Ok. Going to see Dunkirk based on everyone’s advice.
If you haven’t seen The Accountant, it’s on the movie Channels now and worth watching.
For those of you who have seen Dunkirk, I have a question. I just saw it this afternoon and there was one scene I didn’t understand. What exactly did Rylance do when he gave the steering over to his son there at the end when the German plane was flying overhead? He was timing his actions but I couldn’t tell what he was trying to accomplish. (I don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t yet seen it, so please PM me your answer.)
I thought the movie was great (saw it in 70mm) but wish there had been subtitles. I really couldn’t understand much of the dialog with the heavy British accents and the bombs going off in the background.
patsmom, I thought he was trying to rescue as many people as possible, but be positioned for a quick escape if the plane crashed into the oil slick and started a fire. I could be wrong. I also had a hard time understanding much of the dialog. I guess I need English captions to understand those British accents! I didn’t understand the son’s objection to checking if there was a pilot alive in the downed aircraft. They didn’t see a parachute, so there would be someone in the cockpit, possibly alive. The plane was floating, they were there to rescue people, so why would he object to taking a look?
I thought it was a good movie, but I had been prepared for it to be an amazing movie. We were laughing about the pilot (Tom Hardy) being able to fly for what seemed like a week on 50 gallons of gas. He just kept going and going, day turning into night and then into day… and waiting to put his landing gear down until the very last second, though he knew he was going down. I’ve cut it close before, but not quite that close! 
I thought Dunkirk was terrific, though agree that some of the dialogue, especially in the beginning was hard to decipher. As for the flying scenes, those took place in the span of 1 hour. The rescue boat was a 1 day span, and the beach scenes 1 week. The juxtaposition of those 3 stories made it a bit unclear at times.
^^ I agree. It seemed a little odd, how they were mixing it up. I got what they were trying to do, but I don’t know if I liked that aspect of it. I also thought a war movie that didn’t show any blood and gore wasn’t very realistic.
The director, Christopher Nolan, loves to play with time in his movies. Remember “Memento”?
Here’s a video that explains the timeline differences. I personally thought it was done well, weaving together the different parts of the story and timelines.
Re: Dunkirk
I kept reading that was an issue, but when I went, I didn’t have much of a problem hearing the dialog. It was the 70mm version.
As for the boat captain (Rylance?) handing the till over to his son, the captain seemed to have some understanding of German flying maneuvers, and he was watching the plane in order to keep the boat out of the path of the plane’s attack.
I just watched The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on HBO Now. Really a good movie, and Oprah Winfrey’s performance is truly outstanding.
I also watched Hacksaw Ridge, which was extremely gory but most likely very realistic. I appreciate when war movies don’t soft pedal the gore and violence, so as to romanticize war. I recall Stephen Spielberg saying that it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if some 13 yr olds saw Saving Private Ryan and came out crying, and I totally agree. (The specific age may be a misquote.)
When I was at school in England, one day our headmaster told us the story of Dunkirk and the flotilla of private boats. Although there is a degree to which this is mythology–not much credit given to the French forces that were holding off the Germans on land, for example–it is nonetheless an extraordinary story. I look forward to seeing the movie.
Dunkirk is about war but also about survival, sacrifice, community, longing for home, love of country and family. It did not need to be extremely gory to bring me to tears. The gore and violence associated with war were understood. The efforts of the French are definitely acknowledged in the film. It has been number one at the box office for the last two weekends, exceeding initial predictions. I hope you enjoy it!
I also saw Dunkirk and liked the movie. The heavy accents did not prevent me from following the dialogue, although I may not have heard every single word. I think Rylance positioned his boat for an evasive maneuver once he saw the fighter plane commit to a dive on his boat.
I don’t know if anyone else had this experience, but we sat through 20 minutes of previews before the movie began.
^how many previews was that, PacNWparent – 5? more? When I saw Baby Driver, there must have been at least 5 previews. Very few stuck in my head as something I wanted to see. I also get “preview anxiety” – if they’re all for horror or action movies (or something counter to the genre of the feature I paid to see) I start to think I’m in the wrong theatre.
“I recall Stephen Spielberg saying that it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if some 13 yr olds saw Saving Private Ryan and came out crying, and I totally agree. (The specific age may be a misquote.)”
I remember when the movie came out, and I was watching this interview program (I think it was on CNN, back when it was a real news outlet), and they had some guy from military public affairs and a couple of the guys who had fought at Normandy, and the PA guy was saying the movie did a disservice, that in showing the gore and whatnot they were casting the military in a negative light or some such, and one of the guys who had fought there looked at him and said “Son, you ever been anywhere near combat? Only thing with this movie is it is too bad they don’t do smells, what you see and hear is nothing compared to what you smell”. My dad hated most war movies (he was a combat veteran of WWII, tank killer battalion) unless they were comedic, because he said they glorified something that shouldn’t be glorified.
“I start to think I’m in the wrong theatre.”
I was in the wrong theatre. The ticket guy said first screen room, but I sat thru (action movie) previews before realizing that room was Dunkirk. I was there for Girls Trip, first theatre on the right.
DH and I also saw Dunkirk this past weekend. I thought it was a very good film, but not as outstanding as had been expected given the outstanding NYTIMES review this past Friday. Another friend who had seen it agreed. I had on problem with the dialogue but it does take some adjustment early on that there are 3 stories essentially being told. The sound and the music were outstanding. What I did feel was that because of the way the film was done, limited to those stories, it was hard to grasp the huge scope of the Dunkirk evacuation. That apparently was not the story that the script and the director wanted to tell and this film certainly stands on it’s own.
I finally saw Get Out last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it although I missed some of the symbolism.
Watched Hunt for the Wilderpeople with one of the kids this past week. Really quirky and enjoyable.
We saw Dunkirk and Hacksaw Ridge last week. I liked Hacksaw Ridge a little more as far as the pacing. Dunkirk seemed slow moving- but I will say, as I sat through that movie, all I kept wondering is what kind of world could we have if there were no wars- and if we could all work together to make our planet better. War is just so horrible and senseless.
There were so many previews- Bladerunner 2049 looked interesting, as well as Victoria and Abdul.
I like badass women movies. Tonight I’m going to Atomic Blonde. I’ll let you know what it’s like 
I love badass woman movies, when they’re kicking butt. I also love Charlize Theron. However, the clips that show her with that curly, frizzy blonde hair just doesn’t look right for a butt kicking woman. I dunno, super heroes and badasses need to have the right look, and the clips look weird.