Blu-ray Review: 'Dunkirk'

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This is a review of Warner Bros. Entertainment's Dunkirk three-disc Blu-ray/DVD/UltraViolet set. To read my July 2017 review of Christopher Nolan's film, check out this post: Movie Review: 'Dunkirk'

On December 19, 2017, Warner Bros. Entertainment released the home media editions of Dunkirk, director Christopher Nolan's World War II dramatic take on Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of nearly 400,000 British, French, and Belgian soldiers from the beaches at Dunkerque, a French port city on the English Channel coast, under unceasing Luftwaffe attacks and the threat of annihilation or capture by advancing German armies.   

 Nominated for eight Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Production Design) and winner of other accolades, including three Golden Globe awards (Best Picture - Drama, Best Director, and Best Original Score), Dunkirk is now available for home viewing in the following formats:


  • Three-disc Blu-ray/DVD/ UltraViolet Digital Download 
  • 4K Ultra-High Definition Blu-ray
  • Single-disc Blu-ray Edition (Feature film only)
  • Digital HD Download from various sellers, including Amazon

From filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Interstellar. Inception, The Dark Knight Trilogy) comes the epic action thriller Dunkirk, starring Fionn Whitehead, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy. The story unfolds on land, sea, and air, as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk with enemy troops closing in. RAF Spitfires engage the enemy in the skies above the Channel, trying to protect the defenseless men below. Meanwhile, hundreds of small boats manned by both military officers and civilians are mounting a desperate rescue mission risking their lives in a race against time to save even a fraction of their army.  - Manufacturer's blurb, Dunkirk

(C) 2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment and RatPac Dune Entertainment

Warner Bros. Entertainment's 1080p Blu-ray is not the best home video release available; that accolade goes to the slightly more expensive 4K UHD edition which replicates more closely the experience theatergoers had when they saw Nolan's action thriller last summer. For viewers who own "standard" high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players, this edition will have to suffice until 4K UHD becomes the dominant television/home theater versions.

That having been said, the Blu-ray edition is still impressive on 1080i and 720p sets. Of course, your mileage will vary depending on certain variables (TV screen size/resolution, quality of sound system, and quality of your Blu-ray player).  But on the whole, if you have a decent setup, you can expect to see the stunning images shot by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and hear Hans Zimmer's score with such fine attention to detail and aural fidelity that you'd swear you were in the film itself. 

Of course, this doesn't mean that Dunkirk is flawless even on the best of 1080-resolution TV sets with kickass home theater sound systems. It was shot with IMAX cameras and other large-negative equipment, and although the transfers to "standard" high definition were supervised by Christopher Nolan, the process pushes the Blu-ray format to its limits.

Viewers will note that the home video release captures the director's insistence on "in-camera" or "practical" effects rather than the digital trickery used by most special effects crews on Hollywood blockbusters. And if they don't see the difference for themselves, Nolan and his production team will remind you often in the behind the scenes featurettes on Disc Two. 

Although I liked the movie when I saw it in theaters in July and enjoyed it when I watched it again on this Blu-ray edition, I must say that I was slightly disappointed by the extras in this set. 

Maybe I shouldn't have expected more from a Blu-ray set that only cost me $9.99 when I ordered it from Amazon, but I wish Nolan and Warner Bros. had given this film the same treatment they gave, say, to Batman Begins. 

The behind the scenes featurettes were all right, I suppose; they covered the basics of Producing Dunkirk 101 briskly and with enough detail to keep a viewer's interest. But that's all they were, featurettes that covered different phases of the film's development from conception to final release. 

For casual viewers, I suppose, that's fine. But I would have liked a longer, more in-depth look at how - and why - Christopher Nolan made Dunkirk. (And a director's audio commentary track would have been nice, too.)

Still, for those of us with high definition TVs and Blu-ray players, this three-disc edition is perhaps the best available. 


Blu-ray Specifications 



Video

  • Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (33.26 Mbps)
  • Resolution: 1080p
  • Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 2.20:1
  • Original aspect ratio: 2.20:1



Audio
  • English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
  • French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
  • Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps) - Descriptive Audio



Subtitles

  • English SDH, French, German SDH, Portuguese



Discs
  • Blu-ray Disc
  • Three-disc set (1 BD-25, 1 BD-50, 1 DVD)
  • UV digital copy
  • Digital copy
  • Movies Anywhere
  • DVD copy


Packaging
  • Slipcover in original pressing


Playback
  • Region free

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