Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Define it by what's missing
What was stripped away
Christopher Nolan wanted pure present tense and pure climax. From its very first sequence the film gives the audience one starkly simple calculation: survive or die. The backstory is what he stripped away.
He also left out the visually chaotic devices that usually sell the idea of war to an audience: lots of quick cuts, lots of activity, smoke, fire, and bits and bobs flying everywhere. Dunkirk is entirely about the absence of those things.
The Kubrick model
The approach follows a favorite film. Nolan calls 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick's film from 1968, the punk rock of movies, a film that doesn't acknowledge that any rules exist.
Why is 2001 called a rule-breaking film?
Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, released in 1968, runs for roughly its first 25 minutes without any dialogue. It leans on classical music, long silent shots, and an ending that offers no explanation. Mainstream studio films of the time were expected to explain themselves. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards and won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
How does Dunkirk's score build constant tension?
Composer Hans Zimmer built parts of the Dunkirk score around a Shepard tone, an auditory illusion of a pitch that seems to rise forever. The effect is made by layering tones an octave apart, with higher ones fading out as lower ones fade in. The ear keeps hearing a climb that never reaches a peak. Psychologist Roger Shepard described the illusion in 1964.
More from Founders
