Getting ready for Oppenheimer?

Let’s learn from Dunkirk before we go and watch Oppenheimer

I can criticize a lot when I watch a movie for the first time, but believe me, I can rewatch things and I can really change my mind. I changed my mind on Interstellar last weekend. What an amazing movie it is. One day, I’ll come up with an analysis, because it deserves it. However, since Nolan’s Oppenheimer is around the corner, I thought that probably the closest experience to it, would be his other “based in real events” movie: Dunkirk.

There is a lot to talk about this film. I mean it. The structure, how realistic it feels, the amazing cinematography, the characters, the manage of Time, etcetera. Writing about all of it would be a whole thesis. However, one of the things that I always remember from this film is the very first sequence.

If you ask me about how my top five movies start, I may not have the correct answer for all of them. But if you pronounce Dunkirk, my mind will just go back to that exact moment: the beginning. There is nothing more welcoming for a rewatch than that.

“Paper. Falling like snow”.

That’s how both script and film start. Six soldiers are walking down a deserted street, as that propaganda (which says that they are surrounded) falls down on them. They are looking for food and water. One of them grabs a hose and tries to open the faucet, but there is no water. There’s nothing, except for that paper.

Silence, just as probably as the audience is (or was back in 2017), waiting for something to happen.

All of a sudden, someone starts shooting at them.

They start running. Running to the other side of where the bullets are coming.

One, two and three of the soldiers are shot down.

Four and five.

The sixth and only survivor manages to climb a fence. He is alive.

We just met our main character. What a way to meet him. What a way to get into the story.

Now, back into the story…

On the other side of the fence and, to his luck, our main character finds a rifle. He picks it up and tries to reload it, while the bullets start tearing apart the fence.

Wait.

I’ve seen this before (like the meme made out of that Leonardo DiCaprio scene in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). We’ve seen this before.

It’s that scene, where they are just messing up with the wrong guy. Now he has a rifle, and now it’s his turn.

Indeed, he fires back at them (through the fence and while trying to walk backwards) a couple of times but the enemy won’t stop. He renounces to that idea and, in a thud, he is escaping once again.

He climbs a wall and luckily finds a French trench, ready to resist, at least for a little bit. They look at him with anger, because he is english. He has no reason to stay, since he doesn’t have the rifle anymore. So he just runs away, scared.

When I watched it, that opening scene, I remember feeling so excited, overwhelmed and already surprised. In less than three minutes, I was already watching something fresh. Christopher Nolan wasn’t leaving us with a common hero. He left us with only a child, a young skinny boy running for his life.

The young boy keeps running until he reaches the beach. Thousands of soldiers are over there, waiting. That’s what the pamphlet was about. They are surrounded. It’s just a matter of days, that they will get killed, if a miracle does not happen. Oh, and during all this, we hear a clock ticking.

It’s a memorable small scene. So simple and yet so difficult to write. However, if you are a storyteller or a screenwriter and you want to come up with a powerful beginning, then take note on how Christopher Nolan did it:

First, think of powerful imagery. Powerful imagery means it can become memorable. If you find a first amazing shot, that’s gold. We know that film has become more about entertainment than art. But even in a simple scene (A young unarmed soldier escapes from the enemy’s bullets), you can find a way for art. That paper falling like snow happens when those soldiers are in silence, at a deserted street. It’s the calm before the storm. The first image of this movie is so poetic that you can’t just forget it. Just like a good mysterious first line in a good novel. The rest of the film has tons of incredible images, playing with different perspectives, camera movements and angles, portraying main subjects and actions the background, it shows beauty through symmetry and vanishing points, and so much more that I might have missed. All of this, evokes powerful literary figures like metaphors, analogies and feelings or sensations. Despite so many paintings in movement, I could still recall that first image: paper falling like snow over the soldiers.

Second, rhythm, as in everything in this world, is important. The script describes that frantic moment once the shooting starts. We don’t know for fact if Christopher Nolan already knew he wanted to have a traveling behind his soldiers up until the sixth and only survivor reached the fence. That camera’s traveling movement makes us feels the urge that’d been over the page before. When he reaches the beach, he is safe, for a while, but the world for our character is wide open now. There is still an urge, but for some minutes, we’ll have time to breath. The whole movie has a dynamic rhythm and pacing, so that the audience may be stuck to their seats, but not to the point of feeling stressed out. As a screenwriter, you have to get inside your story to find the rhythm of every scene, but also to be able to know when to stop it. In this case, it lasts three minutes, but there are moments that deserve more time of tension, way more.

Third, the boy reloading and shooting without even aiming at anything gives you no hope. It’s already showing you how honest those characters are going to be. How real they are going to feel. As a writer, it is not easy but you must never for get that writing authentic, compelling characters is what really works. It’s a writer’s responsibility to think of those small details. What would a normal guy do in this situation? What if he is scared and he doesn’t want to risk his life? What if he just runs and just wants to go home?

Hey, don’t get me wrong…

That doesn’t mean that there can be no heroes. There are also heroes, in movies and in real life, but not every story has to have a hero. Aim to show a wide variety of characters, and the way they react to certain things can tell you a lot about them and give you that nuance you need in your writing.

Rewatching Dunkirk has been a treat to me, and luckily is available to stream on Netflix, at least for now. It’s been written, directed and produced by Christopher Nolan and don’t forget that the great Cillian Murphy plays a very interesting character in Dunkirk. I can tell you this movie is worth to watch it again.

Many have already concluded, that the best film school, is watching movies. I’m sure Oppenheimer will be surprising and exciting, as all Nolan’s movies are. If you are not a fan of his dialogues, it’s okay. He gets into very complex themes and his dialogues can feel heavy. But Nolan is a master of his craft, and if you are not learning from him, you might be missing a chance to learn as a writer, film maker, and artist.

I can’t wait to write something about Oppenheimer and other upcoming films. Throughout this year, I’ll be dissecting some other movies to learn and relearn all we can about them.