Dunkirk

Dunkirk Literary Elements

Director

Christopher Nolan

Leading Actors/Actresses

Fionn Whitehead, Barry Keoghan, Mark Rylance

Supporting Actors/Actresses

Tom Hardy, Barry Keoghan, Harry Styles

Genre

Drama, Action, History

Language

English

Awards

Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, it won for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Film Editing

Date of Release

July 13, 2017

Producer

Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas

Setting and Context

The action takes place both in England and in Dunkirk, a city in France during the Second World War

Narrator and Point of View

The events are presented from a third person omniscient point of view.

Tone and Mood

Tragic, violent, suspenseful, moving, suspenseful, dramatic

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonists are the British soldiers and the antagonists are the German soldiers.

Major Conflict

The major conflict is a political one and it is represented by the war between the Allied Forces and the German troops. More particularly, the conflict is the question of how to evacuate British and French troops from the beaches at Dunkirk with limited resources.

Climax

The film reaches its climax when the civilian boats reach Dunkirk and began evacuating the soldiers stranded on the beach.

Foreshadowing

Farrier running low on fuel foreshadows his ultimate demise. The fact that Alex is skeptical of Gibson foreshadows Gibson's death.

Understatement

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

In this film in particular, Christopher Nolan is praised for the techniques used during the aerial shots, techniques considered to be innovative. Christopher Nolan refused to use CGI as other directors would have chosen to do and instead used real planes and then enhanced the scenes in post-production.

Allusions

Paradox

The Prime Minister made it clear that one of his main goals is to save as many soldiers from Dunkirk as possible. However, he was not willing to risk any of his destroyers or planes to save them.

Parallelism