Dunkirk

Dunkirk: To Fight Another Day

Dunkirk is a 2017 English language war film written, co-produced and directed by Christopher Nolan. The film stars Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D’Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy. Set during the Second World War, it concerns the Dunkirk evacuation. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film is an international co-production between the United Kingdom, the United States, France and the Netherlands.

Nolan wrote the script, told from three perspectives – the land, sea and air – to contain little dialogue and create suspense solely through details. Filming began in May 2016 in Dunkirk, France, and ended in Los Angeles, United States, where it also began post-production. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot the film on IMAX 65 mm and 65 mm large format film stock. The film made extensive use of practical effects such as employing 6,000 extras, assembling boats that had participated in the real Dunkirk evacuation, and using genuine era-appropriate planes for aerial sequences.

Dunkirk had its world premiere on July 13th, 2017, at Odeon Leicester Square in London, England, and is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom and United States on July 21st, 2017, in IMAX, 70 mm and 35 mm film.

That said, we have in stock a number of scale aircraft that appeared on both sides of the ledger, all of which have come to symbolize the immense struggle at the port city of Dunkirk some 77 years ago. Feel free to peruse our selection which can be found here:

http://www.themotorpool.net/Luftwaffe-West-The-Battle-for-France-and-the-Low-Countries-s/2118.htm

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Messerschmitt Down?

dunkirk-evacuation

Film director, Christopher Nolan, is no stranger to demanding authenticity in his films. Responsible for Inception, Batman The Dark Knight and Interstellar, Nolan demands that his films look as genuine as possible, making use of actual artifacts where ever and when ever possible instead of relying upon CGI graphics. For his upcoming film, Dunkirk, which covers the Allies’ evacuation from the french port in May 1940, reports are circulating that he may even destroy a precious WWII artifact valued at up to $5 million to make his point as believable as possible.

According to War History Online, “Online commentators have expressed the disapproval they feel for the reported actions of Christopher Nolan. It was released that he was the Interstellar director planning to use a priceless World War II plane valued at $5 million in his latest movie, Dunkirk. The report claims that the plane is scheduled to crash and ultimately be destroyed. However, there has been no official confirmation that this story is true. It was originally reported by IndieRevolver’s Jay Carlson, and has been attributed to an anonymous source.

This war plane is said to be a former Luftwaffe aircraft that was bought for $5 million by the Warner Brothers production company. The IndieRevolver story reported that Nolan would be linking the IMAX cameras to the actual plane. This technique is intended to facilitate and create some impressive in- flight action for the movie.”

Frankly, we are of the opinion that he wouldn’t dare damage or outright destroy such a valuable piece of military history and would look at using alternate techniques to fill in the blanks yet communicate his intent. If he does decide to wreck a WWII fighter, he would likely face a tremendous backlash from the military history community, who would likely boycott his film in protest.

For more information on the story, you can visit this website: http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/rumor-says-nazi-plane-will-destroyed-dunkirk-movie-christopher-nolan.html

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Films in Focus: Hacksaw Ridge, Dunkirk, Anthropoid, Allied and Ghost Army

Seventy years after the conflict ended, there still seems to be no shortage of WWII-inspired films based on true events. Scheduled to open in theaters on November 4th is Hacksaw Ridge, which follows the exploits of Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to ever earn the Congressional Medal of Honor. According to Variety, “The film, directed by Mel Gibson, is set during the bloody Battle of Okinawa when Doss saved 75 men without carrying a weapon on the battlefield. Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist who didn’t believe in killing, even in times of war, was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the frontlines without a weapon.

Set to open in July 2017 is Dunkirk, a Christopher Nolan film, which examines the hasty evacuation of Allied forces from the continent of Europe in May 1940, following their rout by the Wehrmacht as they marched towards the sea. Set on location in Dunkirk, France, principal photography commenced on May 23rd, 2016; in the months following, production will proceed in Urk, Netherlands, Swanage and Weymouth in Dorset, United Kingdom and Los Angeles, United States. In the course of shooting, Dunkirk operates under the codename “Bodega Bay”. The film is being shot on a combination of IMAX 65mm and 65mm large format film stock. Nolan reconditioned actual warships for the shoot, including the French Navy destroyer Maillé-Brézé, and reportedly spent US$5 million of the budget on a vintage aircraft so as to attach it with IMAX cameras before crashing it on-screen.

And then there’s Anthropoid, which is based on the true story of two Czechoslovak soldiers who sent to assassinate the head of the SS in 1942. SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich was the Reich’s number three and main architect of the Final Solution.

Allied is a Robert Zememckis film set in 1942, starring Max (Brad Pitt), a French-Canadian spy, who falls in love and marries a French agent Marianne (Marion Cotillard), after a mission in Casablanca. Max is notified that Marianne is likely a Nazi spy and begins to investigate her.  Allied is set to debut on November 23rd.

Further down-the-road is Warmer Brothers’ Ghost Army, which is based on Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles’ non-fiction book The Ghost Army Of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived The Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, And Other Audacious Fakery. Produced by award-winning actor, Bradley Cooper, and likely featuring him in it as well, the film isn’t slated to open until late 2017. According to Entertainment, “The story follows the true events of a top-secret group of artists and designers—”Cecil B. DeMille warriors,” as they were called—recruited to fool the Nazis during World War II. Using diversions such as inflatable tanks, phony radio traffic, and dummy soldiers, the troops managed to save thousands of Allied lives by tricking the enemy into thinking their flimsy ghost army was the real thing.”

A similarly conceived film tackling the subject of the Ghost Army was released a few years ago and is available on both Netflix and Amazon Prime, so it will be interesting to see how a new version, coming hot-on-the-heels of the first movie, can offer new insight on the master deception.

 

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