Dunkirk

[sh9000]

 

[TangledThorns]

Saw the movie with my wife for a day date. Really enjoyed it, probably Nolan's bests film and a huge Best Picture contender. Also has a strong sense of British patriotism that made me kinda teary eyed by the end of the film. 

[Shadow]

Thought the movie was excellent. Yes I enjoyed the dogfight scene's the most but hearing the Ju 87s siren did have me gripping my armrest tighter with how loud they were.

[Sildani]

Yeah, saw it in IMAX and they really did a great job with those sirens. Overall a great movie, the ONLY bits I had difficulty with was Tom Hardy's nigh-unlimited ammo and his Incredible Gliding Spitfire. 

Edited July 26, 2017 by Sildani

[kajnrig]

20 minutes ago, Sildani said:

Yeah, saw it in IMAX and they really did a great job with those sirens. Overall a great movie, the ONLY bits I had difficulty with was Tom Hardy's nigh-unlimited ammo and his Incredible Gliding Spitfire. 

I would imagine that with such a... deliberate movie, they must have gotten the ammo and gliding right as well, even though I was also a bit skeptical about it staying in the air as long as it did.

Saw it along with Valerian yesterday. I want to say it's a good historical movie. Certainly it's as technically proficient as Nolan's ever been, and carries his same trademark detached filmmaking sensibilities.

I don't think it's so good as to deserve all the hype it gets, though. I had a good time with it, but perhaps it was a bit too emotionally detached. But I dunno, maybe this is what it must be like for the Brits to watch a Pearl Harbor movie. You could feel the British Pride just simmering like liquid patriotic fire beneath the surface. I liked it, and would be willing to see it again, but it wasn't exactly a Necessary Movie to See, if you get my meaning.

[TangledThorns]

1 hour ago, Sildani said:

Yeah, saw it in IMAX and they really did a great job with those sirens. Overall a great movie, the ONLY bits I had difficulty with was Tom Hardy's nigh-unlimited ammo and his Incredible Gliding Spitfire. 

I thought that final Spitfire scene was one of the beautiful scenes I've ever seen on the silver screen and was part of the theme with England needing a miracle to save their troops in Dunkirk. Tom Hardy delivered that role perfectly, you can just feel the contemplation he had in his choices.

What was interesting about this movie is you never saw the faces of the German soldiers and pilots.

[kajnrig]

Apparently real-world Spitfire pilots were said to be able to glide their planes 15+ miles.

[Sildani]

Yeah, but what was their initial altitude? 

Miracle received, then. 

[kajnrig]

50 minutes ago, Sildani said:

Yeah, but what was their initial altitude? 

Miracle received, then. 

Too true. Speed at time of engine failure and angle of descent, etc. also obviously played a factor.

[Shadow]

I wondered why he had to get so close to the bombers before firing as I thought the Spitfire carried the 20mm cannon then did research and realized it was the variant with 8x .303 guns only.

[Sildani]

Yep, the 20mm Hispano armed Spits came a few months later just in time for the Battle of Britain, though they were prone to jam and there weren't many of them. 

Edited July 27, 2017 by Sildani

[TangledThorns]

1 hour ago, Sildani said:

Yep, the 20mm Hispano armed Spits came a few months later just in time for the Battle of Britain, though they were prone to jam and there weren't many of them. 

 

Dunkirk has made me interested in World of Airplanes, WG is partnered with the film, so I can fly the Spitfire. Anybody play it? I play World of Warships and love that game but that's because I love battleships!

 

http://worldofwarplanes.com/warplanes/gb/spitfire-v/

[505thAirborne]

Went and saw DUNKIRK today, I have to say that I really enjoyed it a lot. The aircraft scenes were great, engine & rifle sounds plus the music were fantastic. The ships capsizing & sinking were realistic in my view as that is how my grandfather described his ship going down in the Pacific (Merchant Marine transport vs. Japanese Submarine... didn't go so well). 

If I have time I'd like to see it again in IMAX 3D. 

[Mommar]

11 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

Went and saw DUNKIRK today, I have to say that I really enjoyed it a lot. The aircraft scenes were great, engine & rifle sounds plus the music were fantastic. The ships capsizing & sinking were realistic in my view as that is how my grandfather described his ship going down in the Pacific (Merchant Marine transport vs. Japanese Submarine... didn't go so well). 

If I have time I'd like to see it again in IMAX 3D. 

Sounds like your grandfather has some great stories to tell.

[505thAirborne]

23 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Sounds like your grandfather has some great stories to tell.

Oh my Grandpa passed away some years ago, what he did tell me once was "When your ship is going down forget protocol. either get on any lifeboat you see or jump for it!" LOL

They were hauling aviation fuel at the time & left him with a 2ft scar on his left arm/shoulder. On the bright side it was one of his biggest adventures. 

My Grandpa Sig is on the right, his brother Marc is on the left. 

[F-ZeroOne]

Finally got to see this today.

Well, the engines were always going to be wrong and the noses are the wrong colour but much to my amazement the Me109s have struts under the tailplanes!

May also be the first war film I've ever seen which accurately reflects the difficultly of aiming over the Spitfires famously long nose. The RAF [1] even fly in the "Idiots Formation", more historically accurately known as a Vic. And a Blenheim gets a cameo! Bloody hell!

Oh, and theres some stuff on a  beach.

I jest. "Dunkirk" is not exactly a conventional war film. The Germans are almost totally unseen (other than the Luftwaffe), their presence felt only by the effects they have on the cast, very few of which are ever addressed by name. The action is deliberately disjointed, with several interlocking threads gradually coming together. This isn't a film about heroic wartime derring-do, rather its about how a desperate attempt to get away from something can result in people doing things beyond the norm. Even the RAF plot strand, possibly the most conventionally war-comic of them all, is shown to result in tragic unintended consequences.

Oh, and a word of warning - Christopher Nolan uses sound like a hammer most of the way through the film; you might want a paracetamol afterwards. And a cushion to hide under for when the first Stuka starts making its dive...

Not sure "enjoyed" is the right word, but recommended.

[1] Regards the comments about the ammunition counts - the pilot seemed to be firing only very short bursts at each target; the early 1940-era Spitfire carried enough ammunition for about thirteen seconds continuous firing so going by what I saw in the film its just remotely possible the ammo would have lasted (in real life, probably not; German bombers were fairly well protected for the most part and usually required a lot of machine gun rounds to go down). As for the gliding...  all that burning seafront created good thermals?
 

[TangledThorns]

Glad more folk here saw it. I also bought the soundtrack, its that good!

[derex3592]

It's on my "to see on my vacation in the theater next week" list...

[Nightbat]

On 31-7-2017 at 8:54 PM, F-ZeroOne said:

[1] Regards the comments about the ammunition counts - the pilot seemed to be firing only very short bursts at each target; the early 1940-era Spitfire carried enough ammunition for about thirteen seconds continuous firing so going by what I saw in the film its just remotely possible the ammo would have lasted (in real life, probably not; German bombers were fairly well protected for the most part and usually required a lot of machine gun rounds to go down). As for the gliding...  all that burning seafront created good thermals?
 

IRL the bombers were hounded by Hurricanes, while the Spits dealt with the escorts

 

On 27-7-2017 at 4:14 PM, TangledThorns said:

Dunkirk has made me interested in World of Airplanes, WG is partnered with the film, so I can fly the Spitfire. Anybody play it? I play World of Warships and love that game but that's because I love battleships!

Pardon my french, (and for going off topic) but WoWP is the shitiest plane game around, it's so bad, even the scoutplanes in WoWS look better

I went from WoWP to War Thunder, which I thoroughly enjoyed, until I got into the Simulator battles of WT, then I was really bitten

Unfortunately, not many people play(ed) Sim battles, so I went looking for an alternative in which I didn't have to wait in line for hours

and found it in IL-2 "Cliffs of Dover", And it's another step above WT in simulation realism

Setting up gun convergence, compass, opening rads (I've blown quite a few ), actual engine startup sequence

I have been strafed on spawn, ....or emptied an entire fueltank without ever seeing an enemy plane

It's aircraft are limited, being Battle of Britain era it's 109e1 e3 e4 e4b e7n, 110 c2 c4 c7 , he111 h2 p2, ju87b, ju88, spits I ,spit II, hurris, blenies and the Italian g50

Being abandonware, but resurrected by a devoted group of fans (Who improved upon it immensely from the wreck it was at release)

 it was a bit of a chore to get installed (but got great help from the people on the Air Tactical Assault Group

 

...of course it came at a price (apart from the 10 bucks on steam), forget using a mouse, you're gonna need a joystick WITH rudder function

I'm flying with a separate stick/throttle/rudderpedals setup and also am using a self-built headtracking system, not to mention mic since communication is key in getting in on where the action is (and warnings when there's a 109 on your tail)

[Sildani]

Did they get rid of the Do 17Z?

[Nightbat]

7 minutes ago, Sildani said:

Did they get rid of the Do 17Z?

Who are you addressing?

[myk]

The movie was so bland, vague and pointless to me that I found it almost unwatchable.  

If I wasn't already a fan of WW2 stuff and didn't already know what Dunkirk was about, like your typical movie watcher would be, I wouldn've been lost in that theater.  

The key to making any story worthwhile is to allow your characters, your story, to reach out and connect with your audience.  Does anyone here remember any of the character's names in the movie?  Were there even any names?  The movie was two hours of nameless, faceless war that basically said nothing other than "war is bad." Without characters and personalities to connect and identify with, the movie was just a collection of war footage.  

I'm truly disappointed in Nolan; he should've gone back and watched Platoon, Saving Private Ryan and maybe even Hamburger Hill to figure out how to draw in your audience and get them to personally care about what is happening on screen.  I remember some people were crying in the theater during Platoon and 'Private Ryan; there was NO emotional response at all during Dunkirk because....who are these people?  What are they doing?  How or why am I supposed to care?  Nameless, faceless, pointless movie with a weakly delivered message...

[Sildani]

2 hours ago, Nightbat said:

Who are you addressing?

Sorry, yourself. 

[Marzan]

Enjoyed the movie. Pretty unique in its delivery. No Germans, hardly any French, no generals, no politicians or big maps. It follows only the rank and file in a very microscopic way., which kind of lacked the conveying of scale of the evacuation.

[Hiriyu]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I worked last summer with a model maker who worked on some of the aircraft models used in the film. They used actual quarter-scale RC models of the Spits (and I think a slightly smaller-scale HE-111) and filmed and controlled them from camera-equipped helicopters and ocean vessels, rather than going CGI. I think that should be applauded.

[Dynaman]

I no longer care HOW they get the images on the screen, only that I believe them when I am watching them.  On Dunkirk they all looked great so I give them credit for that.

 

A

[Shadow]

Yeah. Going to be playing this in my head anytime I'm playing War Thunder.

 

[TangledThorns]

41 minutes ago, Shadow said:

Yeah. Going to be playing this in my head anytime I'm playing War Thunder.

 

Ha, I was thinking the same for almost any military game. 

[seti88]

Gosh what would it take to have that on a macross fight scene!! 

 

[F-ZeroOne]

On 03/08/2017 at 9:09 PM, Nightbat said:

IRL the bombers were hounded by Hurricanes, while the Spits dealt with the escorts

 

 

 

While thats widely reported, and was indeed tactical policy due to the Hurricanes lesser performance, in practice things were very rarely that neat and orderly. Most contemporary accounts seem to indicate that Spitfires or Hurricanes engaged whatever they found first (or were engaged by whomever found them first).  

[TehPW]

Saw it tonight with minions B & C (after a wave-off the previous week). I did like it. It was intense... and I think the people in the film are best nameless. What I was surprised to not see was gore. No major depictions of body parts. No gore. No people seen drowned inside the ships (besides brief glimpses). Not even the poor sods in the burning oil were shown with what should have been horrific burns.

maybe it wasn't necessary for story narration with Dunkirk but Saving Private Ryan is still the benchmark for the true horror of warfare... 

[505thAirborne]

12 minutes ago, TehPW said:

Saw it tonight with minions B & C (after a wave-off the previous week). I did like it. It was intense... and I think the people in the film are best nameless. What I was surprised to not see was gore. No major depictions of body parts. No gore. No people seen drowned inside the ships (besides brief glimpses). Not even the poor sods in the burning oil were shown with what should have been horrific burns.

maybe it wasn't necessary for story narration with Dunkirk but Saving Private Ryan is still the benchmark for the true horror of warfare... 

Saving Private Ryan is still first place for how horrifying war is , if you've not seen Hacksaw Ridge yet then I recommend that one too, once they're on the ridge Holy Sh-t it gets brutal. 

[Dynaman]

53 minutes ago, TehPW said:

maybe it wasn't necessary for story narration with Dunkirk but Saving Private Ryan is still the benchmark for the true horror of warfare... 

I'd give that honor to Platoon.  SPR was in many ways taking the storytelling of Platoon and applying it to WW2.