Christopher Nolan uses various different techniques in the film to help create an emotional response in his audience.Christopher Nolan’s 2017 movie ‘Dunkirk’ tells the story of the Dunkirk Evacuation in 1940. The movie is told from 3 different interwoven perspectives in 3 different time periods. The land (1 week) the sea(1 day) the air(1 hour). Christopher Nolan uses different film techniques to create an anxious tone and to build tension throughout the film.
Dunkirk is the evacuation of British soldiers off Dunkirk beach in the north of France during world war 2. During the evacuation civilians had to travel across the English channel to rescue British soldiers off Dunkirk beach.
Christopher Nolan told the story from 3 different perspectives. The first perspective we see is from the land. The land is one week long. The land is set on the beach of Dunkirk and on the mole. The story is told from the perspective of Tommy, Alex and Gibson.They represent the theme of survival. Christopher Nolan created the character Tommy to represent all the soldiers trying to survive, he is named Tommy because that is slang name given to English soldiers who fought in the war. Christopher Nolan uses non diegetic sounds in the background of most scenes.he uses Shepherd tone to build tension and to create an anxious tone in the audience. Shepard’s tone and auditory illusion when three octaves are laid over each other to sound like something is building when it’s not. Christopher Nolan sheared tone to create an anxious tone in his audience.
The second perspective we look at is the sea. The sea is one day long and follows Mr Dawson, Peter and George (3 civilians) as they sail across the English Channel on ‘The Moonstone’ to rescue soldiers off Dunkirk. They represent the theme of Nationalism. Mr Dawson’s determination to get the soldiers off the beach can be seen through the use of dialogue. “There is no hiding from this… we have a job to do” what Mr Dawson is showing us is his nationalistic views and determination to rescue others. Mr Dawson is so determined to save as many men as he can because his own son died in the first few weeks of the war. Mr Dawson feels like it’s his duty to rescue other people’s sons off Dunkirk because he couldn’t bring home his own son. Mr Dawson’s dialogue throughout the film lets the audience know how passionate and determined he is to save others.
The third perspective we see in the film is the air. The air takes place in the last hour on the last day. We meet the character Farrier, Farrier is a spitfire pilot who provides air support to the British evacuation. Farrier is linked to the theme of self sacrifice. Farriers sacrificed himself to save the other men on the beach. In the film Farrier makes an important decision to carry on providing air support knowing that he will run out of fuel and won’t make it home. During these scenes we hear a ticking watch sound. This is symbolic as it signifies that time is running out. The watch gets louder and louder as tension in the film is rising until Farrier’s time runs out then we don’t hear the watch for the rest of the film. Christopher Nolan’s films are often based around time, like the Prestige and Inception. Christopher Nolan creates an anxious tone in his audience by the use of non diegetic sound; he uses a ticking watch as a symbol of time running out.
Christopher Nolan uses natural lighting in this film to make the film feel claustrophobic and unsettling. In the scene where the soldiers are in the destroyer Christopher Nolan makes the scene dark to help set the mood and to reflect how Tommy,Alex and Gibson feel. As the water fills up the destroyer the scene gets darker and darker until they escape. Christopher Nolan does this to build tension.
Christopher Nolan uses different film techniques in this movie to create an emotional response in his audience. By using Shepard’s tone and the sound of a ticking watch he creates a tense and anxious tone in the audience. The use of dialogue in the film makes the key idea of nationalism clear to the audience, making the audience have more understanding why the Dunkirk evacuation was so important. Christopher Nolan uses different techniques in the film to make his audience respond emotionally.
