both "Dunkirk" and "1917" were box office successes in the US. If you go by past box office trends of what sells and what doesn't sell, both Dunkirk and 1917 should have been flops but I noticed both films share one major defining aspect.


Both of them use non-conventional ways of telling a story within the context of war. 1917 has the continuous "single shot" effect and Dunkirk uses scenes that are out of chronological sequence. Both films also base their main narratives on personal stories instead of the military/political "big picture". It seems that the mainstream "casual" audience responds better to watching a movie about war when the focus is on individuals instead of the historical event being portrayed.


Anyway, that's just my 2 cents analysis.

That's a fantastic quote! I was not aware of it beforehand.

Far more than just that, theOden and Panzer. Btw, that is a classic quote, very good saying. The use of characters to drive a story is a traditional literary technique known to good writers for centuries--Shakespere used it heavily, for example. It has been said(even on these forums) that there are to tell have already been told, which is pretty much true. So that either leaves concepts to attach an audience to a story or characters, but it just so happens characters are what folks can identify most with so writers make them the focus of their stories to draw their audience in. If we care about the characters, we become invested in the story and want to know what happens next, and subsequently begin to care what happens in the story.

This is why Dunkirk and the original Star Wars worked, and also why Rogue One was so weak and thin. Rogue One focused on events, whereas the former two were about the folks in the story. There are entire series of beloved television shows where the actual stories being told are pretty average or sometimes uninteresting, but because of the strongly developed characters the audience keeps coming back for more. True Blood is one show I can think of that fit that example.

"Rome" is another excellent example of what you were just talking about Blastman. Sure, the major historical events are depicted but the "soul" of the show is really the relationship between Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus. That was the hook that brought in most of the viewers.