So, 2022 is over. Time to get geared up for more fun film drama. And I’m not talking about the genre. I’m talking about THAT moment involving the actor Chris Pine and a certain member of One Direction. You know what I’m talking about. It barely needs explaining. Did he spit, or did he not spit? To spit or not to spit. That’s the question that a famous bard definitely didn’t ponder. Anyway, the reason I reference that moment is because Harry Styles also features in Nolan’s 2017 epic war film. And, like Don’t Worry Darling, he’s pretty…meh. Not terrible, exactly, but not great either.
But that’s not we’re here to talk about. While I found some of Nolan’s characterisation in Dunkirk to be fairly limited, you can’t fault the film’s soundtrack and general manipulation of sound design, which is on full, tense display in the opening scene as Hans Zimmer’s ‘The Mole’ accompanies a small group of soldiers. There’s not a whole lot going on in that composition, but that’s what makes it great. The constant, ominous ticking lets us know that something bad is about happen, and no expository dialogue is required from the mouths of the terrified soldiers. The composition appears to rise in pitch as the audience wait in tense anticipation for disaster to happen.
Utilising a technique known as a Shepard tone, Zimmer employs layers of different tones separated by octaves, with each octave getting quieter as it rises. Essentially, the illusion tricks the listener into hearing a rising tone that continues indefinitely. And it’s not like Zimmer has created a musical novelty either. Remember the creepy tune that played when you walked up those endless steps in Super Mario 64? Same idea. You hear noise that apparently rises, but it actually doesn’t, creating the perfect vehicle for tension and dread within a film.
Dialogue, you say? Oblique narrative plotting, you say? Nah. This is Nolan we’re talking about here. This is his frequent collaborator Zimmer. Through a simple but ingenious technique, sound acts as a substitute for the agonising calm before the chaos that continues throughout the entire epic spectacle. To echo the sentiments of Heath Ledger’s Joker, I like that.