Dunkirk

How Christopher Nolan utilises Multiple narrative structure & Sound design 11th Grade

In the film Dunkirk Christopher Nolan uses sound design and multiple narrative structure to convey the impacts of the Dunkirk battle and evacuation. These techniques help convey the emotions of fear and suspense that each and every soldier had felt during the war. By utilizing these techniques Nolan allows the audience to put themselves in the position of each soldier allowing them to feel the themes that they felt, thus forth conveying the impacts of the war.

Nolan creates non-diegetic tones to give suspense and panic to particular scenes in the film. Since the film is based on the war in Dunkirk involving the British forces, the audience is aware that attacks will take place whilst watching the movie however due to Nolan recounting the events, the characters within the film are unaware of what they will experience whereas the audience do. By adding a suspenseful tone such as a stopwatch, this gives the audience suspense, not knowing when an attack is going to take place to oppose to if an attack will take place.

Nolan also uses some authentic tones and diegetic sounds in the film, these being distant gunfire that slowly approaches a setting or becomes eventually distant. The whistling and piercing siren of the enemy’s bombs...

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