Dunkirk

[JAG]

Has anyone seen the movie Dunkirk? I saw it last night and is was great. Many good flying sequences. This director is not big in CGI, but uses the real thing where possible. He used three real Spitfires from a private collection with great camera angles. They gave credit to several RC pilots who flew the models in the movie. The HE- 111 used was a 40% to 50% model...real scale. Does anyone know how many Spitfire models they used and how large?
Go see the movie with some RC friends...you will enjoy every minute.

[Bajora]

I saw it the day it opened and really enjoyed it. If you are a fan of Christopher Nolan's directorial style, you will definitely recognize it as one of his. Amazing period color grading, immersive and dramatic soundtrack and limited dialog give it a unique feel. The aerial dogfighting scenes were incredible!

[wrongroad]

G'day gang,
I watched Dunkirk last Friday and thought it was brilliant.
The only thing I found was a little difficulty in hearing some of the limited dialog.
However, I was not there to listen too much to voices.
There are a few 'wrong' bits but other then that, I would give it ten out of ten.
Even my mother wants to see it again and my mother rarely watches a movie twice.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[Alpha]

A friend of ours at Apollo was one of the RC pilots on location for this film. His stories working on set for months are amazing, hands down. He described taking off a large scale model from a grass field while sitting in a helicopter, then flying formation with the RC plane he was piloting as they both flew out over the ocean to film a sequence, then flying back to the beach and jumping out of the helicopter to land the RC model. Can you imagine the communication between everyone involved?? The heli pilot needed to fly such that Rob could see the RC plane he was piloting, while still lining up the shot as the director wanted. Really incredible feats taken to accomplish practical effects instead of CG. Hats off the Nolan.

The pictures of the lead sled He-111s boggle the mind. They required over 50 pounds of lead in the nose to CG, because they were built by scale stagebuilders, not designed by actual model aircraft designers. I believe Rob said one of these behemoths survived filming. Most of the Stukas did not.

[wrongroad]

Would it be possible to get your friend to put together a bit of a story of the behind the scenes stuff or would it all be under wraps?
It would be a very interesting tale I am sure.
Regards and respect
Daryl

[BRGT350]

Fascinating reporting on the RC models in the movie! From what I understand, most of the Spitfires were real and the Bristol Blenheim is the only flying one left. Bremont, the watch company, owns the Blenheim and 2 of the Spits used in the movie. Not sure of the ratio between actual plane and RC plane used in the movie. There is a full size replica Spitfire at Planes of Fame in Chino that was used to dunk into the water.

Overall, I loved the movie and it was a huge departure of other modern WW2 films, like Pearl Harbor and Red Tails. It was great watching aircraft that flew like real planes. I give the movie a 9.9 out of 10, with the only way to get 10 out of 10 would be to have more flying. Thankfully, we have the Battle of Britain for that.

[hobbyt]

I watched Dunkirk last weekend. It was fascinating but I agree, it's quite difficult for me to understand some of the dialog too.

[Gringotuerto]

Here is an article covering the flying. The Me109 looks a little funny because it is a Buchon, which moved the air intake to the chin. So the nose "looks fat". The Spits are real, and the He111 and Stukas are RC models.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/dunkirk.html

I also found the choice of timeline and the dialogue hard to follow. Why can't the British learn to speak with an American accent? Well, it probably didn't help that I wore earplugs (I surrendered some dialogue, but at least my ears escaped the explosions of Dunkirk to hear another day).

One thing I didn't catch until reading a review - the text at the start is meant to inform the viewer that of the three subplots, one unfolds over a week, one over a day, and one over an hour. In retrospect this makes sense (respectively, the soldier, the boat, and the plane). But at the start of the movie it seemed cryptic so I just forgot about the text.

[Grossman56]

Interesting, to the point that I'm wondering if I saw the same movie!!
I really wanted to like it, but...........
First of all Dunkirk, the town was blown to bits, this looked like it was filmed in modern day Dunkirk, complete with hoses and tap water. When they showed the streets and beaches, where were the thousands of vehicles and military paraphernalia that were left? The German Air Force was was to bomb the living hell out of the BEF and did their best to do so, not as portrayed with one or two bombers showing up every once in a while. Where were the 338,000 people evacuated? Not on the beaches apparently. No bullet scared buildings no damage, heck there was one plume of smoke from the beaches as the small boats approached it.
Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to love this movie, I did. But it was so under dramatic in my personal opinion. I have pictures of the real Dunkirk evacuation and it wasn't nearly so neat as that.
BTW, anyone notice the wooden throttle controls in the cockpit mock up of the Spitfire. They left them white and obviously wooden. Yuck!
The flying sequences were cool and maybe, again I'm being too picky, but if I recall correctly, a Spitfire had enough ammo for a 9 second (or there abouts) burst before it was out of ammo. This fellow seemed to have an unlimited amount, and I'm watching him shoot as the pipper was on the target instead of leading him as anyone who has flown in any combat flight sim can tell you, mind you he finally got the deflection right after several bursts. Would have been nice to see a Hurricane in there as well.....
I'd hoped to see a movie on a par with The Battle Of Britain (which I have owned over the years in every format it ever came out in , as well as cherishing the book on the making of the movie)as they would have dovetailed perfectly.
Think I'll pass in this one.

Grossman56

[Fast Eddie]

Found this interesting video how they filmed Dunkirk's aerial scenes

https://youtu.be/_Yivl41NgXs

[Gringotuerto]

maybe, again I'm being too picky, but if I recall correctly, a Spitfire had enough ammo for a 9 second (or there abouts) burst before it was out of ammo.

That criticism could be made about every movie ever made that involved a gun. John Wayne regularly dispatched entire tribes of Indians with a six-shooter; Joshua Lawrence Camberlain single-handedly destroyed an entire regiment of Confederates in Gettysburg without reloading his black-powder Colt. Movieland is a different place, with its own distinct rules. It's analogous to when Wiley Coyote doesn't fall until he looks down - it's not "wrong" per se, that's just how physics works in Cartoonland.

[Grossman56]

so true. Ever wonder back in the day when they had a 'real'shoot out with black powder, did they call a time out LOL
Actually, one of the few that portrayed that fairly correctly was Jose Whales, where Clint had four or five pistols strapped to his person and saddle.

My point was that the movie could have been better.
Go check out Wind River, we'll be driving through Wind River tomorrow on our way to Riverton for a fly in. At present it's 41 degrees here in Cody, hoping for better tomorrow.
Welcome to the Rockies!!

Grossman56

[rifleman_btx]

I watched it, thought it was pretty good. Was for sure not on par in regards of historical accuracy, but the one thing I had a good chuckle at was the glide slope of the spitfire at the end when he ran out of fuel. That was just.... Common man really? Lol