#the story definitely benefited from focusing on Christopher as the main character

[daydreamerdrew]

Human Target: Final Cut (2002)

[caitlesshea]

begging for footnotes in the story of your life

Ana learns a lot about Buck while she’s dating Eddie, like how Buck’s the one who should be dating him.

Ana learns about Buck in stages.

First from Christopher, when she was his teacher, and he would mention his Buck or draw Buck in family pictures. 

The second from the school nurse telling her that Christopher is being signed out to go home and she sees his name on Chris’ school forms. 

The third is from Eddie, when he brings him up as a work colleague even though she suspects it’s more than that.

She just doesn’t realize how much more until the first time she sees the inside of Eddie’s house. 

His house is homey, much cozier than she’d expect for a single dad who’s a first responder. She says as much and he chuckles.

“Some of this I did, but most was my Abuela.”

Ana nods and walks over to the mantle to look at the photos. 

She sees a picture of a younger Christopher sitting in a high chair between Eddie and a woman who she assumes is Shannon. 

“Shannon?” She asks quietly.

“Yeah. Chris, uhh, wanted to put some up.”

Ana nods and continues looking. There’s some more of Eddie and Chris, people she assumes are Eddie’s parents and his Abuela, and then there’s Buck.

Or well, she thinks it’s Buck, with how Chris has always described him. She notices one photo in particular that causes her to pause.

“Is that?”

Eddie reaches up and grabs the back of his neck, almost like he’s nervous. 

“Uh, yeah. Buck built him a skateboard, we tried it out at the park.”

So, Buck built Chris a skateboard after Ana wrongly said that Chris should know his limitations. 

“I’m sorry for saying what I said.”

“It’s fine, Ana.” 

“It’s not.”

Eddie shrugs and Ana considers bringing it up again but she chooses not to, instead focusing on a Christmas photo that was taken at the station; Eddie, Chris, and Buck in the back smiling. 

Eddie follows her eye movement and he smiles. “Buck and Athena set that up. We were on shift on Christmas and he surprised us with our families and dinner.”

“That was sweet.” Ana feels a little out of her depth here. She doesn’t think she’s ever seen this soft look on Eddie’s face before but she doesn’t want to ruin the moment. 

“It was, yeah.” 

They finish going through the photos, as Ana learns more about Eddie’s life. 

He makes them dinner, although he sticks a pan of lasagna in the oven so she doesn’t know how much he actually cooked. 

They’re about to sit on the couch, when he stops and says he’s going to grab something from his room. She follows him and notices for the first time that his room is a different sort of style than the rest of the house. 

It’s all dark blues and grays with some stylish lamps and photographs on the walls. 

She almost wishes she didn’t know about Buck now. 

“I like your room,” She comments while he grabs a blanket from the bed. It’s a soft black velvet.

“Oh, thanks. This was mostly Buck. My room apparently looked like a boring hotel room so he’s been giving me some of his stuff.”

“That’s?”

“Nice, right?”

No. She was going to say weird. But she nods instead. 

“The photo?” Ana asks as she walks closer to the print on the wall. It’s the typical California style photo, the palm tree lined street, but it’s in black and white, tasteful, where they’re usually cheesy. 

“Oh, uh, Buck took that. Had it framed for my birthday last year. Said it can remind me of why I moved us here, for a fresh start.”

“Huh.” Ana can tell it’s important to him, can tell that he loves the photo and the sentiment behind it. What she can’t tell is if he loves the photo more or the person who took it. 

“C’mon, let’s go watch the movie.” Eddie grabs her hand and she forgets about the room and Buck, at least for the night. 

~~~

Ana meets Buck in stages.

She thought she’d meet him at school, when he came to pick up Christopher, or at the school play, where Christopher was the main character, or at the science fair, or bake sale. All events she knows Buck was there for.

But, she never does. Whether it’s by luck or design, she doesn’t know. But she wishes she had, because she meets Buck, awkwardly, while on a date with Eddie. 

The one night Buck isn’t babysitting Christopher, Eddie’s Abuela watching him after Chris and Eddie’s talk, they run into Buck. 

So, she meets Buck outside of an ice cream shop. 

“Buck.” Eddie freezes beside her and she sees a tall man, taller than she thought with the pictures, with a cone halfway to his mouth. Buck lets out a sheepish smile and shrugs. 

That’s when Ana notices the woman next to Buck, she’s pretty, her red hair is gorgeous, and Ana thinks she looks familiar. 

“Taylor,” Eddie says clipped, in a voice she hasn’t heard from him since the skateboard incident. 

“Eddie,” The woman, Taylor, says just as clipped. 

Ana wonders what she missed. 

“What are you two doing here?” Buck asks and then he holds out his non sticky hand. “Sorry, Eddie’s rude, I’m Buck. You must be Ana.”

She nods and looks between Buck and Eddie who are giving each other eyes. “Yes, hi, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

“You, too.” Buck looks at Eddie and realizes no one is going to say anything else so he looks back to Ana.

“Would you two like to join us?” Ana asks out of desperation and Eddie looks at her incredulously. 

Buck looks at Taylor and she nudges him back. “We’d love to, but I have to get back to the station, I’m on nights right now. Next time? Buck and Eddie can schedule something.”

“Sure, bye Eddie. Ana.” Buck nods his head and she smiles at him. As they leave she can hear Taylor and Buck whispering to each other.

“That was awkward Buckley.”

“It’s not my fault he didn’t say anything…” Buck trails off and then they’re too far away to hear anything else.

Ana turns back to Eddie. “They seem like a cute couple.”

“Huh?”

“Buck and Taylor? You didn’t tell me he has a girlfriend.”

“He doesn’t,” Eddie says sharply. “They’re friends.”

“Oh, could’ve fooled me.”

“Why do you say that?” Eddie asks, looking at her for the first time since they ran into Buck.

“They seem close.” Ana shrugs. She doesn’t know why she has to explain anything, or why it would matter if Buck’s dating someone. 

“They, uhh, dated a couple years ago, but I think they’re friends now.” Eddie finally manages.

“Ohh. Okay. Friends with benefits. I get it.”

Eddie chokes on nothing and he looks a little green.

“Edmundo, are you okay?”

“Yeah, lets get that ice cream.” 

She nods and follows him into the ice cream shop, not surprised in the slightest when he orders the same flavor Buck was eating. 

~~~

The second time she meets Buck is at a party in his loft. Everyone is vaccinated and Buck wanted to have everyone over before his sister, Maddie, has her baby. 

Eddie introduces her to everyone; Bobby and Athena, Hen and Karen, Michael and David, Chimney and Maddie, Albert, and then Taylor.

“It’s good to see you again,” Ana says kindly as Eddie goes into the kitchen to grab them drinks. The loft is nice, modern, and looking suspiciously like Eddie’s bedroom, but she keeps that to herself. 

“Hey, not until after dinner. You’re worse than Christopher!” 

Ana looks over as Buck smacks Eddie’s hand with a towel as he tries to sneak cookies and Ana laughs at their antics, although no one else even so much as blinks their way. 

Taylor follows her line of sight and smiles. “Oh, they’re like that. You’ll get used to it.” 

Before Ana can respond she sees Taylor slide up to Buck and helps him with setting up the rest of the food. 

Eddie comes back over to her with a glass of wine and Ana smiles even as she notices Eddie’s face is pinched. 

Before Ana can grab it she spills some on her dress and Eddie curses.

“Shit, sorry Ana.”

“It’s okay. I’ll just grab a towel.”

“Buck, I’m taking her upstairs,” Eddie shouts to Buck and he looks over and nods.

Eddie guides her up the stairs and when she sees Buck’s bedroom, she pauses. It’s almost identical to Eddie’s in style and color. He even has the same photo hanging up on the wall. She says as much and Eddie smiles. 

“Oh yeah, he came to LA for similar reasons so he had one made for his place.”

“Huh.”

“There should be Shout Wipes in the bathroom. Medicine cabinet.” Eddie points to the bathroom as he sits down on Buck’s bed like he has every right to. He probably does. 

“Thanks. I’ll be just a minute.” 

Ana closes the door and finds a towel, wetting the stain first and then finding the wipes. As she cleans, she notices the meds in the bathroom. 

She knows she shouldn’t snoop but seeing Chris’ name on one of the bottles surprises her. It looks like Buck keeps extra medicine here for backup. She notices painkillers and Eddie’s favorite brand of shaving cream. 

Feeling like she’s crossed some sort of boundary she closes the medicine cabinet and is about to head back out when she hears voices from the room.

“You spill on yourself, too?” Eddie jokes and Buck groans.

“Albert ran right into me with the dip.”

“Sucks.”

“Seriously. I can’t wait til he leaves.”

“He could go back home, you know,” Eddie says gently as Ana hears what is likely a shirt being thrown in a hamper.

“I’m not gonna do that to Maddie.” Buck moves around and then asks. “Which one? Red or blue?”

“Blue, definitely,” Eddie responds and Ana can’t see them but she has to agree, whatever blue shirt Buck puts on will bring out his eyes.

“Good, I think this red shirt is actually yours.”

Eddie laughs and Ana pauses a moment because she’s never heard that laugh before. Part fond, part exasperated. She wonders why he laughs like that with Buck. 

“Makes sense.”

“Okay, come down when you’re done, I can’t have Albert setting my kitchen on fire.”

Ana can hear Buck heading down the stairs so she leaves the bathroom. Eddie stands to come closer and she accidentally blurts out what she’s thinking. 

“You have clothes here?”

“Huh? Oh, well I did live here for a couple of months, but with the firehouse and everything we all probably have each other’s clothes.”

Eddie says it so nonchalantly that Ana can’t even respond as he heads towards the stairs. He turns to look at her.

“Coming?”

“Yeah, sorry.” She doesn’t think it’s nonchalant at all. 

~~~ 

Ana meets Evan all at once. 

It’s her first night staying over at Eddie’s, with Christopher at Hen’s house for a sleepover of his own. 

She isn’t sure what wakes her up until she hears Eddie’s sleep rough voice.

“Evan?”

Who’s Evan? 

“Yeah, no, we’ll be there.” Eddie pauses as he sits up. “Don’t worry about it, I wouldn’t miss it.”

Eddie hangs up and looks at her sheepishly. 

“Is everything okay?” She asks as she sits up as well. 

“Yeah, Maddie’s gone into labor, so I was gonna head to the hospital.”

Huh? Eddie isn’t family, why is he going to the hospital?

“Okay. Let’s go,” Ana says instead of asking that question. 

“Are you sure? I can drop you off first.”

“No, it’s fine, we can go.” 

Plus this is a way for her to assert herself as an important person in Eddie’s life. 

“Thanks,” Eddie say, relieved, as he starts getting dressed. 

Ana follows suit and when they finally head to the hospital Eddie’s a bundle of nerves.

“She’ll be okay,” Ana says quietly as she places a hand on his leg. He nods but he doesn’t relax. 

He doesn’t relax, that is, until he sees Buck in the waiting room. 

“Evan,” Eddie breathes out as they hug. Ana’s momentarily shocked, because Eddie isn’t overly affectionate with anyone other than Christopher, but he hugs Buck like it’s a normal thing. 

Both of them calm down when they hug and then it hits her that Eddie called Buck ‘Evan’. She’s never heard someone call him that, but it must be his first name. 

She wonders when Eddie got that privilege. 

She feels like she’s intruding so she taps Eddie’s shoulder and he turns toward her. 

“I’m gonna grab coffee, you two want anything?” 

Buck smiles at her but Eddie answers her. 

“Black with cream for me, sugar and cream for Buck.”

“Okay.” Ana walks away and turns around just to see Eddie and Buck sitting down and bringing their foreheads together, almost unconsciously. 

“Oh, Ana, hey.”

Ana turns and sees Chimney.

“Chimney, hi. How’s Maddie?”

“She’s good. I’m grabbing her water. And waiting for Albert to get here. I take it you came with Eddie?” 

“Yeah. Is the whole station coming?” Ana asks even though she thinks she knows the answer.

“No. Only family. Hen and Bobby said they’d stop by after she’s born,” Chimney responds and then he’s quickly turning back towards the rooms. “Tell Albert when you see him that he comes in second since he’s late.”

“Sure,” Ana says quietly as she takes the coffee back to Buck and Eddie. After they grab theirs she sits next to Eddie and sees what they’re looking at on Eddie’s phone. 

“Is that Christopher?” She asks and Eddie nods.

“Yeah, I got so many photos of him when he was this age,” Eddie speaks quietly and Ana realizes that he got sent photos of Christopher because this must’ve been when he was deployed with the Army. He doesn’t talk about it much but she can tell Buck knows because Buck squeezes Eddie’s knee in support. 

The biggest shocker, though, is when Eddie grabs Buck’s hand and squeezes back.  

She once again feels like she’s intruding on something private, something theirs, and she doesn’t know what to do. 

Luckily she doesn’t have to think too much because Albert comes running in and he and Buck start arguing over who’s going to go in first, who’s going to be the better uncle. 

“Should we?” Ana gestures to them and Eddie shakes his head.

“Nah, they’re fine. This is fun for them.”

Ana nods and sits back to drink her coffee. Before she knows it, Chimney’s back in the waiting room telling them that Maddie and baby are fine and that they can all come meet her. 

Buck and Eddie jump up and Ana trails behind with Albert. 

“You don’t want to run in there?” She asks Albert.

“Oh I do, but I don’t want to overwhelm Maddie.”

Ana nods and keeps walking towards the room. When she gets there what she sees stops her in her tracks. 

Buck is holding his niece and Eddie, well, Eddie is staring at him with so much love, adoration, and abject want that Ana feels like she’s intruding. 

Eddie turns to her and holds out his phone. “Can you take a picture? I promised Chis I would show him before he meets her.”

“Sure,” Ana says like she’s underwater. Eddie’s lockscreen, a picture of Buck and Chris, barely registers. 

She hears the baby's name, Kylee Danielle, after her uncles, and watches as Buck tears up, and Eddie grabs the back of his neck. 

She then watches Buck pass Kylee to Eddie, and if she wasn’t so shocked she would notice the way Buck was watching him, the way Maddie was watching her, and the way Albert was videotaping everything. 

She would notice that Eddie looked damn good holding a baby. 

If she didn’t feel like she was intruding on a private family moment. 

She doesn’t belong here. She doesn’t belong with Eddie. 

She looks toward Maddie and Chimney, Maddie has kind but sad eyes looking at her and Ana knows now that she’s not who Eddie is meant to be with. 

“Congratulations,” Ana says quietly. “Eddie, I’m gonna go.”

“You don’t have to go,” Eddie says as he hands Kylee to Albert.

“I do. It’s okay, I’ll call you.”

It shouldn’t surprise her when he nods and turns back to the others but it does. 

She nods to Maddie and Chimney and then to Buck, who’s looking at her with an odd expression on his face. 

“It was nice to see you again, Evan,” Ana says and she hears his breath catch. 

She calls an Uber, waits outside for it, and when she finally gets home, she realizes she took some photos on her phone, too.

Ana looks at them, sees Eddie and Buck, looking like they belong together, and sends them to Eddie with the text ‘you have a beautiful family.’ 

~~~

Ana learns about Edmundo and Evan Buckley-Diaz when she gets a change of name form for one Christopher Buckley-Diaz. 

Along with the name form is an official form of guardianship for Buck, declaring him Christopher’s other father. 

~~~

Years later Ana learns about Ellie Buckley-Diaz when her fathers drop her off for her first day of kindergarten. 

“Eddie. Buck. Hi,” Ana greets them as they come out of the front office, paperwork in hand and an excited five year old bouncing on her toes. 

“Ana,” Eddie says warmly and Buck smiles. “Principal now?”

“Yeah, for a couple of years.”

“Congrats.” Eddie smiles and then turns to his daughter who pulls on his shirt sleeve. 

“Daddy, I want to see my classroom.” 

“I’ll take you,” Buck responds and gives Ana a smile. He squeezes Eddie’s shoulder once and then takes Ellie’s hand. 

“Papa! We have to see it right now!” 

“Okay, okay, little monster, we will,” Buck chuckles after her. 

Ana turns back to Eddie and he smiles after them and then turns to her. 

“I’m happy for you,” Ana says and Eddie looks at her curiously.

“Thank you. I am sorry about how…”

“Water under the bridge.” Ana waves her hand and points to a photo of her and her son, Milo, and Eddie smiles. 

“He’s beautiful.”

“Your daughter is, too.” Ana wants to say she looks like a perfect mix between the two of them but she keeps those thoughts to herself. 

They’ve never been close enough for that kind of conversation. 

“Thank you. She’s certainly energetic, takes after Evan,” Eddie says this with such fondness that Ana’s thrown back to the hospital when Kylee was born, and how he looked at Buck even then. 

“Nothing wrong with that.”

“Nope. Well, it was good to see you, I’m sure we’ll run into each other again.”

“Yeah, of course.” Ana smiles as he walks away, towards his family.

Ana looks at the photo of her son again. 

Learning all of these things about these great people led her to her greatest joy. 

She can’t be mad about that. 

[frozenartscapes]

Sigh... Thank you, Buzzfeed.

The links to the actual articles featured in this award-winning Buzzfeed article are here: Allure and Elle. But honestly there’s not much more meat to them than what Buzzfeed managed to summarize.

(Spoiler Alert: It’s because blue, being more masculine, gives a little more power to a character than if they were dressed in anything else.)

Now, to be fair, designer Christopher Kane, whom both of these articles are quoting, was talking about the inspiration for his new collection inspired by Beauty and the Beast. And there is some merit to what he’s talking about. Blue is a rather popular colour in a Disney character’s wardrobe, but I’m not so sure his statements apply to all of the Disney leading ladies who do wear blue. I’m not so sure that when they made Snow White the animators were thinking about subtly empowering her by making her bodice a boy’s colour, and for Cinderella...well, in the actual movie her dress never was blue. If it appeared that way it was likely due to lighting. In newer movies like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Frozen, the argument might hold a bit of water. But not much.

As was also stated in the articles, blue is a “reliable” colour. It is true that symbolically it tends to represent someone calmer, more intelligent, and capable. But as an artist, I can say that blue is reliable in another way: it goes with almost any other colour. For every colour you can think of, there’s likely a shade of blue that will match. It rarely sticks out badly in any colour palette as long as it is chosen properly, and honestly I think that might actually be the real reason it’s used so much.

Animation, specifically Disney animation, tells a story. And most of those stories follow one or more characters through grand adventures. It is not an easy medium, and that can be said for both hand-drawn and CGI animation. For every character a model has to be made, and also for every variation of that character. If they go through a wardrobe change then that’s all the more work for the animators to do. That, along with the actual story-telling challenge of finding the time to have the character change clothes all the time, often mean that the characters don’t go through many costume changes. I honestly think Frozen might’ve had the most, but I could be wrong. But it was a new movie, and able to benefit off better technology. But think back to some of the older princess movies and most rarely if ever see a change in the main character’s costumes.

Which goes back to blue. Blue, ever reliable blue, is a safe colour choice. When coordination between the character designs and the backgrounds happen, it can work to bring the main character to your attention without it being too glaring.

Note the unity of having the same shade of turquoise on both Jasmine and the Sultan. It’s also the only blue in the shot, which not only draws our attention to it but it also subtly tells us that these two characters are connected.

Great use of complementary colours here: blue and orange. They work together to bring each other out, but in this case the blue is stronger as it is in the centre of the frame and on a moving character. The orange background helps it pop (and also allows for the Fall setting).

Even in a place as crazy and mix-matched as Wonderland, the blue they’ve chosen for Alice’s dress still fits in in such a way so that it stands out but not obviously so.

Something even nicer here: they’ve kept Wendy in a blue outfit through both movies, strengthening the connection between both movies despite being years apart.

And here, blue on blue: but the lighter shade of blue used in Tiana’s dress makes it stand out against the darker sky. But not glaringly so.

In all of these examples, blue has been used because it works the best. Had another colour been used, like green, or yellow, or - gasp! - pink, the same kind of eye pleasing unity wouldn’t exist. Blue is a cool colour, and it often tends to fade into the background, especially when put against a much brighter and warmer colour like red or orange. The way to make blue pop is to utilize its complementary colours and make it the only shade of blue in the shot. And when you also want the audience focusing on that one particular character, having them in a colour that’s the only colour of that shade is a good way to get their attention. A colour like pink is either not going to be strong enough to do so (like, say, against a yellow-brown dirt road/buildings) as it would blend in with colours in the similar colour group, or it’ll be too strong and stick out like a sore thumb. Pink is all well and good for the promotional posters but in an actual movie setting it’s rare that pink actually works.

It’s also interesting to note that all three of these examples aren’t the dresses these characters end in. I know Aurora’s could be argued that she does, but in the movie it’s changing back and forth from blue to pink, and I’ve seen things since then of her in either variation. But for both Cinderella and Ariel, the final dress they end up in isn’t pink. (Again, Ariel is sometimes depicted in this pink dress in promotional stuff, but she’s also equally depicted as a mermaid, and also in her more casual dress from “Kiss the Girl” - which is blue).

People like to harp on Disney Princesses for wearing frilly pink dresses and smiling and looking pretty, but it’s actually rare to see one in a pink dress. Blue is more often than not the standard. And what I’ve talked about is only one possible reason. There’s also the fact that blue for the longest time was used for only the richest (or holiest) people because it could only be made with lapis lazuli, a relatively rare and incredibly valuable gemstone and pigment ingredient in the middle ages. Blue is also the official colour of Mary, and while Christian symbolism might not be such a huge factor in more modern works, it likely had some influence in how we depict “good” characters from “bad” (think about how many good characters have either blue or white in their colour schemes and bad guys have red and/or black). Blue, like purple, also is a colour representative of authority and regality, making it a perfect colour for Disney royalty.

So it’s not just that blue is an empowering colour. Well, it is, but not because it’s a “boy’s” colour. And that’s definitely not why most of the Disney Princesses have blue dresses.

...I don’t know why I got so mad about a stupid Buzzfeed article. I think I’m just getting sick of their shit.

Also, one final note:

Elsa’s colour is blue because she’s the goddamn Snow Queen. It’d be pretty weird if she wore literally any other colour as her “signature” gown. Not saying she doesn’t ever, but had the iconic ice dress from the first movie been anything other than blue it would have been fucking ridiculous.

[echobasegazette]

Dunkirk

If you missed the previews for Dunkirk, you should be ashamed of yourself, because they were freaking incredible. Not that I needed any fancy marketing to convince me to see Christopher Nolan’s latest project, a war movie on the Battle of Dunkirk. Now if you don’t know anything about Dunkirk I set the stage for this very important world history event with one sentence. Nearly 400,000 British and French soldiers were evacuated from the beaches of France as the German army barred down on the embattled soldiers, trapping them on the shores.  Now, I tend to really like movies about history, especially World War II, and since Christopher Nolan might be one of the better directors alive, I definitely wanted to see this opening weekend. I’ve had some time to collect my thoughts about the film and have reviewed it below.

BUT WAIT! Before I start the review, I would like to talk about Christopher Nolan really quick. He is a really good director, and despite being only 46 years old, he has made a string of great movies: The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, The Prestige, and Memento. Now here is the something that is a little crazy, according to the IMDB ratings, Christopher Nolan has directed six of the top 100 movies of all time! No other director has more than four movies in the top 100, and at this mid-point of his career, he has two more than them! Now that will most likely change with new up and coming directors, but it is still pretty impressive. As a side note, Dunkirk is currently in the top 100 which would give Nolan seven films in the top 100.  

 Quick Synopsis (Without Spoilers)

Dunkirk was a famous battle of the Second World War where the French and British troops had been defeated by the German army. They were forced all the way to the Atlantic Coast, troops crowded onto the beaches of the coastal city of Dunkirk. The British were trying to evacuate as many troops as they could but their progress was being slowed as the Luftwaffe attacked any ships on the English Channel.  Nolan decided to tell this story from three different narratives during the final days of the battle of Dunkirk as soldiers were losing all hope that they would find a way back home.

The first storyline and point of view, is from a solider named Tommy who is trapped on the “Mole”, which is the historical name for area that was controlled by the allies during the Dunkirk evacuation. Tommy’s timeline takes place over the course of a week as he runs around the city and the beaches doing anything he can to escape the oncoming assault by the German Army.

The second narrative focuses on civilians taking part in the battle from the sea. The British are in crisis-mode, and they are having major issues evacuating the men on the beach. There is only one dock on the beach that will allow large ships to pick up passengers and the waters are too shallow for the large ships to pull directly up to the beach. In order to try rescuing as many soldiers as possible, the British have decided to commandeer private civilian boats to assist the troops. Mr. Dawson, his son Peter and their teenage deckhand George head out to sea to help rescue the soldiers trapped on the beach. Their story line unfolds over the course of a day.

The final narrative focuses on British pilots and their battle in the Air. Three spitfire pilots Farrier, Collins and their squad leader are crossing the English Channel to provide air support for the troops waiting at Dunkirk. Due to fuel concerns the trio only has about 40 minutes to dogfight with the enemy before they must return to England. Their story takes place over the course of an hour leading up to the culmination of events at Dunkirk.

Review

I honestly am not sure if I actually like this film, the two things that bothered me most was the timeline setup and the dialog. But maybe seeing it a few more times would change my mind.  However, I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie because this film does an excellent job of keeping the viewer engaged the entire time. Nolan uses the sound of a ticking clock to keep the viewer aware of the pressing of time, “Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock,” creating an anxiety and an understanding that time is a factor and these men have to get off this beach.

Nolan secures quite the interesting cast of actors for this epic war film. The main character Tommy was played by Fionn Whitehead, who is something of an unknown actor, but he does a solid job in his role as “Terrified infantry Grunt” who needs to escape the beach.  Harry Styles (from One Direction) shows up as Alex, another Army private who meets up with Tommy along the way. Styles actually does a solid job, and after a while you start to forget that he is a famous member of a British boy band. Tom Hardy plays the main fighter pilot and spends nearly the entire movie in a cockpit, shooting down bombers and dogfighting with Luftwaffe pilots. There are several other actors in this film who you will recognize and all do a fine job.

The one thing that is really different about this film is the timeline. Each of the three stories are being shown but because the elapsed time of each is so different the stories don’t line up and it can make it difficult to follow exactly what’s happening in the story. Additionally, the time lines are only introduced with small type at the beginning of each story, “One Hour”, “One Day”, and “One Week.” It is often difficult to tell where these stories overlap because of all the moving pieces. The timeline really just makes the stories difficult to follow, and I can’t really see the benefit… maybe repeat viewing will provide an answer.

Another issue I have with this film was in understanding exactly what the characters were saying. When I am at home, I watch all movies and serious TV shows with subtitles. Some people find this annoying, but after a while the words and the movie start to blend together, and they become really helpful when you miss things or can’t understand someone because the character is mumbling. If you don’t use subtitles, trust me this is the way to watch movies. When I go to the theater there are usually a few points in each movie where I think, “Damn I didn’t quite get that.” But with this movie it was more like half the film. I just couldn’t get a grasp on what was being said, partially because of the loud background sounds of the attacks on the beach and also because of the short, quick dialogue, all with British accents.

Who will like this film?

If you like war films or are a history buff, then this is probably for you. But you should be aware of the disjointed timeline because it may give you a better grasp on the film.

Overall

7.4/10

 The Movie Guy