Daily Dialogue — June 4, 2018

Shivering Soldier: You haven’t turned around.
Mr. Dawson: No, we have a job to do.
Shivering Soldier: Job? This is a pleasure yacht. You’re weekend sailors, not the bloody navy. A man your age?
Mr. Dawson: Men my age dictate this war. Why should we be allowed to send our children to fight it?
Shivering Soldier: You should be at home!
Mr. Dawson: Well, there won’t be any home if we allow a slaughter across the Channel.

— Dunkirk (2017), written by Christopher Nolan

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Combat.

Trivia: Told from three points of view: on the beach with the infantry (including Fionn Whitehead and Harry Styles), the evacuation by the navy (featuring Cillian Murphy and Mark Rylance, showing how civilians came to the rescue) and then in the air (with Tom Hardy engaging in plane combat). Speaking about the narrative structure in “Premiere” magazine, Christopher Nolan stated: “For the soldiers who embarked in the conflict, the events took place on different temporalities. On land, some stayed one week stuck on the beach. On the water, the events lasted a maximum day; and if you were flying to Dunkirk, the British Spitfires would carry an hour of fuel. To mingle these different versions of history, one had to mix the temporal strata. Hence the complicated structure; even if the story is very simple. Do not repeat it to the studio: it will be my most experimental film.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: The relationship between Dawson (Mark Rylance) and Shivering Soldier (Cillian Murphy) is one of conflict deriving from Fear vs. Duty, yet a nuanced relationship given the sympathy Dawson extends to the shell-shocked soldier.