DUNKIRK

Title : Dunkirk 2017

Language : English

Release Date : 13 July 2017 (Odeon Leicester Square)

19 July 2017 (France)

20 July 2017 (Netherlands)

21 July 2017 (UK / US)

Directed By : Christopher Nolan

Distributed By : Warner Bros. Pictures

Dunkirk is a 2017 war film written, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan that depicts World War II's Dunkirk evacuation. Its ensemble cast includes Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D'Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy. The film is a British, American, French and Dutch co-production, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Dunkirk portrays the evacuation from three perspectives: land, sea and air. It has little dialogue, since Nolan sought to create suspense from cinematography and music. Filming began in May 2016 in Dunkirk and ended that September in Los Angeles, when post-production began. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot the film on IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large format film stock. Dunkirk has extensive practical effects, using thousands of extras, boats that participated in the evacuation, and period aeroplanes.

The film premiered on 13 July 2017 at Odeon Leicester Square in London, and was released in the United Kingdom and the United States on 21 July in IMAX, 70 mm, and 35 mm film formats. It has grossed $523 million worldwide, the highest-grossing World War II film of all time. It was praised for its screenplay, direction and cinematography, with some critics calling it Nolan's best work and one of the greatest ever war films.

Plot

In 1940, during the fall of France, hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers have retreated to Dunkirk. Tommy, a young British private, is the sole survivor of a German ambush. At the beach, he finds thousands of troops awaiting evacuation and meets Gibson, who is burying a body. After a German dive-bomber attack, they find a wounded man. They rush his stretcher onto a hospital ship, but are denied passage themselves. The ship is attacked; Tommy saves Alex, another soldier. They leave at night on another ship, which is sunk by a torpedo. Gibson saves Tommy and Alex, and they are brought ashore by a lifeboat.

The three join a group of Scottish soldiers and hide inside a trawler until the tide rises. Its owner, a Dutch mariner, returns. German troops shoot at the boat for target practice; when the tide rises, water enters through the bullet holes. Alex, hoping to lighten the boat's load, accuses Gibson, who has been silent, of being a spy and demands that he leave. Gibson reveals he is French; he had stolen the identity of the soldier he buried, hoping to evacuate with the British.

The British navy requisitions civilian vessels that can get close to the beach. In Weymouth, Mr. Dawson and his son Peter set out on his boat Moonstone rather than let the navy take it. Impulsively, their teenage friend George joins them. At sea, they rescue a shell-shocked officer from a wrecked ship. When he realises that Dawson is sailing for Dunkirk, the officer panics and demands that they turn back. Peter locks him below. After being let out, the officer tries to wrest control of the boat; in the struggle, George suffers a head injury that renders him blind.

Three Spitfires head towards France. After their leader is shot down, pilot Farrier assumes command with a shattered fuel gauge. They shoot down another plane, but the other Spitfire is also hit and ditches. Its pilot, Collins, is rescued by the Moonstone.

Alex, Tommy and the Scottish soldiers abandon the fishing boat when it begins to sink. Gibson is entangled in a chain and drowns. Alex and Tommy swim towards a nearby destroyer, but it is sunk by a bomber. The Moonstone manoeuvres to take on troops, including Alex and Tommy. Peter realises that George is dead; when asked by the shell-shocked officer, he lies that George will be fine. Farrier shoots down the bomber, which crashes and ignites the oil slick from the sinking destroyer. Peter reveals to Collins that his elder brother was a Hurricane pilot, killed early in the war.

Farrier reaches Dunkirk, his fuel exhausted. Gliding over the beach, he shoots down a dive bomber to cheers from the troops below. He cranks his landing gear down and lands beyond the Allied perimeter. He sets fire to his plane and is taken prisoner.

At the beach, Commander Bolton watches the last British soldiers leave. He confirms that 300,000 have been evacuated, ten times more than estimated. He remains to oversee the evacuation of the French rearguard.

Alex and Tommy cross the English Channel and board a train in Weymouth. Dawson is congratulated for having saved so many men. The shell-shocked officer sees George's body being carried away. Peter visits the local newspaper with a photograph of George; a front-page article later commends George as a hero. Alex expects public scorn as the train approaches Woking, but they receive a hero's welcome. Tommy reads out Winston Churchill's address to the nation from a newspaper.