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Dunkirk: The nail-biting thriller about survival hits Irish cinemas today

Christopher Nolan tackles WWII without the blood and gore.

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CHRISTOPHER NOLAN HAS never been one to follow conventions.

The British director has built his career on darkly told stories of human experience, using fractured narratives, dreamscapes and even dystopian space travel – the latter in his 2014 blockbuster Interstellar – to feed his storytelling.

For his latest venture, the WWII epic Dunkirk, the Oscar-winner could have taken a back seat and let the blood, gore and cockpit chases do the work. After all, the evacuation of 338,000 Allied troops is a war story that’s ripe with horror and tragedy. But that’s not how Nolan operates.

Instead, he has created a deftly-woven narrative, based on personal tales and individual conflicts. Speaking to TheJournal.ie recently, Nolan described his approach:

It’s about OK, let’s try and put the audience in the place of people who are actually going through these events…

Even the casting feels shielded from the usual Hollywood trappings. Alongside big hitters like Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy and even Harry Styles, the film is carried by a group of relative unknowns, from Irishman Barry Keoghan to England’s Fionn Whitehead.

By scaling other elements back, Nolan hoped Dunkirk would pay respect to what was already a weighty piece of history. As he said:

You build the maze of the narrative and then you work your way through it. In this case, that world, that maze was already there… People talk about the Dunkirk Spirit. It’s not just history, it’s a living part of the culture.

Of course, a thriller wouldn’t be a thriller without a few explosions and dogfights, but even these are delivered with true Nolan-esque authenticity. The director made a point of completing the majority of special effects on camera, rather than in an editing room.

That meant months blowing up ships, filming underwater, and fitting 24kg worth of IMAX camera into a tiny Spitfire plane – a tricky manoeuvre that involved “reorienting the camera” and fitting an attachment to have the lens in the right place.

Thomas described the film as “definitely” the most difficult the pair have ever made – but it could very well be the defining story of their careers.

Want to see it for yourself? Dunkirk is on general release from 21st July. Check out the film’s official site here.

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    Mute Tommy Whelan
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    Jul 21st 2017, 11:02 AM

    Our very own 38 Irish Brigade was evacuated from Dunkirk that would eventually go on to fight in North Africa and Italy .

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    Mute Fear Uisce
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    Jul 21st 2017, 11:48 AM

    @Tommy Whelan: our??? you do mean Britain’s

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    Mute Tommy Whelan
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    Jul 21st 2017, 2:18 PM

    @Fear Uisce: no I mean our very own 38 Irish division made up of Irish men from all parts of Ireland . The clue is in the title (IRISH) .

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    Mute Fear Uisce
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    Jul 21st 2017, 2:36 PM

    @Tommy Whelan: and who’s flag were they fighting under, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the Tri colour.

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    Mute Tommy Whelan
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    Jul 21st 2017, 2:44 PM

    @Fear Uisce: I’m pretty sure the tri colour doesn’t represent the island of Ireland and the people of NI and Southern Ireland are Irish who both serve in Irish regiments that go back long before the Irish state was formed . They wore a shamrock badge on their uniform and harp as a cap badge .

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    Mute Fank Pulman
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    Jul 21st 2017, 3:40 PM

    @Tommy Whelan: Sadly, those brave Irishmen who fought against Nazism – in the British Army – were treated rather badly by their countrymen, after returning. And often called traitors….

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    Mute Brian O'Byrne
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    Jul 21st 2017, 4:39 PM

    @Tommy Whelan: there is always one idiot who is still fighting in civil/war of independence

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    Mute winston smith
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    Jul 21st 2017, 6:55 AM

    The biggest story here is why did Hitler mysteriously halt his Panzers which could have easily wiped out the shattered Brit forces, who of course turned the whole story around to present a moral boosting lie of a ‘masterly evacuation’ under German noses!

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    Mute smart cat
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    Jul 21st 2017, 7:19 AM

    @winston smith: I fairness it was a victory. Hilter make the first of many serious mistakes. He did not press home the advantage so it showed him up for the commander he was. The English took advantage or a bad situation and turned it around.

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    Mute Honeybadger197
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    Jul 21st 2017, 6:27 PM

    @winston smith: Hitler never issued that order apparently. The British and French launched at short lived assault at Arras which caught the German generals unawares. They were fearful of a repeat and pulled tanks away from the Dunkirk advance and placed them in reserve. (Even Rommell said he had witnessed hundreds of allied tanks.) They preferred to wait for motorised infantry to catch up and stabilize their flanks. They assumed 36 hours but it turned into 48 – it wasn’t much time but gave the Allies breathing space

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    Mute winston smith
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    Jul 21st 2017, 7:02 PM

    Honeybadger, there is a lot of speculation now but I personally believe Hitler who did sanction the halt on the same day his generals ordered it was hopeful of a peace with britain and I would wager Hess who was in Hitlers’s estimation ‘his heir’ was sent to Britain to sue for peace… of course when Churchill rejected this Hitler had to publicly disown and dismiss the whole episode.

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    Mute Malachi
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    Jul 21st 2017, 7:15 PM

    @winston smith: Is there a actually any evidence of this idea that Hitler was stalling for peace with Britain? Nearly every historian rejects this speculation and as far as I can see it’s a totally unsubstantiated rumour.

    What made you believe it?

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    Mute Paul Culligan
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    Jul 21st 2017, 11:00 PM

    @winston smith: Hitler allowed them to leave, with the hope of peace, and possible unity. The best tank generals in the world, afraid? Never. Hitler greatly admired the Brits and was in awe of how they controlled India with so few troops. One of Hitler’s favourite movies at the Kehlsteinhaus was ‘the Bengal Lancers’, an epic movie about the Brits. You dont have to look further than Hitler’s speeches to realise that he genuinely wanted peace, but not at the loss of the Sudeten German, and never with the Jewish bankers in power. The latter bribed the alcoholic Churchill, promising to wipe out his enormous debts, and so, peace was never accepted.

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    Mute Malachi
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    Jul 22nd 2017, 12:55 AM

    @Paul Culligan: You are a disgusting Hitler apologist.

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    Mute Honeybadger197
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    Jul 22nd 2017, 6:50 AM

    @Paul Culligan: Idiot.

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    Mute Paul Culligan
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    Jul 22nd 2017, 11:17 AM

    @Paul Culligan: Facts are facts whether you like’em or not.

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    Mute Stephen Collard
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    Jul 21st 2017, 12:02 PM

    Gripping movie although I’m not educated in war history it brought a great insight into what went on in Dunkirk. No big role actors as it didnt need stand out roles. The movie spoke for itself!

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    Mute Rowe
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    Jul 21st 2017, 7:41 AM

    Probably just another one of Hitlers military blunders of which there were many during the war.

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    Mute Rowe
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    Jul 21st 2017, 7:41 AM

    @Winston Smith

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    Mute winston smith
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    Jul 21st 2017, 10:09 AM

    I suppose the victors write the history and what a yarn Dunkirk is…Hitler is supposed to have had a deep admiration for Britain and it’s empire and hoped they’d ally themselves with Germany in the great struggle against Communism.

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    Mute Fank Pulman
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    Jul 21st 2017, 8:51 AM

    The Dunkirk Spirit lives on – generated by many of our own men, despite a disinterested Irish government.

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    Mute Christopher Byrne
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    Jul 21st 2017, 3:08 PM

    Just seen this. Underwhelmed. After the epic that was Interstellar I had high expectations. Just don’t think it’s all that. Tries hard to build suspense but just doesn’t deliver overall

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    Mute Ron North
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    Jul 22nd 2017, 1:02 AM

    @Christopher Byrne: I thought it was pretty good, mind you I thought interstellar was rubbish.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Jul 21st 2017, 6:02 PM

    Certainly a lot of the soldiers in WWII had no other way of earning an independent living at the time. “Economic conscription” is never a fantastic idea. I can admire their ability to keep going, though I don’t enjoy war films at all. I’ll go and watch it for the evacuation, which was a great accomplishment. I’ve wanted to see that reenacted on a large screen since I first read a fictional account of it by Nevil Shute.

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    Mute Kyle Gorman
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    Jul 21st 2017, 11:01 AM

    let’s remind ourselves of a big war again, why not! FFS #fu*kwar #f*ckwarfilms #dunkirkdouglas

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    Mute Mark Fields
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    Jul 21st 2017, 1:33 PM

    @Kyle Gorman: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

    - George Santayana

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    Mute winston smith
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    Jul 21st 2017, 4:14 PM

    Mark…like the second Korean war looming right now.

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