvel tries another reboot in the franchise of the popular web slinger, this time with Tom Holland, who was well received in his small role during the Civil War movie, as Peter Parker. In this iteration we spend more time on Peter’s daily life as he tries to come to terms with his new found role as a super hero. Spending his days as a normal high school kid and at night, becoming the local law enforcement watchdog.

But Peter is becoming frustrated at dealing with minor petty crimes and after tackling the likes of Captain America and The Winter Soldier in Civil War, he feels that his talents are being wasted dealing with bicycle thieves and muggers. After a run in with a set of bank robbers carrying some unusual weaponry puts Peter and local residents in danger, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) visits Peter asking him to stick with the small stuff and leave the bigger fish for the Avengers to deal with.

This only leads to further frustration for Peter as he feels as though he has been brushed aside after assisting Stark when called upon and when he and his friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), manage to unlock further abilities in his suit (voiced by Jennifer Connelly) he decides to follow up on the bank robbery and puts himself, friends and family squarely in the firing line of Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) and his alter-ego, The Vulture.

 

 

Keaton is excellent as Toomes, driven by a need to look after his family, a reluctant villain who believes his actions are justified by being done wrong by others. He just wants to be left to his own devices and doesn’t want the fighting to occur but after being consistently disrupted by Spider-Man he realises that he needs to take action and when the reveal about Toomes character appears (one I did not see coming) it adds great emotional turmoil to their battle.

 

 

Marvel have done a good job of making the Spider-Man character feel very rooted in his comic book origins without making this another back story. Because we given the details in Civil War there is no need to go right back to basics and by beginning the movie with a recap of the Civil War events through Spider-Man’s eyes via a POV type documentary he is filming, it saves having to start from scratch and let’s us focus on Peter dealing with his dual life.

Being an unseen, shy kid in school dealing with the tribulations that all teenagers have, but having abilities that he cannot tell anybody about is a dilemma which would test any kid and Peter both passes and fails in equal measure. He wants to do right and all his decisions are for a good cause but, because of this inexperience, he doesn’t realise the secondary damage his actions can create.

 

 

With a John Hughes ‘coming of age’ vibe through a lot of the movie, this one is less action orientated and more character driven. Although there are some very good action sequences, particularly the scene at the Washington Monument, they are sometime let down by some poor CGI, but not in any great way that ruins the film. This film felt more at home when it was dealing with Peter and his attempts to live his day to day life with his aunt May (Marisa Tomei), deal with his infatuation with Liz (Laura Harrier) and his friendship with Ned, trying to act normal while dealing with his dual life and the moralistic choices he needs to make.

A fun filled two hours with a good range of humour, action and drama with some great nods to the Spider-Man and MCU lore in general for fans of the genre, in particular the appearance of Donald Glover as Aaron Davis, the uncle of Miles Morales an ‘MJ’ link which may have future developments in the franchise and a post credit scene leading into a possible Sinister 6 link, this is a step in a different direction from Marvel but they have still managed to maintain their high standard of MCU movie releases.

DJ Speaks rating: 6.5 Out Of 10

©Darren Jones 2017