Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk falls into a number of categories but it turns out the director does indeed class the film as blockbuster.
Nolan has been making big budget event movies for years, producing hits like The Dark Knight, Inception, and Interstellar along the way. His latest effort, Dunkirk, is perhaps his most artistic film for quite some time and certainly his most awards friendly.
But Nolan told Variety that he always saw Dunkirk as a blockbuster, even though he admits it sounds strange when pairing that term with this particular film:
“We saw it as a blockbuster… It’s a strange [term] to use in relation to the subject matter, but we saw it as an entertainment, albeit one that’s intense and suspenseful. We wanted it to reach the widest audience possible, and that happens in summer.”
Dunkirk could have surely fared well if released during the traditional awards season period and perhaps have his film a little fresher in the mind of certain Oscar voters, but it says something about the director that he’d rather Dunkirk was a hit with audiences in the summer over any alternative.
SEE ALSO: Read our Blu-ray review of Dunkirk
Dunkirk opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in.”
Dunkirk sees Christopher Nolan directing a cast that includes Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, Jack Lowden, James D’Arcy, Barry Keoghan, Tom Glynn-Carney and newcomer Fionn Whitehead.
Originally published December 20, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
