100 MOVIES IN A YEAR: #13 Dunkirk

will weldon
Jul 22, 2017 · 3 min read

There was a brief period of time in the mid-to-late 00’s where a lot of pop culture was obsessed with the “bromance”; it was when they (absolutely wretched) term was coined, and a lot of incredibly dumb media was made in the name of “bromances”. Very little of it managed to actually capture the intense hesitation most men seem to feel when it they’re trying to become friends with another guy; I would rather be rejected by dozens of women right in a row then have some guy be like “Uh, actually I’m not really looking for more friends right now.”

I saw Dunkirk with a guy I had not hung out with before, but who had made a couple of overtures towards friendship. Being insanely depressed, I would always politely decline, as I was “busy” staring into the middle distance while I fretted and worried about such topics as varied as the least of my concerns, all the way to the greatest of concerns. I think a movie is an awful first date, since you’re both sitting in the dark not getting to know each other (which I guess makes it a great choice for the truly reprehensible among us; the longer they do not actually know you, the better) but as a first FRIEND date, it’s perfect due its incredibly low pressure level. Unless one of you is the director of the movie, the movie being bad isn’t really a reflection on either of you. Does this choice of first hang out make me a coward? Maybe. I don’t fucking owe you mother fucking people anything.

Do you see what I did at the end there? I shirked my responsibility. Instead of addressing the fact that I might not have made a truly courageous attempt at becoming friends with someone, instead taking the easy middle ground, I refused to do my duty. You know who didn’t refuse their duty? The little boats of Dunkirk, or whatever quaint British term they came up with to describe a bunch of pensioners crossing a God damn U-Boat patrolled channel to save pretty much the entirety of the God damned British ground forces. That evacuation is what Dunkirk is about; it’s not sentimental, it didn’t try to attract a bunch of big name talent by giving anybody a big important speech, and it never pretends that averting an absolute fucking disaster but still having to retreat is any kind of a real victory. The movie is all of Christopher Nolan’s best qualities, and none of his worst ones. There’s no half-hearted exploration of deeply human themes; Dunkirk is another “War is hell” movie, but manages to make it seem fresh by presenting us with a borderline traumatizing portrayal of what it’s like to be trapped on a beach, wondering if you’re just going to die there. It’s big; the shots are big, the sound is big, and both of them are overpowering. The actors aren’t getting showy, they’re just doing their jobs, and the performances are incredible effective for it. This was a great movie. As for the friendship, it’ll probably take longer than an hour and forty seven minutes to find out how that one’s going to play out.

will weldon

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www.oldmanweldon.com PODCAST: https://www.facebook.com/AngryLIttleGoats/

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