quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
It almost seemed like automatons posed on the beach by some artist.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
From Christopher Nolan on IMDB:

quote:

"This is an essential moment in the history of the Second World War. If this evacuation had not been a success, Great Britain would have been obliged to capitulate. And the whole world would have been lost, or would have known a different fate: the Germans would undoubtedly have conquered Europe, the US would not have returned to war. It is a true point of rupture in war and in history of the world. A decisive moment. And the success of the evacuation allowed Churchill to impose the idea of a moral victory, which allowed him to galvanize his troops like civilians and to impose a spirit of resistance while the logic of this sequence should have been that of surrender. Militarily it is a defeat; on the human plane it is a colossal victory."

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
It almost seemed like automatons posed on the beach by some artist.

Brits are all about "the queue" and not leaving it, it's a very British thing to see them lined up all orderly like that.

The one guy who just said "fuck this" and threw off his gear and walked into the surf to swim home (which you know isn't happening) was heartbreaking to me and I bet that actually happened.

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:


Oh, I agree, that this is a very "British" film, and actions. I don't object to showing them in an orderly queue. Rather, that the beach had many, many more people and more noise and the director chose to use this more spartan, artistic approach than CGI to fill in a more accurate representation

quote:

Originally posted by ChuckFinley:
I don't object to showing them in an orderly queue. Rather, that the beach had many, many more people and more noise and the director chose to use this more spartan, artistic approach than CGI to fill in a more accurate representation.

quote:

Did you miss the scene toward the very end when Tom Hardy was flying parallel with the beach? They showed lines and lines of tens of thousands of troops that stretched out into the distance. Much like that original photo you showed.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevbo:
My complaints have little to do with it not resembling saving private Ryan.



SPOILER ALERT:



Let's go down the list of the soldiers that tell the story


1). We first meet the young British soldier who ties these stories together as he retreats with his squad. After they are all killed, he drops his rifle and flees, something I can hardly blame him for

What I can blame him for:

1). He gathers a stretcher not to help save a wounded man, but to skip the line and make it onto an evacuation ship

2). When that ship sinks, rather than returning to the beach, he hides in the dock

3). When he hears the admiral tell the soldiers that survived the sinking of the ship that he would find them another ship, he drops into the water so that he will appear wet and can again "cut the line"

4). When that also gets sunk he joins a group that has left the main body of soldiers on the beach and tries again to flee in an abandoned ship


All the while we see his story, from the beginning to the end, we see faithful British soldiers enduring the hardships of remaining with their units on the beach

Sure, he tries to stop the English soldiers from executing his partner in crime, the French soldier, but does that redeem or excuse him from all the other things?

And onto his partner in crime....

1). We first meet him on the beach moments after we see his fellow countrymen involved in a firefight to hold the line against the encroaching Germans. What is he doing? Stripping the clothes off a dead British soldier so that he may escape. Again, while his countrymen are manning a wall. He is involved and pretty much mimics all the actions of the guy described above, so I won't rehash them

And the n t British soldier, played Harry Stiles of One Direction fame.

He actually starts out the most redeemable of the group. He is on the initial ship we see sink tied to the dock, presumably because he is supposed to be, and is put on the second ship, again because he is supposed to be. After surviving that sinking, he too joins the group trying to escape in the beached trawler, something you can certainly accept and explain. But when the trawler comes under fire, how does he respond? By accusing one of the other soldiers of being a spy (it turns out he is french) and trying to force him, at gun point, to leave the vessel into certain death so that he may have a chance to survive. And when he is stood up to by the first guy, he essentially tells him to go along with feeding the one guy to the Germans lest he be fed as well

We do, at least, see shame from him when he does return to England. And why not, a lot of what he did, not the retreat itself, was pretty shameful


And, finally, we come to Cillian Murphy's character, who we first encounter as what appeared to be a lone survivor of a sunken ship in the channel.

He is portrayed as "shellshocked" and rightfully so, and a lot of his initial actions are explained away by that. Because of the time dilation story telling, we even see him acting the part of the good British soldier before the sinking

Eventually, though, his behavior too becomes extreme as he actively fights to prevent the civilians from returning to help his fellow soldiers. So much so that he kills a 17 year old boy along to help out (although the boy is not immediately killed and the other civilians lie to him about the severity of the injuries)

He only shows remorse for this after other British soldiers have been taken on the ship and have remarked about the boy's poor condition. And at the end, when they have returned safely to England, and he sees the truth that the boy has died, after he makes eye contact with the other boy carrying the body of his friend off the vessel, what does he do? He skulks off into the crowd


Again, all the while, we see thousands upon thousands of British soldiers standing their post, remaining with their units, in spite of being faced with the same long odds of survival that our main characters are faced with

Why couldn't at least one of them been used to tell that perspective of the story?

The pilots. The civilians coming to the rescue. The top brass even, all shown as heroic.

Yes it was a desperate time. Yes desperate people do desperate things in desperate times. But they also do heroic things. And I, for one, wouldn't have minded if there was at least one British soldier protrayed who didn't act pretty completely out of his own self interest and survival for pretty much the course of the whole film



So, while I thought it was good, and well done, I don't think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. And for the record, I'm not a big fan of saving private ryan either, although for entirely different reasons

quote:

Originally posted by Kevbo:
They weren't very redeemable characters. The RAF and civilians and the high brass even were portrayed as fairly heroic


I understand the stress and distress and reality of the situation, but I just didn't care for the characters they chose to tell that side of the story

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:

quote:

Originally posted by Kevbo:


I was disappointed. Not that it wasn't good, it was, but it did not live up to my expectations. Without spoiling anything, my biggest problems were the characters, particularly the soldiers.

What was wrong with the soldiers? Were they replaced with black trannies? You can't leave me hanging like that...

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I'm sorry but you guys that all hated this movie are crazy.