One of the greatest war movie masterpieces is about to disappear from Netflix. For 20 years, a master director worked on the story of thousands of soldiers facing death.
Even though all war films obviously share a common theme, they can be captivating in a thousand different ways. While some directors shock with explicit bloodshed, Christopher Nolan takes a different approach: his masterpiece Dunkirk unleashes a storm of helplessness, trauma and fear as almost half a million soldiers try to stay alive on the North Sea coast. The film is still available to stream on Netflix until February 29, 2024
On Netflix for a short time only: Christopher Nolan’s war film has a long backstory
Dunkirk is set in 1940 in the French town of Dunkirk, which was encircled by the German military. Almost half a million Allied soldiers are trapped on the beach and exposed to constant air raids. From the other side of the English Channel, a group of civilians set out to free the trapped soldiers
Watch the trailer for Dunkirk here:
As Page Six reports from a conversation with Christopher Nolan, the director carried the film around with him for a whole 20 years. Long before Dunkirk really took shape, he and his wife traveled the distance to Dunkirk by boat, which British privateers take on in the film. According to Nolan, the journey took more than 18 hours. The experience gave them both “great respect for what really happened”.
Christopher Nolan tells the story of Dunkirk in three timelines. What sounds complex is expressed in the film as an extremely physical experience of panic, helplessness and desperate hope. The war epic was nominated for eight Oscars and is now considered one of the best representatives of its genre.
