by Alex Billington
December 24, 2017
Source: Vimeo
"Hope is a weapon. Survival is victory." One of the standout movies from 2017 is Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan's intense and riveting WWII thriller about the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 at the beginning of World War II. Nolan put a great amount of effort in recreating the scenes and experiences as accurately as possible, and that can be sensed when watching the movie on a big screen. Editor and cinema lover Titouan Ropert has created a video featuring six minutes of side-by-side examples of photography & archival footage from WWII compared directly to footage from Nolan's Dunkirk. It's actually breathtaking to see how remarkably accurate it is, and makes me appreciate the movie even more. A few comparisons have been made on social media already, but this video shows how incredibly meticulous Nolan was on this movie. It's worth a watch.
Thank you to Film School Rejects for the tip on this video. Description direct from Vimeo: "Comparison between archives (Photos/Footage) from the evacuation of Dunkirk ("Operation Dynamo", 1940) and the Christopher Nolan's movie Dunkirk." It features English and French subtitles if you need them. Created by Titouan Ropert - find more of his work on Vimeo or follow him on Twitter @Titouan_Ropert. Christopher Nolan filmed most of Dunkirk on the actual beaches where the evacuation took place, and recreated much of it focusing on the "realism" above all. He even recruited 12 of the original little ships that participated in the Dunkirk evacuation to appear in the film, re-enacting their presence in 1940. Nolan's Dunkirk first opened in theaters on July 21st, 2017 in the summer. Read more on the evacuation here. Thoughts on the movie?