Dunkirk
Produced and distributed by Warner Brothers
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan
Chuck
Produced by Millennium Films
Distributed by IFC Films
Written by Jeff Feuerzeig and Jerry Stahl
Directed by Philippe Falardeau
You wouldn’t think a director who’s made three extravagantly fanciful Batman movies would be interested in turning his hand to a realistic rendering of a true episode from World War II, but this is what Christopher Nolan has done with his film Dunkirk. The result is something of a technical marvel, even if it’s somewhat dramatically muddled.
Nolan has pulled out the big guns for his account of the 1940 Allied evacuation from Dunkerque, during which over 330,000 British and European soldiers were ferried across the English Channel by the destroyers Winston Churchill decided he could spare, accompanied by over 800 citizen-owned fishing boats and yachts summoned to the occasion by charity and patriotism. Nolan shot the film on 70mm film stock with IMAX cameras. The latest in Dolby sound recording lends portent to a thrumming score by Hans Zimmer, underpinned with a ceaseless ticking, as if events are headed toward Armageddon, which they might well have been but for some unexplained luck and the Germans’ seeming reluctance to prosecute...