A Small Movie About a Big Event

My friend Bill Katz at Urgent Agenda asked me what I thought of the film Dunkirk. This is what I told him:

I don't think its possible to understand Dunkirk without seeing director Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, which this science fiction author thinks is the best science fiction movie since 2001. Interstellar is about time, time dilation and space.

Dunkirk is about time and perception and the primal urges within man. 'You can almost see it from here,' says the colonel on the Mole, 'Home'. How does one get home? How does one find safety in a ship when you've just seen ships sunk?

This is not a movie about Whitehall and Admirals pouring over maps and Churchill staying, 'We've got to get our boys home no matter what.' and the Admirals saying, 'It's impossible' and Churchill saying, 'Well find a way.'

It's also a movie about Englishness. Look at all those lines on the beach. Look at all those soldiers queuing patiently.Think French soldiers would be acting that way? No, of course not. Panicky Frenchman fire on an English soldier while another steals a dead Tommy's uniform.

This is an English movie and a lot of Americans might not get it. I'm trying to think of an American war epic that would baffle the Brits...I dunno, Sgt. York? Apocalypse Now?

It certainly was “different,” and disappointing. I expected, or hoped for, a major historical drama, with sweep and the involvement of a nation. Instead, it seemed like an
awfully small movie about an awfully large subject.

That's exactly right.