Todd Decker on Sound in Dunkirk

War and Media SIG member, Todd Decker, has a timely blog post about sound in the new WWII film Dunkirk (Dir. Christopher Nolan, 2017). Before you head to the theater to see the film, check it out: http://www.ucpress.edu/blog/28775/see-dunkirk-to-hear-it/

Here’s a tease: 

See Dunkirk to Hear It: A Spoiler-Free Guide to Music and Sound in Christopher Nolan’s New War Movie

by Todd Decker, author of Hymns for the Fallen: Combat Movie Music and Sound after Vietnam

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Director Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, opening in theaters this weekend in the US, sounds better than any war movie ever made.

I saw Dunkirk in 70mm and digital surround sound at the earliest possible showing at my favorite suburban St. Louis multiplex. Having just published a book on war movies from Apocalypse Now to American Sniper, I was eager to see and hear this latest entry in the intermittent but persistent World War II film cycle kicked off almost two decades ago by Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line.

 

At just 1 hour and 47 minutes, Dunkirk is a lean and gorgeous piece of filmmaking and film scoring that deserves to be experienced without undue preparation—so no spoilers here! . . .