Christopher Nolan, perhaps best known for his work with The Dark Knight Batman trilogy and the award winning Inception, has turned his sights towards making a gritty realistic World War II movie featuring an interesting part of the war not typically covered – Dunkirk. Trailer two shows off much more of the movie including some incredible air to air scenes.
Nolan is typically good at getting characterizations and injecting a lot of emotion and mood into his movies. Dunkirk looks like a repeat of that formula with a subdued colour pallet, subtle yet driving score underneath the trailers action, and a general sense of foreboding – certainly the kind of feeling that you get from something covering the miraculous yet perilous efforts to evacuate the British Army from Dunkirk in the spring of 1940.
In this second trailer we see some incredible air to air sequences with a dogfight between Spitfires and Bf109Es. We also see some Ju87s, a Heinkel He111 and a very brief appearance by a Blenhiem IV.
From what I know of the movie, Nolan has emphasized practical effects over computer effects (though you can always count on them being there) so my understanding is that most of the air to air shots were filmed rather than generated. That does come with some compromises too.
Its difficult to see clearly but the Bf109E is, much like the 1969 Battle of Britain movie, a Spanish Buchón rather than a legitimate E model Bf109. Availability comes into play and very few Bf109E series still exist – I had the pleasure of taking photos of one several years back but clearly it was not available for this movie.
This will be the first Hollywood movie in a long time to attempt and hopefully do justice to both a lesser known part of history as well as the air to air combat that surrounded it.
Enough of my commentary… go, watch the trailer!
Stormbirds 