Time Flies in ‘Dunkirk’

Time has always been a central factor in Christopher Nolan’s films. In Dunkirk, the story of the evacuation of the majority of British soldiers trapped on Dunkirk beach by the surrounding German forces takes center stage. However, the way in which the story is told is done in the undoubtedly Nolan-esque manner of cross-cutting between three different stories unfolding for different durations of time: in the lead up to, during, and after the evacuation. This manner of telling the story conveys the experience of time as a subjective experience. The film depicts the idea that one hour could feel like one day in certain situations, or that one day could feel like one week in another. This is done to show the different experiences of the different participants trying to navigate the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1941. What this formation of time in the film also achieves, is conveying how the participants in this mission actually felt during their time frames to explore the notion of the individual sacrifices that were made to achieve the collective end of bringing the stranded soldiers in Dunkirk home to Britain.

Dunkirk beach at sunset

Dunkirk is split into three different segments: “Land” (called The Mole in the film), “Sea,” and “Air.” The “Land” segment takes place over one week and follows the story of Tommy experiencing the terrors of the common foot soldier during World War II as well as hatching his own plans (usually unsuccessfully) to try and find a way across the channel back home. The “Sea” segment takes place over the course of one day and follows Mr. Dawson and his son Peter as they respond to the call made by the British government to send civilian boats over to Dunkirk to pick up the stranded soldiers on the beach. Finally, the “Air” segment occurs over the course of only one hour. This segment follows Farrier and Collins, two Royal Airforce spitfire pilots who are sent to Dunkirk to provide air support for the Dunkirk evacuation. All of these stories intersect and occur simultaneously during the climax of the film. The reason why a segment that takes place over one hour (Air) can be cut with a story that takes place over the course of one week (Land) is because Nolan is suggesting that, for example, one hour in the cockpit of a spitfire trying to shoot other planes down could feel like, or have the same amount of “action,” as a soldier who spends one week of his time waiting around to be rescued on a beach. Furthermore, the same could be said for one day spent crossing the English Channel in a pleasure vessel, especially during wartime. By establishing the different time frames by which the three stories take place in the film, Nolan conveys the subjective experiences of each of the characters within the different stories, and also establishes a sort of universal experience of time for the viewer of the film. This is proven because we as the viewer experience the film over the course of one hour and forty-six minutes, however what we have seen are the experiences of a one-week, a one day, and a one hour long ordeal that the different characters have experienced, and yet we as the audience feel as though we have experienced their stories almost equally after the film has ended.

The use of different durations of time for the three storylines to attempt to recreate the experience of time of the characters for the audience in Dunkirk is also related to the different pressures of time in each segment of the film. While there is the broad pressure of rescuing the trapped soldiers that is created by the Germans’ impending approach on Dunkirk beach that marks the main time constraint for the “Land” storyline (as well as broadly for the entire film), the “Air” and “Sea” storylines have their own specific time constraints. For example, our main spitfire pilot, Farrier, has to monitor how much fuel he has left throughout the “Air” segment, as spitfire pilots had to turn back at the point in which they would have enough fuel to get back to Britain. This marks the major time constraint in the narrative of the “Air” segment, which creates underlying tension throughout the “Air” scenes in the film. Similarly, in the “Sea '' segment of the film, a young man named George, who is accompanying Mr. Dawson and his son on their trip across the Channel to Dunkirk, is injured to the point where he can no longer see. This happens quite a ways into the crossing and Mr. Dawson decides not to turn back because they have made substantial progress. Despite this, the audiences now have the image of injured George in the back of their mind when watching the “Sea '' scenes which, like Farrier's fuel gauge, creates an underlying tension related to a time constraint because George needs medical attention back in Britain as soon as possible. While these two examples act as time constraints, they are also examples of Hitchcock’s Bomb Theory, in which to create suspense about a bomb going off under a table, the bomb must be shown to the audience while two people are talking under said table. The difference in this theory in Dunkirk, is that the characters are often aware of the “bomb”; Farriers fuel gauge, injured George, and the Germans approaching Dunkirk Beach are all underlying factors that create the feeling of urgency that both the audience, and the characters feel.

The notion of simultaneity is also achieved in how Dunkirk manipulates time. The climax of Dunkirk occurs when a German bomber is about to attack an already damaged ship that is leaking oil into the sea. During this, all three stories of Dunkirk converge: Tommy and the characters from the “Land” segment have abandoned a fishing boat they commandeered on the beach and are now in the water near the ship that is leaking oil, Mr. Dawson and his son are helping the soldiers in the water onto their boat (both from the damaged ship and the characters from the “Land” segment), and Farrier has decided to sacrifice going home and use the last of his fuel to shoot down the bomber that is lining up to finish off the damaged ship. Dunkirk achieves the notion of simultaneity not through showing all the scenes at once on the screen, as is it attempted in Time Code (2000), but by establishing the different durations of time of the stories at the beginning of the film and letting the audience piece together when the stories converge in the timeline of the evacuation in their minds. The idea of letting the audience figure out when things are happening simultaneously, though they may be shown scenes that occur simultaneously with one another 20 minutes apart in the film for example, is more effective than overtly showing simultaneity in films such as Time Code (2000), where the screen is split into 4 simultaneous stories. The simultaneity in Dunkirk is more effective because, unless we are in the immediate vicinity of someone or something or using technology, true simultaneity is put together in one’s mind. For example, without being near someone or seeing a live video of someone or something, we can only conceive of things happening simultaneously as a model within our minds. In Dunkirk, we are shown three different stories that are not overtly simultaneous due to the different durations of time between them, but are instead shown to converge at certain points in the film, allowing the audience to piece together when they converge as they do in real life. An example of this occurs about halfway through the film when Mr. Dawson identifies three spitfires flying overhead, however near the beginning of the introduction of the “Air” segment there is a shot of the three spitfires flying in unison, and below we see Mr. Dawson’s boat. These scenes do not occur at the same time, nor do they even occur in succession of one another in the film, yet simultaneity is still achieved since the audience can piece together that the three spitfires Mr. Dawson sees are indeed the three spitfires seen at the beginning of the “Air” segment.

Dunkirk achieves what it strives to do through this experimental fashion of showing three stories occurring over different durations. Dunkirk gives us the experience of how the characters, and presumably the actual soldiers, felt during this event and also how they experienced time passing. Furthermore, simultaneity is achieved in a more effective way than films such as Time Code (2000) because Dunkirk allows the audience to piece together the moments of simultaneity between the three stories in the film by giving narrative hints to the audience, rather than overtly showing simultaneous shots (as is done in Time Code). Not many films seek to explore the notion of how the experience of time differs between different people in different situations, Dunkirk should be commended for attempting to explore this notion and praised for achieving it.