Surviving Dunkirk

It is difficult enough to tell stories of war on the big screen, since wars are messy, bloody and confusing. An even bigger challenge is to tell the story from the point of view of individuals, to home in on the personal challenges faced by a soldier or civilian without losing sight of even larger forces doing battle in the larger world.

This is the challenge that filmmaker Christopher Nolan faced when he decided to helm “Dunkirk.” The noted director—who also wrote the film script—describes the events covered by the movie as “one of the greatest stories in human history, the ultimate life-or-death race against time.”

Immersion in the movie goes beyond the lives of the individuals whose stories are told. There is even an almost literal immersion, as when the camera goes into the water and follows the drowning characters struggling to break out in the surface. There is also the palpable tension and terror among the British and Allied forces trapped on the beach of Dunkirk as they wait for ships to come to their rescue as enemy aircraft strafe them.

“Dunkirk” is a coastal town in northern France where British, French, Belgian, Dutch and other “friendly” forces were trapped by incoming German troops at the outset of World War II. An unexpected lull in the German advance has given the Allies a narrow window to evacuate some 400,000 forces. But the shallow waters of Dunkirk make it impossible for large ships to get close enough to the beach and reach the trapped soldiers. Meanwhile, their numbers are threatened constantly by strafing and bombing from the Nazi Luftwaffe, with a few British Spitfires taking the battle to the air.
This is when the British government takes the unprecedented step of calling out for civilian transport—from leisure craft to fishing boats—to cross the English Channel and rescue the trapped troops in Dunkirk.

Making a film about the rescue had long been an obsession with Nolan, who says it was a movie “I’ve been wanting to tell for quite some time.”

Actor Mark Rylance, who portrays the owner of the small yacht that joined the little flotilla of rescue boats, avers that the story of Dunkirk “has a deep meaning for the English people. We were the underdogs on that beach, but we rose to the occasion and eluded the superior forces of the enemy…the Dunkirk spirit has to do with that perseverance and endurance and also selflessness..”

Indeed, significant is the fact that aside from buying or building boats for the sea rescue, the filmmakers also decided to use a few boats that had been used at the real event, lovingly preserved by the Dunkirk Association of Little Ships. If they could talk, what would these boats say about a movie where they play such a crucial role?
Another movie about another war: “War for the Planet of the Apes,” has us rooting not for the humans who are after all our ilk, but for the primates (well, we belong to the primate family, don’t we?) led by the master strategist Caesar.

The apes by now have gone way beyond the wonders of prosthetics that they were early in the franchise. They are this time empathetic, feeling creatures, with the Colonel, the villain of the movie, exhorting Caesar “don’t be too emotional” in the course of their confrontations. Let me add my vote for Andy Serkis for Best Actor in the coming academy awards. He portrays Caesar not as a special
effect but as a creature of intelligence and emotion—smart and cunning, but also soft-hearted and compassionate. To convey such a character mainly through one’s eyes is indeed a feat of acting.

Also caught “Spider-Man Homecoming,” the second reboot and the 16th film of what’s known as “the Marvel Cinematic Universe.” The movie returns “Spidey” to his origins—as a feckless teener—which also means conveying all their annoying qualities: impetuous, rebellious, impatient, reckless and recalcitrant. I spent half the time annoyed at Spidey and the other half rooting for him. Like I did with my children when they were teens themselves!