Dunkirk

by Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan's previous films have reflected the uncertainties of the twentieth-first century. With Dunkirk, Nolan has gone back into the past and brought to life one of the momentous events of the twentieth-century - the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk, telling the tale by land, sea, and sky.Dunkirk opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea, they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in.The film features a prestigious cast, including Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, and newcomer Fionn Whitehead, with Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy.The screenplay is accompanied by a conversation about the film between Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan,as well as selected storyboards.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical, War, World War II, Film, Military Fiction

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 21, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Christopher Jonathan James Nolan (born July 30, 1970) is a British-American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for writing and directing such critically acclaimed films as Memento (2000), the remake Insomnia (2002), the film adaptation The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), and rebooting the Batman film franchise. The latter made him the second most commercially successful British director in recent years, behind David Yates. Nolan is the founder of the production company Syncopy Films.

He often collaborates with his wife, producer Emma Thomas, and his brother, screenwriter Jonathan Nolan, as well as cinematographer Wally Pfister, film editor Lee Smith, composers David Julyan and Hans Zimmer, special effects coordinator Chris Corbould, and actors Christian Bale and Michael Caine.

Nolan often casts the same actors in different films. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Russ Fega, Cillian Murphy and Larry Holden are among his more frequent acting collaborators.

Nolan's wife Emma Thomas has produced most of his films, with the exception of Memento and Insomnia. Lee Smith has been Nolan's editor since Batman Begins, with Dody Dorn editing Memento and Insomnia. Wally Pfister has served as cinematographer for all of Nolan's films starting with Memento. David Julyan composed music for Following, Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige, while Hans Zimmer provided music for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Inception.

Reviews

[Scott Hitchcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up on audio from the library thinking it would be as the title advertises and thus didn't pay too much attention. The book is more about the movie. It fills in historical details but a lot of it is an interview with the author, how and why why filmed things a certain way, ect. It was interesting nonetheless but just looking at the title most wouldn't expect that.

[Bon Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm totally psyched up for the movie after reading this book. It's full of historical and insider info about Dunkirk and filming of the movie. I'm sure I'm better prepared now to appreciate all the attention to details, which I believe would go unnoticed otherwise. The amount of historical research this movie required before anything was put into motion is absolutely insane.

So, off to see the movie!

EDIT: I was right. Watching the movie after the book was a great experience, and I bet it's better than the standalone would be, but I suppose it would work in other direction as well. If you already watched the movie, it still pays off to read the book.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dunkirk, written and directed by Christopher Nolan
9 out of 10


Dunkirk is not just one of the best films of 2017, winner of three Academy awards and nominated for another five, including the one for Best Motion Picture, but one of the greatest in recent history.

It details with panoramic and intimate perspective, bringing modern cinematic techniques to the telling of one of the most dramatic, tragic, overwhelming events of the last century, the evacuation of Dunkirk.
This is a narrative of heroism, evident in almost all the characters, played by an incredible cast, directed by a phenomenal director – one who has definitely entered the history of cinema.

One of the intertwining stories, presented with an outstanding handling of timing, perspective, genius of bringing together tales that constitute chapters of the same sublime symphony, is that of Mr. Dawson, his son and George.
The former is played by the heavyweight Mark Rylance and the latter by the young but already established as an accomplished, skilled excellent actor Barry Keoghan, most recently admired in the Shooting of a Sacred Deer and Black ’47.

Mr. Dawson is the captain of a small pleasure vessel and he tries to sail to Dunkirk, together with what will prove to be a providential, superb Savior Armada, to save men that had been fighting and been stranded there.
Dunkirk is in fact the story of extracting a victory from the jaws of defeat, since the Nazi army had in the first stages of the World War II an uncontested superiority over the Allied Army of France and Britain, which would be cornered and in danger of being decimated.

The fact that hundreds of thousands of soldiers would be saved instead of killed or taken prisoners could well be one of the reasons why the allies would win the war, for without this major part of the British Army we could envisage a scenario in which the Nazis would have quickly overwhelmed a much diminished foe, the only one still standing at that point.
Mr. Dawson and his crew made of his son and another young man called George – who would die at sea – save first one pilot who fell with his plane into the sea and then another, just as he was about to die drowned in the cockpit that would not break open no matter how hard he tried to escape it.

The first pilot has suffered a tremendous shock, is therefore determined to make the captain turn back, away from the death danger, emphasizing that this is just a small pleasure boat, and has no business in confronting the enemy airplanes and the guns at perils at Dunkirk.
Mr. Dawson is a clam hero, understanding and with empathy and compassion, he explains to his son the trauma that had affected the pilot, who is not a coward as the son thinks, but a very severely shocked young man.

The German air force, still very strong at that moment in time, sink quite a number of ships, but fortunately Mr. Dawson and others like him, mobilized to enter this splendid operation as civilians contributing to a massive rescue operation manage to save a good number of the soldiers who have had to abandon ship.
Commander Bolton is another heroic character, the officer in charge on the peer at Dunkirk, who starts the operation with the sinking feeling that he would lose so many men, given the circumstances and very adversarial odds at stake.

The British troops have been withdrawing, exhausted, without aerial cover in many instances, bombarded and machine gunned by Nazi airplanes, facing a seemingly impossible task of reaching the English shore which was so close and yet impossibly hard to reach.
Christopher Nolan is brilliant in rendering not just the tales of extreme bravery and valiance, but also the lows to which such a pressure, an incredible weight that this global conflict can be place on human beings.

On one of the ships that has managed to sail from Dunkirk, the danger is that the boat would sink and this is when a few of the men detect that among them they have alien soldiers and they target them saying they are spies, enemy combatants.
In fact, they are a few French refugees that speak no English, without being Nazis and they contemplate the heinous fate of finding a way on the ship that could save them, only to be pushed by the British men to their death.

The wonderful Tom Hardy has the role of yet another Superman of this elating, uplifting story in spite of its immense death toll, Farrier, who is one of the role models of this magnificent drama, a pilot who fights to the last drop of fuel in his tank.

He chases Nazi airplanes and saves in the process a multitude of comrades in arms, although these have been complaining that they did not have air support, understandably seeing that so many have been sitting targets for the German pilots shooting at them like at practice.
Of course, the British did not have enough equipment, planes, at times fuel in these flying machines to cope with the incredible challenges faced early on – and later- in this awful world war.

Dunkirk is fabulous on all counts: its script is fantastic, the cast could not be any better, the cinematic achievement has been acclaimed at the Oscars and at other film festivals and award ceremonies and finally the critics have rated it with an exuberant 94 out of 100, which means that this film is…

Nearly perfect!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France are surrounded by the German Army, and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't see the film by the same but heard about it and wanted to know more about this little-known military event. I assumed this was the book that the film was based on but it starts off with information about the making of the film and almost lost me there as I didn't want to listen to several hours about shooting a film. But it quickly moved into the actual history of the event and included viewpoints from many who were there and managed to escape from the beach. Between this book and seeing the film The Darkest Hour I have a new appreciation for how close the Allies were to losing the war and only managed to keep going through grit, brilliant motivation from Churchill and no small amount of luck or providence.

The book concludes with more background on how the film came to be made, the logistics and challenges and by that time I was ready to learn more about that so I found it enjoyable to listen to that as well. The book has a documentary feel so this would probably be more for history and military buffs rather than someone in the mood for a fun read.

[Samuel Lindgren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dunkirk, by Joshua Levine is a book that tells the story of everything that led up to the evacuation of Dunkirk and the evacuation itself. It also highlights some of the lasting effects of that evacuation. In the beginning of the book, the readers are told of some of the conditions of the war, and of the mindsets and readiness of some soldiers. It says that condition were not very good with dead bodies all over. Also, for a lot of the troops, this was the first fighting that they had been a part of. Many troops were too scared to even fight. After this, the book shifts gears and begins to explain what daily life was like for the younger people of the U.S, U.K, and Germany at the beginning of the war. Their lives are compared and contrasted with the younger people of today. After this entry into the topic, Levine starts to elaborate on the events that lead up to evacuation of Dunkirk. It started when Germany attacked Poland, and forced England and France to declare war on Germany. The readers are then taken through the major battles before Dunkirk, and they are also told the stories of certain soldiers and their struggle. All of this leads up to the main point of the book which is the evacuation of Dunkirk. Levine, elaborately explains the battle and really paints a strong picture in the reader’s mind of Dunkirk during that time.

Dunkirk, is an immersive novel that puts the reader in the place of the soldiers. It really explains in a deep way, what was going on during the first year of World War Two. One thing that the author did well, was explaining everything that happened before the evacuation. This was a smart thing to do because it gave the readers a background of the battle, and why the British army was forced to do this. This book also had references to the movie Dunkirk, so this helped me understand some parts better, after seeing the book. I would recommend this book to anyone that is even remotely interested in history. On the other hand, this book is not for people that don’t like history, or the war genre. This is a good book because it gives a wide overview of the entire operation and informs the readers about the whole operation, from the defense of Dunkirk the role that civilian ships hade in the escape.

[Gal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scripts are very underated thing when we want to understand a movie.
But this script shows how a movie is not only depends when and what people say but when there is any dialouge.
Its thilliring as the movie.
And the ending had on me the same chillng effect the the ending of the movie had.

[Luke Nicholas Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great companion piece that actually gave some solid insight into the film.
The film is the superior experience, however, as the flaws of the story stick out more in the screenplay.

[Gerry Sacco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very powerful and sad book. Some of the recounts of what happened not just during the war, but before it, were heartbreaking.

[Cami Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

como será que o nolan se sente sabendo que fez um dos melhores filmes de guerra da história

[Hank Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ironically, this book does not devote near enough time to what was currently going on at Dunkirk. I felt that darting in and out of the storyline was unnatural for the reader, as the book focused way too much on Adolf Hitler. Though Hitler played a large, terrible role in World War Two, the author did not need to focus on Hitler and Hitler's youth as much as Levine did. The production of the movie was also too highly focused on.
Though I may not have liked some of the writing in the book, the storyline is well written. The author does a good job of focusing on heroics during the storyline. Other bright spots in the book include the personal account of men that arrived at Dunkirk after the fact, and men who survived Dunkirk.

[Linh Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun to see the subtlety between the lines and the action in the script. There were things I did not notice, or comprehend, when watching the movie; things that I now appreciate more should I re-watch the movie.

It was also fun to see how the actors have interpreted the script and brought their own ideas into it. For a script with so little dialogue, it's rather safe to say a lot was changed and I'm glad it was, as the changes brought the humanity to the words on paper.

The interview in the beginning was insightful, and the storyboard at the end was fascinating as we see how the vision of Mr. Nolan came to reality. Dunkirk remains the best movie about WW2 I've seen, and it's because it's not a war movie.

God it's movies like Nolan's that make me understand the idea of the la la land. Been reading script instead of book lately and find it's just as fun.

[Jacob Padilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A masterpiece in pacing, structure, and subtlety. It was a joy to read through the intercutting of narratives that Nolan accomplished so deftly.

Only issue I have is with this publication. It largely forgoes traditional screenplay formats for a more “readable” version. I guess this works better for most people, but I really prefer reading screenplays in their originally formatting, as it helps to understand how the screenwriter crafts the narrative within the confines of the form.

[Cotton Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first work I've read written by Joshua Levine, and my appetite is wetted for the other book he wrote on Dunkirk (Forgotten Voices of Dunkirk). He introduces this work as look into the filming of the movie Dunkirk as much as it is a work about the event, and had it stuck strictly to that theme I wouldn't have taken an interest in it. However, over half the book is devoted to History and interpretation thereof, even sociological discussions of young men who were there, a real draw for me in particular that it's not true to form of the original thesis and purpose he states in the introduction. The incredible misjudgments on the part of both German and British, and of course the French, was a far greater factor in the stream of events leading to the British disaster and escape from Dunkirk. This read presents Hitler and his minions as far more vacillating and insecure than I fully appreciated. Likewise, a British tendency to overstate and overrepresent German planning, competence, and power led them to undertake startlingly misguided strategies. Britain's (more properly a single General's) one redeeming card play was to get their failing, faltering British Expeditionary Army to the beaches at Dunkirk and organize a massive withdrawal/escape. The famous story of "little boats" is legend, but the individual cases were foundations, stories in composite, for the movie.

The actual delving into how the material was used to create a film took up a bare third of the book. Levine lionizes Christopher Nolan (Director) and his various underlings. This was quite a choreographed work of many people working and acting in concert. I can only imagine making such a film, a masterpiece by my reckoning, must only truly seem a standout success after all is completed and packaged.

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The historical novel Dunkirk by Joshua Levine was a very powerful and moving story. The book followed the making of the movie as well as the history of the evacuation at Dunkirk. The book included interviews and photos. Strong descriptions of the setting of the beaches of Dunkirk helped the reader visualize. The author teaches us to change our view of war through this book. He discusses that war as a survival over combat experience. He shows the many different viewpoints the soldiers had during this evacuation from the many places it occurred, land, air, se. He shows the many different viewpoints the soldiers had during this evacuation from the many places it occurred, land, air, sea. In the beginning, the interview section, featuring Christopher Nolan, the making of the movie was described in detail. Christopher Nolan discussed how in the movie he did not show the Nazis, in a way, making them more inhumane and allowing them to be seen as everyone’s worst fear. This book was expertly crafted to help someone who had seen the Dunkirk movie to learn more about the evacuation. My favorite parts were when the small boats arrived to save the soldiers and when the soldiers arrived home and were treated as heroes. I found these to be very heartwarming and powerful moments. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the evacuation at Dunkirk. I really enjoyed the story and I hope more people learn about it.

[Emma Scholl]

The book is the true story of Dunkirk, World War Two. Four hundred thousand British and French soldiers on the coast of Dunkirk. In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping allie troops on the beaches. Troops were slowly evacuating from the beach. At the end of this mission, three hundred thirty thousand French, British, Belgian, and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated. Six British soldiers were were walking through the desolate streets of Dunkirk. They were all looking through abandoned houses looking for food, supplies, water when they are fired at by unseen German soldiers. Five of the men are killed except for one. I recommend this book for anyone because it tells the true story about the war. As someone living in the U.S. I only hear about this that side or the war, and this book was an amazing change I was finally able to see both sides. Its very entertaining to read and hard to get board while reading. If you don't like to read, then I recommend to anyone to at least watch the movie so you can hear the story, personally I like the book better, because there are more details. Overall I am very happy I have read this book because I know it is good for me to have learned all of this new information.

[Howard Crates · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't imagine if anyone submitted this script to a producer it would be likely to get made. Scripts should have a lot of white space on the page, and one of the things I thought while watching the movie (other than 'bloody hell, evacuating Dunkirk didn't look like fun') was how much of the script would be full of text just describing what's happening. That's exactly the case, so thank god Nolan already had a fantastic director signed on to direct.

This film has stayed with me since viewing, and not just because my ears are still ringing and the glorious image of Spitfires soaring over the channel has been burned into my retinas by the overwhelming expanse of IMAX screen. The subject matter is compelling; the final execution, an uncompromising vision; the main characters realistically underdeveloped, nearly wordless in their effort to just stay alive.

A couple of cheesy lines, but they felt like a link to the classic movies this film is so indebted to, but a startling departure from.

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Levine’s work is a short, readable one about the British Expeditionary Force's evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940 and the 2017 movie made about the event.

History buffs will want a book with more substance to it, but those new to the topic will find this a good place to start.

“The Miracle of Dunkirk,” is not a heroic story of success, but instead a brave tale of survival to fight another day. As such, it is one of the most interesting stories of WWII, even if it is not an often-told one. And certainly, if it had failed – and the entire British army had been forced to surrender to Hitler – we would be living in a much different world today.

The latter chapters of the book recount the making of the movie. They offer a look at the tremendous planning and technical work that takes place before any cameras begin to roll, as well as the efforts made to achieve as much historical accuracy as possible.

[Zachary Mercieca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dunkirk is a very interesting book because it talks about the history of our world. I was very excited to read the book knowing what happens in the movie because I had already seen it. The book is exactly like the Movie is you were wondering. The book is narrating ones life in the first person just like the book Trash, but they change the people that they are talking about as so Dunkirk does. So, that you can see the book in different perspectives, so that it doesn't get boring. It talks about the fighter planes and what everyone had to do when they were coming just like in the real war. Even for the people that were not even fighting in the war. I bet you will find this book vest exciting and interesting as so I did. I hope that you will read this book and enjoy it as much as I did.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the masterpiece of the film "Dunkirk (four times at movie theaters!) and had to pick this up; I loved this book as well! This book has an interview with Christopher Nolan (Directer, producer, etc), complete screenplay and a selected few storyboards. Pretty much if you enjoyed the film, then you'll enjoy this as well. Its surprising what little bits you miss, from reading the screenplay and watching the film multiple times, you notice bits that you didn't catch the first time! The film is also full of gifted and attractive men ha ha. I gave this 5 stars and is one of my new favourites! Also my first read of 2018!

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this film in IMAX 2 and a half weeks ago and it has been all I've been thinking about since then. Today I found the screenplay, put the film soundtrack on and read it, reliving all of the emotions I went trough on watching this masterpiece.
You can actually see the rapid change between settings on paper better than on screen, it makes you realise how fast everything was happening.
I should say some of the language was very technical, conserning ships, aircrafts and so on, but otherwise-an incredible work of art, put together by the brilliant Christopher Nolan.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this for the conversation between Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, and the storyboards.
The former is a compelling read that gives great insight into Christopher Nolan’s process. Honestly, I could read these conversations even if they were a thousand pages long...

I’ve also read the script. Sometimes I read scripts of exceptional movies because it’s interesting to see the differences and how stories are developed on paper. Christopher Nolan is a great storyteller (along with his brother), so his scripts are always worth reading.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Dunkirk story is very interesting. It's a part of WWII that seems to have been overlooked given the fact that it was a retreat. What occurred to evacuate all of the British and French soldiers was amazing and what they endured was horrible. Although the story is interesting and should be told, the author frankly isn't very good at story telling. The book picked up when he detailed the how the movie depicted what happened.

[Batu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant tribute to the good that is within humans. A brilliant reminder of the loathsome horror humans are capable of. Nolan meticulously researched and respectfully and lovingly recreated a moment in time when these inherent characteristics collided ferociously on a beach in northern France.

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Albert Einstein

[elio · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little introspection in the infamous Dunkirk operation.
To my taste just a tad too long, it did go around the same sort of topics on several pages, and it was a hard read for me because I seemed to lose interest quick. But once finished, I could only appreciate how much knowledge I had once I exited the book. Especially nice if you are interested in the filmmaking process of the movie, which is rather peculiar, daring and refreshing. Nice read overall.

[Meihan Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great cinematic experiment and priceless for the clam and realistic manner in which "retreat" and "defeat" are portrayed as they truly were. The only message it tries to convey and is perceived by me is a poetic homage to the strong, respectable and proud British civil society rather than the British state whose role in winning the war in Europe is rather debatable.

[Jane Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really disappointed in this book, I went to see the film and wanted to read more about Dunkirk, but I didn’t find the book that interesting. I appreciate it was a book about the film, so maybe a poor decision on my behalf.

Didn’t even finish the book, my husband also read it and didn’t enjoy it either, so safe to say wouldn’t recommend the book.

[Paul Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of the events surrounding the evacuation of Dunkirk. I wish I had read this before watching the film as it kind of explains the vision they had when making it.
If you want a full history there are better books out there but this is a good introduction of the period and worth a read.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This script is frankly spectacular. After years of being anti-Nolan, I have to admit defeat. I fucking respect him now. Hard.

Also don’t skip the preceding Nolan brothers interview. His process in writing/creating the film was more impress even than the finished script. I will be watching this film very soon even though I had sworn it off - no matter how cute Harry Styles is.

[Myrthe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great start and good at the end as well, but I kept loosing interest in the main/middle section. Not sure if it's just personal preference or if there were too many names and dates mentioned, and a bit too much jumping around. But yeah, probably just personally preference. Overall, a good and informative book especially for history and movie lovers.