Dunkirk - The Art Of Fear

I think the reason Dunkirk was a controversial film for some people was because it was incredibly strange in its execution: the vast majority of films focus on the character as events happen to that character, while Dunkirk does exactly the opposite, where the focus is on the event as the characters experience the difference between the two sounds quite subtle, but when actually executed, it makes all the difference in the world in almost every movie, the director tries to add character moments, they actively try to make the audience care about their characters, whereas with Dunkirk Nolan. intentionally not, I think right there the intended flaws are not only the most damaging part of this movie, but also the most redeeming parts.

Hacksaw Bridge was an incredible movie and it's great to see that Mel Gibson still has the ability to make it. Great movies, but there is an inherent flaw in Hacksaw Ridge. The entire film is total and has the perspective of an American soldier. The film does a fantastic job of telling us that person's story and giving us insight into the mind of a conscientious objector, but it fails in one aspect. The scope of Nolan's approach to intentionally under-characterization allows him to provide a greater number of perspectives on the event, whether from a British soldier to the commander in charge, an RAF pilot or a civilian on his ship.

The Dunkirk evacuation was a huge event with hundreds of perspectives that could have been told and taking the traditional approach of having a single protagonist who we follow at all times could have been bad because while it allows the audience to feel invested in that character, It also limits the scope of the film to that character's perspective. Nolan's approach, while weakening the characters, does justice to the event where it allows for a more complete understanding for the viewer of what happened much better than any film from a perspective. I think it's a good way to summarize the lost films.

The good thing is that this movie could only count as a movie if you took Hacksaw Ridge or Saving Private Ryan and turned them into a novel, they might have been an interesting read, but Dunkirk, as Nolan said, would fail if converted. in any other medium, that's not so much a bad thing but rather a statement about the nature of this work because even though this film is incredibly untraditional in its approach, Dunkirk is visual storytelling at its finest and to prove that We only need to look at how Nolan expertly creates a constant tension that is almost entirely perpetuated throughout the film.

This is not only handcrafted in Zimmer's fantastic score but also in the way Nolan constructs a scene in Dunkirk. Nolan shows an expert level of understanding of how tension is generated. created an understanding of the art of

fear

and before we take a closer look at Dan coax craft, we must first understand the key to creating tension and simply put, when it comes to creating tension, it is all about expectations, now, How does Nolan use it? this key, well a great example is this clip using the ruler, it's pretty easy to see why the tension in this shot is so palpable, the bombs start in the distance and as part of a pattern they get closer every Again, the viewer after the first few seconds realizes that the protagonist is in the path of the bombing and this is further reinforced as the bombs get closer and this culminates in relief when the bombs stop about to hit. hit the character.

Now this is a good example of a moment with high tension but to find. In a more complex example, we only need to watch the evacuation scene once the characters are aboard the ships. An interesting method Nolan uses in this scene is that each shot is from where a soldier might be standing as we see the characters walking. walking down the stairs, the camera follows them as if we, the viewer, are standing at the top of the stairs watching them from below as they walk through the crowd, the camera follows them as if we, the viewer, are walking behind them as they open step through the crowd.

The shot from inside the ship in this scene is taken from a place where a soldier might be standing. You'll notice this because most of the shots are at eye level, as if we were part of the crowd watching the main characters. If it had been a shot from below or from above, like this, it would give a certain detachment from the scene when using shots like that, it can make the viewer feel like they are a spectator looking in, but when all the shots are Shot in this way, from eye level, while the camera moves like a person would, it instantly makes us subconsciously feel like we're physically there, which only helps add to the uncomfortable tension in this scene.

Nolan simply choosing carefully where the cameras point throws us a thought. We see the process of the protagonist looking up, it is followed by a shot from his perspective when the door through which he entered is closed, he turns to the right, we see several soldiers relaxing, it would have been easy for this scene to be a . It was a relief to not have any tension at all, but because of this specific choice and shot, he tells us what's going on in the characters' heads. The door has been locked, so I can't get out. I'm trapped in a tight space. with a hundred strangers simply telling the audience that the character is worried, that worries us as an audience too, it also serves as foreshadowing where later his worries are validated when the ship is torpedoed and he almost drowns because he can't escape and This idea of That uncomfortable

fear

is directly related to expectation is present in many examples throughout this film, whether it be the pilot's fuel gauge being disabled so he has no idea how long he can stay in the air or the scene of the ship when the Germans start. using the stranded ship the characters are on as target practice and as a result, the ship begins to flood.

Another example of a threat that we know is not right now, a problem that will be huge in the immediate future, is in the climax where the soldiers are drenched in oil as they desperately try to escape as a result of this threat that is not an immediate danger. , but we know it will be soon. It leaves the viewer on the edge of his seat as he waits for that threat to become a reality. At any second, this again creates a strong and palpable tension. Several months ago I made a video called Alien, the art of horror.

In that essay I asked what makes a moment of horror truly great, and my conclusion was that great horror comes from fear. of the unknown in Dunkirk, when you look or rather don't look at the German soldiers, you can see this philosophy echoed when it comes to the German soldiers in a single scene; in fact, they are called Germans for the rest of the film. now only referred to, the reason Noland approaches the Germans in this way is twofold: firstly, the film is not about the Germans, but about the Allies and their struggle to survive, spend any amount of time with the enemy would have only distracted them from the bigger picture.

The purpose of the movie, but mainly I think the reason Noland did this was to play with that idea of ​​fear of the unknown. Very often, the scariest things are the ones we don't fully understand and when we never see the end up close. when their individual human parts do not exist and are instead approached as if they were an ambiguous collective, they are less tangible and therefore more terrifying. I wonder if you'll notice that in the only closeup in the entire movie where we actually see German The soldiers are in the background, they are not the main subject of the gunfire and they are out of focus, even at the end we are not allowed to see his face of an individual soldier because the moment you see the enemy he stops being ambiguous and unpredictable. threatens and in its place only a group of humans, at that moment the enemy becomes tangible and therefore less terrifying.

Now I hope most of you don't agree with me on what I'm about to say, but a lot of people have praised this movie as a really great movie. war movie, but I disagree because while this movie is great and artistically unique, Dunkirk is not a war movie when you look at the best war movies, not the ones that are just action movies that took place in the middle of In war they always comment on the nature of war, truly great war movies always address one aspect of what war is like and to some extent try to educate the viewer about its reality and I think a great example is the war scene that embodies this philosophy.

In the scene from Saving Private Ryan, where the main characters captured a German soldier who has just killed one of his friends and then begs him with all his life by reciting American culture while digging a grave for 60 seconds, we see a German prisoner digging a grave trying to beg for his life while the American soldiers just stared at him in silence ah hello say, can you see? Uh, I mean, can you see? This scene is powerful. There are thousands of action movies that are just brainless action movies where there is no real commentary. but it's scenes like this that portray the true nature of war and how when it comes to deciding who is good and who is bad in real life, it can be extremely difficult because sometimes both sides are equally evil.

This scene is a great war scene because it comments on that fact in Hacksaw Ridge Gibson addresses conscientious objection and how sometimes those who refuse to kill are actually braver than those who do. Sicario addresses the idea that when it comes to war, the American government can be just as evil as the enemies it fights. Saving Private Ryan addresses a number of aspects of war, such as how war brings out the best but also the worst in people, when someone displays selfless bravery, as Private Ryan does when he refuses to return home because he would rather risk probable death than abandon his friends or the worst when the translator lets his friend die because he is too terrified to intervene, regardless of the director, regardless of the critical response, for a war movie to really be a war movie. war. some kind of comment on the nature of war needs to be made now that it's not a hard and fast rule but rather my own opinion, but what comment does Dunkirk make on the nature of war?

Yes, there are a number of minor ideas that play an important role. role in the background, such as Cillian Murphy's character who has PTSD, but in reality the fact that the film is set in a war is secondary to the true focus of the film because, while it has elements of a war, it's not a movie about fighting. It's not a movie about war, it's a movie about survival. Dunkirk has more in common with The Day After Tomorrow than Saves Private Ryan' the fact that we never see the enemy the fact that the question of which side has the high morale is never addressed -The terrain was completely intentional on Noland's part because, is ultimately irrelevant when it comes to the factual event of Dunkirk, if Noland were making a film about the Holocaust or the use of atomic weapons in Japan, there is no doubt that the morality of those events would have been front and center because the morality of what those people did in those moments of the war is an integral part of understanding those events, but when it came to the Dunkirk evacuation the morality did not matter because at that time no one was wondering if the British were good or bad, but the only thing that went through the minds of the soldiers on that Beach was the pure and total fear of an invisible enemy, the pure and total fear of never seeing home again, the pure and total survival saying like that Dunkirk is a survival movie, it doesn't have any negative connotations because if you look back at the history of the Dunkirk evacuation, that's what survival was about and before we go, I want to tell you that I'm an aspiring writer and I'm always looking to learn a little more about my craft, so I heard that the people at Skillshare were fans of this channel and were interested in sponsoring my content.

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