Dunkirk (PG.)
Directed by Leslie Norman. 1958
Starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Bernard Lee, Robert Urquhart, Ray Jackson, Maxine Audley. Black and White. 132 mins. Available on Blu ray and DVD from Studiocanal from September 25th.
Dunkirk, we know another film about that, don't we? Of course, Nolan's film is nothing like Barry Norman's dad's version, thought there are more similarities than you'd expect. Instead of the modern one's three strand narrative, the 59-year-old one shows us events through three different characters. John Mills is a corporal left reluctantly in charge of a small squad of troops making the retreat from Belgium, trying to keep ahead of the Nazi advance. Back in Blighty, Richard Attenborough is trying to keep his head down in a protected profession, turning out buckles for the army in his bike factory and fussing over his newly born son. Bernard Lee (Bond's future M) is a journalist, furious about the ineptitude of the leaders and the complacency of the British population at home.
It's his film really, his character is the author's voice, and it is a bit of a jolt. I was, perhaps lazily, expecting this to be a traditional, stirring, British war time drama full of clipped tones, stiff upper lips and downplayed heroism, but it's a surprisingly honest view of war, and bristles with anger. In France Mills has to persuade his soldiers not to desert. At home, it is inferred that Attenborough is profiting from the war, doing very nicely for himself. (Being weaselly came easily to Attenborough who played a picket-line-crossing scab in The Angry Silence: it was one of his more endearing traits.) Of course, Lee isn't going to allow that and coerces him into the war effort.
This Michael Balcon production has to fall back on models and archive footage in places, but overall it's a very well mounted production, and Norman uses the location well. It is though a very downbeat telling. Occasionally I was reminded of the line from The Italian Job, “Look happy, we won didn't we.” 2017 Dunkirk may be more brutal, relentlessly hammering home the random lottery of death, but Dunkirk 1958 is full of resentment and anger. When the small boats appear the music score briefly stirs into something more upbeat, but it doesn't last long. Maybe it expresses the then recent national humiliation of the Suez Crisis, but today you look at it ans see a nation that was still capable of calling a defeat a defeat.
Directed by Leslie Norman. 1958
Starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Bernard Lee, Robert Urquhart, Ray Jackson, Maxine Audley. Black and White. 132 mins. Available on Blu ray and DVD from Studiocanal from September 25th.
Dunkirk, we know another film about that, don't we? Of course, Nolan's film is nothing like Barry Norman's dad's version, thought there are more similarities than you'd expect. Instead of the modern one's three strand narrative, the 59-year-old one shows us events through three different characters. John Mills is a corporal left reluctantly in charge of a small squad of troops making the retreat from Belgium, trying to keep ahead of the Nazi advance. Back in Blighty, Richard Attenborough is trying to keep his head down in a protected profession, turning out buckles for the army in his bike factory and fussing over his newly born son. Bernard Lee (Bond's future M) is a journalist, furious about the ineptitude of the leaders and the complacency of the British population at home.
It's his film really, his character is the author's voice, and it is a bit of a jolt. I was, perhaps lazily, expecting this to be a traditional, stirring, British war time drama full of clipped tones, stiff upper lips and downplayed heroism, but it's a surprisingly honest view of war, and bristles with anger. In France Mills has to persuade his soldiers not to desert. At home, it is inferred that Attenborough is profiting from the war, doing very nicely for himself. (Being weaselly came easily to Attenborough who played a picket-line-crossing scab in The Angry Silence: it was one of his more endearing traits.) Of course, Lee isn't going to allow that and coerces him into the war effort.
This Michael Balcon production has to fall back on models and archive footage in places, but overall it's a very well mounted production, and Norman uses the location well. It is though a very downbeat telling. Occasionally I was reminded of the line from The Italian Job, “Look happy, we won didn't we.” 2017 Dunkirk may be more brutal, relentlessly hammering home the random lottery of death, but Dunkirk 1958 is full of resentment and anger. When the small boats appear the music score briefly stirs into something more upbeat, but it doesn't last long. Maybe it expresses the then recent national humiliation of the Suez Crisis, but today you look at it ans see a nation that was still capable of calling a defeat a defeat.
