Opening scene research- War

The film I chose is Dunkirk, a 2017 Warner Bros war film directed by Christopher Noland, played by Fionn Whitehead (Tommy), Tom Glyn-carney (peter), Jack Lowden (Collins) and Harry Styles (Alex),and many more.  

The genre is shown right from the beginning and throughout the scene predominantly through the use of costume and props as we are shown multiple men wearing helmets, boots, long jackets and holding big guns, suggesting that this is a war film as this is what soldiers would have stereotypically worn to war. We are also told the genre by the use of text shown when it says, 'The enemy have driven the British and French armies to the sea'. Telling us that there is conflict. The tone in the first minute and a half is quite lonely but peaceful hence the lack of non-diegetic sound but also dialogue as it is just the ambient sound of them looking around and finding water/food. But after this the tone completely changes when a pleonastic sound of gun shots is fired immediately causing a slight jump to scare to the audience as it was not expected, causing a sense of urgency as they all run in silence towards the gate, shot with a handheld camera adding to the distress which draws in the audience as they want to know if they escape the gun shots.

We are told the time and place once again by the text that is shown saying 'trapped at Dunkirk, they await their fate' telling the audience that these British soldiers are in France and assuming to the audience that it is set around the 1940's as that was when this war was in real life. Another way the time could be suggested is by the filter used over the scene which is quite a blunt and dull filter helping to emphasise to the audience the time and mood. 

The target audience would be 15 upwards as teenagers and young adults may like to learn about what past wars were like and about but also people who were around in this time so they can reminisce on what happened to maybe them or people they know and learn more about it. Another reason why it could be aimed towards teenagers and young adults is the fact that most of the men shown in this scene look fairly young probably around 18-21 which could draw in the audience as they want to put themselves in these men's shoes to imagine what they had to go through and could sympathise for them.

The characters introduced are Tommy, the British soldiers and the French soldiers. We know from this scene that Tommy could be the main character since he has the most screen time and is the only British soldier who makes it over the gate as all the others get shot, he also appears to be extremely young and in-experienced as he did not know how to load the gun properly so dropped it and ran instead. The French soldiers are introduced when tommy was trying to escape and let him through their sandbags to get to the beach showing the audience that the British and the French are allies. We are told that these British soldiers are very worn out and tired as they are drinking water out of the hose one of them found and looking through windows for food with the use of close-up shots emphasising their desperation. 

 

Once watching the opening scene, the audience could assume that the rest of the  

narrative would be about Tommy trying to survive and him learning the ways of  

war (for example how to use a gun) as he clearly does not know any this  

already, maybe because of his young age and lack of training or, 

could follow as if he is trying to escape war and leave it all for good hence  

the desperation and fear he shows throughout presented by closeups and the  

determination he has running as fast as he could to get out. 

In conclusion I think that the opening scene of Dunkirk was very successful as it clearly showed the correct tone and emotion to the film, genre, key characters and their personality but also kept the audience engaged through the lack and use of diegetic/ non-diegetic sound. I also think what is very good is that even though there is a target audience a wide variety of people would enjoy this film and be engaged by the opening scene as it leaves a lot of questions making the audience want to know what happens next.