Dunkirk’s Drastically Different Depiction of Combat
There’s a radical element to the way filmmaker Christopher Nolan depicts war in his Best Picture nominee Dunkirk. During a largely wordless opening sequence, a British soldier, Tommy, (Fionn Whitehead) runs from a frightening hail of German gunfire that can be heard, but remains unseen. He’s one of the hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers retreating to the beaches of Dunkirk, stuck and hoping to escape back to England. Tommy stumbles onto another young man, Gibson (Aneurin Barnard), burying a body on the beach. The two exchange a silent glance before burying the dead soldier together, and carrying a wounded soldier onto a hospital ship. What we, the audience, don’t yet realize is that Gibson is not English, but a disguised French soldier hoping to evacuate with the British. Nolan unites the young men from different nations without dialog, only a shared goal of survival. In this moment, and throughout Dunkirk, Nolan focuses on the efforts made by soldier and civilian to help each other, rather than their efforts to confront and defeat an enemy.
Set during World War II, before the momentum of war turned against the Nazis, Dunkirk jumps between three interwoven storylines. The first, involving infantrymen stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk, lead by Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh), The second, a civilian boat lead by Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) sailing to evacuate soldiers from France. Third, a fighter pilot, Farrier (Tom Hardy), aiming to keep German planes away from the pinned down English army. There are structural similarities here to Nolan’s other multi-layered stories, like The Prestige or Inception’s dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream idea. Despite Dunkirk’s non-linear mechanics (which sets these plotlines over the course of one week, one day, and one hour, respectively), the story remains clear throughout: the English are running out of time to rescue their soldiers from Hitler’s army. The ticking of a stopwatch accompanies Hans Zimmer’s score, heightening the sense that this mission is a race against time.
There’s almost no blood shown in Dunkirk, but it’s also worth noting the film’s lack of swastikas or identifiable Nazis on screen. In a genre populated by gritty, bloodthirsty films, and lovingly re-created historical iconography, Dunkirk sets itself apart by eschewing the conflict and instead highlighting the humanity. Even Mel Gibson’s recently lauded Best Picture nominee Hacksaw Ridge, a movie ostensibly about the heroism of non-violence, features gruesome battle scenes in which soldiers are maimed or literally set on fire. Most filmmakers can’t help but linger on the bloody details. They provide cinematic moments, and allow filmmakers to utilize the extremely capable make-up or CGI technicians to create moments of, “movie magic.” There’s an unmistakable power to the depiction of violence on screen, and Nolan is far more careful in the way he dispatches it in Dunkirk. Bullets fly in from unknown origins. Bombs drop too fast to jump out of the way. War, in Dunkirk, is terror and the constant looming threat of not being able to return home. Dunkirk is a firmly anti-violence war film.