Tuesday 8 August 2017



Dunkirk is gripping. Kenneth Branagh - Mark Rylance - Elgar - little boats - a young soldier stumbling through a news report of 'We will fight them on the beaches' ...
I had a few niggles. Can't imagine that rationed jam would have been slapped on the bread quite so generously even for returning heroes. (Perhaps that is a very female quibble about a war film!) And those train seats looked suspiciously modern.
It was edge-of-the-seat gripping, I admit. But I think ultimately rather forgettable.


The film that I can't get out of my mind is Land of Mine, which sadly far fewer people will see. This is the immediate aftermath of war. I had no idea that teenage POWs were forced to clear mines from the German coastline in defiance of the Geneva convention. What the film doesn't address, of course, is who the hell else was going to do it. It is harrowing to watch and, I thought, a far more interesting war film than Dunkirk.

4 comments:

Cosy Books said...

And they wonder why people stream films. Land of Mine will probably never show up at a cinema near me because 'they' think we love action hero movies. The trailer alone was gut-wrenching, Mary.

Mary said...

It's on at plenty of London cinemas, Darlene, but I think you'd be struggling elsewhere in the country.

Sue said...

My seventeen year old saw Land of Mine earlier this week at the Arts Cinema and thought it was both very good and shocking.Not sure I've got the stomach for it though.

Mary said...

It's worth seeing, Sue; one I'll remember.