Our Boys Vow to Never Surrender in Latest ‘Dunkirk’ Trailer
Christopher Nolan doesn’t do small movies — if he’s going to mount a war picture, you can bet it’s gonna be one of the biggest (and priciest!) to date. He’s seemingly spared no expense for his new film Dunkirk, reportedly corralling thousands of extras, destroying vintage planes, and dominating the land, sea, and air all for a grand new vision of combat. And in order to fully convey the enormity of his ambitions, Nolan went all-in and mounted his production on 70 millimeter film. For laymen, that means he used a larger film strip while shooting to capture more brilliant colors, richer sound, and a greater sharpness of detail. For those who don’t give a hoot, it means this film will rattle your bones.
The latest trailer for Dunkirk claims to play up the “special 70mm engagement” component of the release, though I’m unclear on how a digitized trailer can fully convey the lures of 70mm exhibition, but I guess that’s why I’m not an advertising executive. The new trailer does keep a focus on the immediately epic, following the swooping camera through plumes of sea mist, going down with nosediving planes, and trapping us in a rapidly filling chamber of water. The first critic screenings are coming on up, and while a verdict will soon arrive on the film (will it be just masculine enough? Too masculine? Will Harry Styles cry on a beach?), what’s certain as of right now is that this will be intense.
Dunkirk storms theaters on July 21, at which point it will fall to Nolan to come up with an even more audacious concept for his next film. He’s conquered superhero cinema, gone to space, planted his flag on the war film — is it time for a mega-budgeted Christopher Nolan horror flick? I’m picturing something like A Nightmare on Elm Street meets Inception, and it costs $200 million.