Dunkirk / Chivas Regal Mizunara

0:00 As we get into today's episode, I just want to take a second and remind you that there's a ton of extra content available to the members of Film and Whiskey Nation who support us through our Patreon. Check us out on patreon.com/film Whiskey In 2017, Director Christopher Nolan and star Finn Whitehead gave the world a stunningly quiet war drama that flies in the face of World War Two epics. In 2023 we make a return trip to the UK to try a specially finished Scotch. The film is Dunkirk. The whiskey is Shivas Regal Mizunarra Finish. And we'll review them both this is.

0:41 The Film and Whiskey podcast. Welcome to the Film and Whiskey Podcast, where each week we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad Gee. And this week we are looking at Christopher Nolan's 2017 war epic that still only runs 100 minutes long. Dunkirk. Dude, when I started this film and I saw that there's an hour and 47 minutes on the clock, I was super pumped.

1:29 Is this the shortest war movie in like the last 50 years? I just can't believe that that he successfully made a World War Two movie in less than two hours. Yeah, and honestly, like. The film finished and I think there's like 9 minutes of credits. So like it's legitimately like an hour and 38 hour and 39 minutes. It's the shortest war film ever made. Ever. We're just going to call it now. That's it, man. You know, it's really funny that you mentioned that I was actually looking today. About a year ago, I watched John Houston's adaptation of the book The Red Badge of Courage. Which is a movie that he made like in the early 50s and it was 2 hours long and then the studio took it from him and cut it down to like 65 minutes. So it's it's like a super short movie, Brad. It is one of the best war movies I have ever seen in my life and I was looking for it on Blu-ray.

2:25 It is not available on Blu-ray. I can't fight it anywhere. Disappointing. Yeah. Pissed me off a little bit. I wanted to buy. It come on criterion. What are you doing? I can't wait till the day where we get to watch that 65 minute masterpiece, Brad. Yeah, I'm in, dude. Was it streaming somewhere? It was when I watched it. I don't think it is now. So you just can't watch the movie? You can pay. I guess you could find like a VHS or something. Well, you can pay $4.00 and watch it on any of the streamers, but you know it's not streaming with your subscription anywhere, is what I'm saying. I mean, I will say like your $4.00 doesn't go quite as far if you're only getting 65 minutes of content. That's what I'm saying. You got to spend that on, like, Gone With the Wind or something, man, Exactly $1.00 per hour. All right, man, let's start talking about Dunkirk. A movie that is, I'm hesitant to call a classic. You know, we start the podcast off by saying a classic movie and a glass of whiskey.

3:21 This movie's only like 6. Years old? Yeah, we do. We do say that too. Sure. Sure. It's a six year old movie. It's one of the more recent films we've done on the show. But you know we've broken down before what a classic means in in general parlance. And I'd always talk about how when I was growing up, TNT had that series that they called new Classics. Which was just like movies that Ted Turner wants to get residuals off of. So he's putting, and this seems very much like that. Like if a classic has a lot to do with being a very popular movie by a very popular filmmaker, then this certainly fits the bill. Yeah, and I it's interesting though. I was looking at this on IMDb. It has a 7.8 I believe and I feel like that makes this the least.

4:09 Nolan, Broy. Nolan Movie Ever to Be Noland. Yeah, you know what? When this movie came out, I remember a lot of people went to see it and made, I think, almost 1/2 billion dollars worldwide. And by the time the Oscars rolled around, the general vibe on this movie was incredible. Craftsmanship, signature Nolan chronology. You know, mess up. And then. Not much else. Like, I feel like this movie left a lot of people very cold and kind of underscored for a lot of people what Nolan's trajectory has kind of become, especially with Tennant after this, where his characters get less and less fleshed out to the point where in Tennant the main character's name is the protagonist.

4:56 Like he doesn't even have a name and. That feels like an old Charlie Chaplin type of. Title. I love that. I would have watched that more than Tenant, honestly, but this movie does kind of feel like it has one foot in his crowd pleasing Hollywood blockbuster mentality and 1 foot in his desire to kind of push the boundaries of what narrative can be. I'm really excited to talk to you about it, Brad, because I don't know that it entirely works for me, but I really respect it. Yeah, I think overall coming into this film, I I knew that there was like some time warp type of things. And I knew that a lot of people focused on just that, that they were like it's just no one doing his stupid time stuff again.

5:43 And I feel like that was just kind of the vibe I got about the movie and I am very happy to say I thought this movie was incredible, Bob. Yeah, it's a really good movie. I remember I I saw it in the theater. And then after it came out on video plug for the Akron Public Library. I talk about the library a lot on here at the main library campus. Brad, they have this big like 500 seat auditorium that they show free movies on when they come out. And it's like. Nice. It's like going to the movies for free. It's pretty great. And so I took my dad to go see Dunkirk. He hadn't seen it yet, and it was like a great time at the movies, watching Dunkirk for free in a library Grade A. Dad, hangout time you know is.

6:26 That like, was that like a hangout where you and your dad were like repairing your relationship and and all those lost years and stuff? You were just the worst man. I hope he never listens to this show. He's he's going to think that. That's what I think of him. You always do this. The worst thing is, I've never even met your dad. I. Know you're out here just shooting on him all the time, man. No, I'm I'm not shooting on him. I'm shooting on your guys's relation. No, thank you. Thank you for clarifying that. I appreciate. That no problem. All right man, let's dive into talking about the movie proper and and out of some weird familial history you're concocting for me. And let's get to our first segment of the day, which we call Brad Explains.

7:10 Brad's gonna give us the movie plots with only 60 seconds ticking on the clock, so let's go ahead and do your take with this little segment that we call Brad explains. Brad Explains is the part of the podcast. Asked where Brad breaks down the plot of the movie, which he has just seen often for the first time. This was not Brad's first time seeing Dunkirk. I know that for a fact. Yes, it was. What? Really. I thought you just told me, like last week, that you'd seen this already. No, I've never seen Dunkirk. Wow, I did not know it for a fact. I just like keeping you on your toes, Bob. Wow, I man, I just lied very boldly, I guess in the middle of this show. So this was your first time seeing Dunkirk on a tiny screen? In my basement.

7:57 As Nolan did not intend. Yes, yes, 100%. The TV that I have, Bob, I just everybody needs to know that I'm like a spender on certain things and yet a miser on others. I bought like a 46 inch television in 2013 and baby it is still going strong. Now I know why you always score the movies lower than me. Why did this movie look so bad? Well Brad, it's because you're watching it on a decades old television. Oh man, hey, it's a flat screen at the very least. There you go, man, moving up in the world. All right, so this is your first time having seen Dunkirk. You have 60 seconds on the clock to break down the plot. I don't know that you need 60 seconds, unless you really want to get into the weird chronology of the movie. But hey, do with this minute as you will and go. The film Dunkirk is about the Dunkirk evacuation early in World War 2.

9:01 When hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers, French, British, Belgian, are stuck on the shores of Dunkirk, France, and the story follows the army on the shore and their attempts to escape, It follows the Air Force as they battled to keep the troops safe as they evacuated, and it follows the. Civilian Navy that is called in the service to go to Dunkirk and bring back as many soldiers alive as possible. Boom. Question mark. There's a lot of, there's a lot of booms, actually, truly, truly, Do you do you want me to just end boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I don't know where to start with this movie, Brad. I have a lot of thoughts, but they're all very kind of disparate thoughts.

9:53 Like as I watch it, I was like, oh, I want to comment on that thing. I want to comment on that thing. But there's not a lot of, I don't know, like connecting tissue for me in terms of forming an opinion about this movie. It's just kind of like. I don't know. I have a lot of disconnected thoughts. Help guide me through this journey, Brad. Please open us up with a 2 minutes monologue talking about the upper half of Tom Hardy's face. Honestly, let's do it man. Let's talk Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy's in this movie. He is the most famous person in this movie except maybe Kenneth Brunag cause this Harry Styles. Well yeah yeah I was going to say this was this was I guess this was peak One Direction or like right after. This might have been like the first Harry Styles album. So yeah, pretty famous.

10:40 I'll give you that. Tom Hardy is able to do so much with his body language in this movie, especially towards the end. So he plays a pilot who is basically the hero of Dunkirk, just getting in dog fights left and right on the English Channel. Swooping in down like 7 different different enemy fighters and a bomber like I I think 5 is an ace so he he gets. A good day, yeah. He really get a great day. Swoop if you will. Towards the end of the movie where he has lost fuel and he knows he's going down and he just decides to kind of glide over the beach, you see hit the realization kick in. And you see him get very resolute about it and kind of up like, you know, clinch up a bit and then you see him relax and it is all done in one shot.

11:35 And it is like he does so much acting with the top half of a face covered in goggles and his mouth covered by a, you know, a mask. And you just watch the guy's shoulders relax and you're like, I get what's going on inside this person's head. It really is truly a thing of beauty as a physical performance. Yeah, I I think Tom was my favorite actor in the film. I think that he's far and away the best actor in the film, and he does so much with his eyes and he does so much with his vocal intonation. Like, I I don't think we really talk a ton about actors. Ability to control their their vocal chords and ability to control how they present themselves in that way. Yeah, I mean when you freeze it like that though, it it kind of seems like a baseline expectation that they that people can control their vocal chords, You know, like if someone doesn't control their vocal chords, I feel like that's worthy of talking about.

12:37 Yeah, that's what I'm saying though. Like it it's. It's it just seems like something that we overlook that there's a lot of actors who, you know just sound okay and then there's other actors who really know how to use their voices for maximum effect. And I I think Tom Hardy is one of those people and you can't have somebody in the cockpit of the movie The entire time and and get away with an average voice acting performance. Brad, I think maybe the way to structure the rest of this front half of the episode is to follow Nolan's structure with this movie. So as you said, there are three separate story strands going on at the same time and eventually they all converge at one specific point.

13:21 And the longest of those strands is what Nolan calls the mole, which is the name of, you know, it's it's not the mole as in there is a. Mission Impossible. Yeah, like an enemy among us. They're talking about the people on the beach, on land. And that story takes place over the course of one week. It is intercut with a story on the sea, which is all these civilians coming across the channel to rescue the people at Dunkirk, which takes place over the course of one day and then the air battles which are taking place over the course of one hour. And they're intercut equally throughout the movie. You don't quite realize you're on different storylines unless you did a good job of reading in the first few minutes, but I think for a lot of people. They didn't really piece it together until the end of the movie, which I've always found really interesting because Nolan.

14:10 It's the first time Nolan gives you the answer to the key, like right in the first few minutes, and I actually really appreciate that he wasn't trying to be cute about it. Having the different storylines really does build tension and momentum and intercutting them in a, you know, a a non chronological way, it didn't detract from the movie this time around for me. No, not at all. I honestly, I think it might be one of his cleverest uses of of time warping. Yet they're like, he's just so open about it. He's like, hey, here's the Army. Their story takes place over a week.

14:50 Here's the Navy, their story takes place over a day. Here's the Air Force. Their story takes place over an hour. But. That's it. Like, it's not hard to understand, I guess I'm just going to go out on a limb and say. People are stupid if they didn't understand that. Well, I think The thing is, like, if you want to make this story cinematic, you kind of have to do something like that. It is an incredibly heroic and harrowing tale to read in a book, right? But when you're talking about watching something on film, you would just be if you put this movie in chronological order, it would suck because it would just be guys sitting around for six days. And then the last one, seventh of the movie would be full of action, right?

15:34 So you have to do something to give the movie forward momentum. And anyway, I said all that to to get us back to talking about the mole sequence or or strand of storytelling. Let's talk about these young soldiers and also Kenneth Branagh that we see on the beach starting with I guess the person. Sir Kenneth Branagh to you, Bob. That's true. You're you're just a peasant talking about Kenneth like you're on an equal. Turn. I mean, I like Kenneth. Brad. I think he's really good in this movie. I'm such a big fan. I want to talk about the ostensible star of the movie, though. Theon, Whitehead and I can't. I've heard it pronounced both Theon and just Finn. I'm going to go with Finn because I'm an American and I butcher people's languages, so I'm just going to go ahead and.

16:17 Do the butchering that feels most comfortable to me, we'll say Finn Whitehead. Some sort of like cultural appropriation to try and pronounce it the way that they I don't know. Pronounce it? I don't know, man. It's Finn. Finn Whitehead. OK, Finn. Here's the thing about Finn Whitehead. He's only been in a few movies post Dunkirk. He was a pretty unknown actor before this. And you know, he's a young man, but he's a grown man. So I can say it. He's not a good actor, Brad. He's he's very, very wooden. I don't believe most of what he does in this movie, even when he's like being pulled from burning wreckage of a ship and laying on, you know, the deck of a boat covered in oil and panting. And then he has this line where he just says Take Me Home and it's supposed to be like this big release at the end of the film. I don't buy it for a second, dude. I just don't think he's very good actor. You are incredibly rude, Bob, but you are not wrong. Not wrong at all, man.

17:18 Yeah, he is like OKI think that there's moments throughout the film where he works. I think the, I think the part when he is like fighting for his French friend that he didn't know is French. I think he shows a little bit of passion, a little bit of chutzpah and I'm like, OK, I'm, I'm down with him here. But at the end of the day, when he's trying to deliver that line, as you said of like I'm coming home or whatever the heck he says, you know he's not that good. Well, and then they put like the emotional weight of the movie on him, Obviously throughout the film, but especially at the end, after they've been rescued, after they've been taken back to England and they're on the train. And Harry Styles is inconsolable about thinking that they have failed.

18:04 And then he reads the transcript of what Churchill has just proclaimed to Parliament and he reads it in the most monotone, mumbly Guy Pierce in Memento Voice. And and the editing there is incredible. Like that montage is pitch perfect, that cinematography gorgeous. The Hans Zimmer score is the best. It's been the whole movie in that one little moment. And I still can't quite connect with it the way Nolan wants me to connect. It's one of the few times that I think Nolan is honestly, earnestly going for, like, sentiment.

18:45 Like Spielbergy kind of sentiment at the. End of genuine feel good ending. And it doesn't quite land for me. It's almost there, like almost all the components work, but then there's one component that all the others are trying to make up for. Is that components named Finn? It is. It is. No, I'm I'm with you, man. It's a it's a slightly disappointing ending to an otherwise incredible movie. And and you're right, like that moment is super important. And you know unfortunately they cast who they cast. But I I just wish that he had a little bit of passion behind him like a little bit of something at like. To to go from thinking that you were completely defeated and broken and the worst military defeat in history into like this inspiring speech, like I I wish that his voice moved with that story, but it just doesn't at all. So yeah, I'm I'm 100% with you there, man. I've got a question for you about the whole mole thread, and it kind of goes against everything we we know to be true, which is that short movies are great. I almost wish this movie was about 10 minutes longer, Brad, And I wish they.

20:02 I wish they'd put all ten of those minutes into fleshing out the mole thread a little bit more, even though it is by far the bulkiest part of the movie. There were, there were moments, you know, in doing the research for this movie, they heard a story about guys just walking into the sea because they were so hopeless that they would ever get rescued. And there's a great moment in this movie where that happens, and it is very harrowing. And I felt like those were the only moments where this felt like a lived in world and not simply a collection of action scenes that had been strung together in a really suspenseful way. And I wanted to feel more empathy, more sympathy with those soldiers on the beach, but the way that the movie is edited together. I didn't even get the sense that they were there for a week, even though it told me it was a week.

20:56 You only see it be nighttime, like one time, you know what I mean? And so it it seems like, OK, maybe they were there three days, but what happened to the other four days? Like, I want to see more of the paranoia of them getting bombed all the time and the the emotional toll it's taking on those men on the beach. I just wish there was a little bit more to that thread. Yeah, no, I I'm actually with you there, I think that. You need something like I was the the obvious movie comparison for me in this is 1917. And I think that there's that scene in 1917 where you know, the main character you're following throughout the whole movie finds kind of refuge for a moment with a, I don't know, war refugee who's like still living in their house under the city. Do you remember that?

21:50 Like they needed a few moments like that where everything's quiet and the troops are just sitting around a fire. And honestly, like this movie's already super quiet. I don't even know if they needed to say anything. Like if you have the right actors and the right, like, you know, you hear the snap of a twig and everybody kind of freaks out and it's twitchy and paranoid, like. Man, you you set the stage for for what's going on, you know, while you're intercutting back and forth with the other stuff. But I I'm with you. I think you could have spent just a little more time establishing how long it felt, You know, how long those six days felt. Yeah, and I don't even need a scene where they all, like, sit around and say like, oh, back home, my gal Abigail.

22:35 Like, no, I don't care about that. Like. Can you spell the strawberries, Mr. Frodo? Like all I need is a couple more scenes that establish, you know, the character of Killian Murphy in this movie. He's got the shell shocked thing going on and you find out very quickly why he why he came to be that way. I want to see more of that from the guys on the beach. I want to see what the emotional toll is being taken upon them because of this repetitive hellscape that they're in that they can't escape from. So anyway, yeah, that's my thoughts on the Mole. Why don't we talk about the sea sequences? Yeah, featuring Academy Award winner Mark Rylance showing up.

23:15 I think this might have been his first movie after he wins his Oscar and. What did he win an Oscar for? Bridge of Spies. The Steven Spielberg movie? Oh dude, good movie. You need to watch that. Movie not not seen. Bridge of Spies. That's another dad movie. Like it's a Cold War movie starring Tom Hanks. Directed by Spielberg. Great Dad movie. OK. Anyway, he shows up and he's carrying around Barry Keogan, who would go on to be one of our brightest shining young actors. I'm a huge fan of him and this is a really early role for him. What did you think of all the people in the sea sequences, Brad? I really like them.

23:56 Yeah. I think that they are the strongest part of the movie. I think that, like, Tom Hardy's incredible. And the the dog fighting sequences are great, but there's not, you know, a ton of character development there. I think that you really have Tom Glenn Carney and Barry Keegan and Mark Rylands in roles where they are the ones you get to connect with because they have weirdly like you feel the most. At stake for them, like they didn't have to get on the boat and go try and save them. Like the the Navy would have sent some men on their boat and yet like that, that willingness to die for country is important.

24:43 And when you hear the the tiny little bit of, you know, oh, his older son died in the Air Force in the early weeks of the war, like it's just little moments like that where you understand. You know, Rylances, motivations as a character and his stoicism and his willingness to to sail off into the face of danger. I'm going to make light of their story thread for a little bit, but I will say this upfront like theirs is the best acted of the three strands I would say. I don't know that it's the strongest of the three though, and I think that's just because the stakes feel lower. For part like, at least part of their journey. Not that like their personal stakes are very high, like you said, because they're going into battle and didn't need to go there.

25:28 But when you're cutting between images of like soldiers getting dive bombed on the beach and destroyers getting blown up and men burning alive and they cut back to like Barry Keogan, just like laying laying down on the floor. And they're like, should I give him a cup of tea? What should I do? And then, like, they put the same ticking clock score behind all that that they do behind, like Tom Hardy shooting planes out of the sky. It's like, okay this this feels less vital than Tom Hardy shooting down bombers. All right, I so I SNL you can hire me whenever you want. This would have been This would have just killed in like 20 early 2018.

26:12 They need to do an SNL sketch. Where they intercut the actual scenes from the movie of the the army and the the Royal Air Force and all that. And then they'll have Killian Murphy come guest host. So he'll be there and they'll intercut it with them on the boats, Killian Murphy and then cast members of SNL pretending to be Barry Keegan and all them. And they're all trading stories about how they got that scar on the boat on the way to rescue everyone. Now what I think they should do is like instead of Barry Keogan getting like a, you know, life ending knock on the head, they keep cutting back to what's happening on the boat and they're all just having, like, minor inconveniences happen.

26:57 Yeah, I nicked my finger cutting, cutting this lemon wedge for my tea, that. Would chip in my hand. Yeah, so like, and I think that that story thread suffers the most in terms of the way the chronology is laid out because like we said, with the Mole, it's seven days, but the action only happens in the last day. But because Nolan inserts different things for them to do throughout the week, like sneaking onto an abandoned ship, he gets, he introduces action into that. Whereas the sea. There's only so much you can do showing them Bob across the English Channel. And so like all the action in that story thread happens in the movie's last 30 minutes, and it gets really tense and really exciting and very heroic.

27:41 But all of the memorable stuff from that story thread is really backloaded, and I feel like the front part of it does kind of drag for me a bit. Yeah, I mean, I'll push back a little there. I think that the fact that they basically have them shove off from England and then immediately find Killian Murphy is like meaningful, right? Like I think that Nolan is trying to accomplish what you asked for earlier and that, you know, his shell shock is supposed to show you the horrors of the six days leading up to their rescue. And so I think there is some action happening there. I I do think that it's.

28:23 You know, it feels a little contrived when he's like trying to fight them for control of the ship and and he falls and knocks his head and it that definitely is one of the weaker parts of the script. But I think that Killian Murphy is an incredible actor and sells the whole shell shock incredibly well. For sure. I also like when they pick up the other pilot that crashes. Jack Loudon is the actor's name. Excellent, excellent actor. He reminded me a ton. Maybe it was just the the outfit he was wearing too, but it reminded me a ton of Richard Attenborough in The Great Escape. Like he just he had so much of that energy going for him.

29:06 One of my favorite performances in the whole movie, I think. I thought he had a lot of Peter O'Toole look about him, like with the blonde hair and the Super blue eyes and like. He just had a bright earnestness about him that reminded me of Lawrence of Arabia. Well, there you go, 2 glowing recommendations from us. Yeah, dude, let's talk about the last story thread. The error. I mean, we kind of already have, because it really only consists of two characters. It's Tom Hardy and Jack Loudon. I do think that that is where the movie felt like the most, purely. I don't know cinematic to me like the. Spectacle. Like not even just spectacle, but like wow, how did they pull off that shot? How much of this is done in camera? How much of this is practical?

29:51 You get those shots from like down on the beach every time a a a German plane is going to come dive bomb them. And what the cinematographer does in a lot of instances is he'll have like an Outoffocus head looking up at the sky and it like the the camera will be behind this person. And then, like, way off in the distance, you see this tiny little speck, and it's in, like, pitch perfect focus, like the way they choreograph the air sequences. It almost breaks every rule of how you're supposed to do it. Like, I don't know if you remember in the movie The Aviator, they talk about why isn't this turning out? And he's like, there's no clouds in the sky, there's no frame of reference to show how fast they're going.

30:31 In this movie, it feels like they're just they're flying against a a wall of Gray clouds and almost black looking sea underneath them. And so you don't get a great sense of the speed of the dog fights, but the way that they weave these planes in and out of the shots, I almost don't care. It has like a very, I don't know like poetic kind of rhythm to it. It's it was so interesting to me. Yeah, that's that's the word I was going to use. It's just a beautiful rhythm. And I think that there's a reason like the Top Gun movies have done so well back in the 80s and you know, now in the twenty 20s, there's just something totally rad about dog fighting in the air. And I like, I could get a movie completely silent, you know? Well, no, no dialogue of just.

31:25 Planes, dog fighting. And I think I would just be mesmerized by it. Like as long as it's done well. And as you said, Bob, they do it incredibly well here in Dunkirk. All right, man. Any other thoughts on the performances before we go into our whiskey for the day? Dude, I love Kenneth Branagh. He's so good. Dude, he milks when he puts his his eyes up to those binoculars. And when, when you first see the Armada coming over the Crest there, right? He milks it so much, you see the realization set in. And then from behind his hands, you see the smile start to creep in. And then he kind of gasps for his words, but he waits until he takes those GD binoculars down. And then he takes one more breath and he goes home. And I'm like, yeah, home.

32:15 We're we're all British in this moment, you know? You get the sense that he didn't actually believe what he was telling everyone else until that moment. It's such a hammy performance and it works. So freaking well, It's perfect. Yeah, Like. And and the reason it's perfect is because it's a real story and there's just so many military stories like that that are just ridiculous. Like the Germans should have smashed them, completely destroyed them. There should have been no chance of them escaping. And yet somehow, they made it back. We'll talk about all this in the second-half, because I have many thoughts both on German military strategy and on the way Nolan depicts it. But I'm with you, dude.

33:03 Yeah, let's get into this Chivis Regal, Mitsunura Cask. Let's do it, man. All right, everybody. Today we are looking at Shivas Regal MSU Nara Cask finish. We haven't had a Shivas Regal product on this show, Brad, since either season one or season 2. It's been a long time since we tried that affordable, popular blended Scotch whiskey. I'm really excited to dive back into it with this kind of special edition they have here. This is one that I picked up in the Ohio Liquor Bureau's Last call section. They were getting rid of this.

33:44 And I was like, hey, this is I think I spent like $40.00 on it and I was like, yeah, I'm going to try it and it's because it said Mizunarra on it. We've never done anything with Mizunarra Oak before. So Brad, if you don't mind I'm going to launch into a small little the more, you know with Bob here I'm reading off of. Bob, you go right ahead. I'm reading off of wineenthusiast.com. They have a nice little article about Mizunarra because I to be fair, Brad. I don't know a thing about Mizunarra Oak other than there were a lot of whiskeys about two years ago that used it. It got really popular for a minute and now it's like the market got got saturated and they've moved on to other kinds of oak now. So we're coming in at the tail end of the craze here.

34:28 Mizunar Oak is a specific kind of oak that is grown in Japan. Apparently the name actually means water oak in Japanese. Because something about about the moisture content of the trees themselves make them more prone to holding water and then leaking. But when they are aged properly they are like exceptional casks to use for wine for spirits aging. They say that now like a single cask might cost a producer $6000 to buy. And it says when left to mature correctly, a missing Nara aged whiskey offers complex notes. Of sandalwood, coconut spice and Japanese incense, which makes me really, really excited to see what a Scotch finished in that will smell and taste like bread.

35:17 Yeah, I am very excited for this. This is like maybe a first for a few seasons now, Bob. I am actually drinking this live and I believe you've already done your tasting. Wow, we have really reverse roles tonight, man. Yeah, I did mine a couple days ago. I took very brief notes because I want to see what you think about it and I don't want to tip my hand too much. Just a few more notes on this. It's aged for at least 12 years. It is a blend of Scottish green and malt whiskeys. Let's freaking dive in, man. What are you picking up on the nose? Yeah, this is a really nice nose for me. It's a little bit nutty. There's some like almond going on. It is very light and floral there. There's some fruitiness.

36:04 I don't know if I want to say citrus maybe maybe like a maybe like a Peach kind of feel to it. I really like this nose a lot. I'm going to give it an 8 out of 10. The note that I took to start with on the nose was pear, pear, Pear. I have never had this much like green. What is that, a Bartlett? I don't know what kind of what my pears are. It it smelled like the juicy pear Jelly belly. It is like the most decadently pear forward thing, and I love pears, so I was like super pumped about this. I got some melon on it and then after you let it sit in the glass for a couple minutes, that fruitiness kind of dissipates a bit and you're left with, like layers and layers of brown sugar and caramel. It takes on like an almost bourbony decadence to it at the end.

36:55 I loved this note. As I said, beautiful in my notes. I'm going to give it a nine out of 10. Yeah, and then I got into the pallet. Here. The pallet is just feels really rich. There is a lot of honey. That nuttiness stays in there for me, but the longer I sit with it, the more the floral notes come through. And the more that I I would agree with you that kind of the pear for me it it it still feels a little juicier than that it feels peachy but it it's got that nice stone fruit feel to it. I am I'm a big fan of this Bob. I'll give it an 8 1/2 on the on the pallet. Yeah, for me it was like a bottle of really sweet white wine.

37:39 Was the kind of fruitiness I was getting on it really, really good. And then almost. Almost a grainy barley for me. There was a lot of barley malts on this, a little bit of char towards the back of the palate and then it finished off. This is not really a finished note, but like the last thing I get when I go to swallow it gets really creamy and it reminds me almost of like vanilla soft serve. It's Brad. This is a flavor experience we don't typically get on Scotch and especially on like a blended Scotch. The barrel here I think is really imparting a lot and I didn't pick up coconut on the palate. But I could see why a lot of people tip towards that because that creaminess for me came across as like vanilla ice cream. But I could see it being like a cream of coconut For somebody. I'm going to give it an 8 on the palate and then on the finish I'm also going to give it an 8.

38:27 It gets just a bit bitter, but it's still really, really nice. The prickliness of the alcohol doesn't really make itself known until the finish, but once again, like way above average. So 8 on the finish for me. I actually think that this, the finish is kind of where this excels. I love that note of like vanilla soft serve because that was coming through for me strong on the finish and I think that there's an oakiness here. But it's it's unique, it's different. It's not the same wood note that you get on any other whiskey. Bob, this is truly a a delicious whiskey. I'll give it a nine out of 10 on the finish and as far as bounce goes like.

39:11 I can't imagine them doing many things better on this whiskey, like all of the flavors work together. It's a beautiful, sweet, floral whiskey that hits all the right notes for a blended Scotch. I I really like this lot. I'm going to stick it a nine out of 10 on the balance. I'll also give it a nine on balance. There is just a slight drop off from the nose to the finish for me, but that's just because the nose was one of the best. Scotch noses I've ever smelled, so it's a nine for me. Value is going to be interesting, Brad. So like I said, I paid about $40.00 for this. I'm assuming that it's getting harder to find out there like this was a limited edition release.

39:54 I saw a couple search results come up that it's selling for like $200.00 now, but then I saw other stores that have it in stock and they're selling it for like $50 now. I don't know man, what are you seeing on your end? I've been seeing in general anywhere from like 45 to $60.00, so I don't know. Let's set it at like a $55 price point. Yeah, I was going to say even 60 because if you're buying it online, like you're going to pay shipping. So even if you get the $45.00, you're probably true. Let's call it a $60.00 bottle of Scotch. Listen, I know it's a blended Scotch. It is better than a multitude of single malts that we have had. At $60.00. This is kind of a nobrainer for me, man. I'm going to give this a nine out of 10 on value.

40:35 Yeah, I'm with you. I'm at an 8.5 on value, Bob. I'm coming out to a 43 out of 50 here. Brad, I am coming out to a 43 out of 50 here. I love it when we are in unison on something and when, to be fair with you, man, like I I bought this like a year ago and I've been kind of waiting to work it in. It wasn't like chomping at the bit to try it. I thought maybe it'll be okay. I am very pleasantly surprised. This is one of the best whiskeys we've had all season. It has achieved that 40 and above mark where it kind of becomes a nobrainer. If you see it on the shelf, pick it up. If you see it at the bar, it is absolutely worth a poor. I can't recommend this highly enough, man. Yeah, this is a delicious whiskey that if you're still able to find it by the bottle immediately. All right, man.

41:27 Well, I'm feeling very good right now. Let's get back into talking about Dunkirk. Let's get to it. All right, everybody. That was Shivas Regal Misanura. That I can't say that word. Misanarra. Misanarra. Mozzarella marinara. You're. Fucking me up now, Italian oak cask. I did marinara sauce. It previously held marinara sauce. Now it has whiskey in it. Tastes like a tomato. All right, you got to bring us back then all. Right, everybody.

42:10 That's what Shivas Regal Mizunarra Cask. A whiskey that is beyond description as well as a name that is beyond pronunciation. So we're getting back into talking about Dunkirk, which also begs a pronunciation question. Everyone in the movie calls it Dunkirk. We're going to Dunkirk. I don't know if that's because of it comes from the French or what, but I don't know, Brad, how do you say it? You say Dunkirk, Dunkirk. I mean, I say it as the French do Duke. That's it. That's it. All right, man. We're going to, we're going to go off the rails really quickly if we don't get into our next segment, which we call 2 facts in a falsehood. Brad is going to try to stumpy ball. You are right and what is wrong?

43:03 2 facts in a falsehood. That's right, everybody. 2 facts in a falsehood. The segment where Canada cheers. First of all, we're recording this like a a week or so in advance. I hope that Canada is recovering from these wildfires. Like, yeah, I don't know if you can hear the scratchiness in my voice. I live in northern Ohio. And the smoke from the wildfires has been so bad that like, the air quality in my area is off the charts. They say don't go outside. And if you do wear a mask to go outside, it's really bad guys. So first of all, Brad and I are are praying with and for Canada because it's been rough, man. Yeah, yeah.

43:46 Honestly, I'm kind of glad that we've been dedicating this segment to Canada for so long that it's, it's our sincere support. For everything that's going on up there that like, yeah, I mean we get that some out West and in California and but man they have a lot more trees than us. Bob, I'm. Going to feel real bad if I lose this week now, Brad. You know, it's like they got to win one for the Gipper here. So yeah, I am. Maybe. Maybe Canada's on my side though, Bob. That's, that's true. We will see how I do at 2 facts in a falsehood. This is where obviously Brad presents three items to me. As fact about making this movie and I have to figure out which one is the lie, Brad, hit me with your two facts in a falsehood. Fact number one According to Sir Kenneth Branagh, roughly 30 Dunkirk survivors, who are in their mid 90s at the time, attended the premiere in London.

44:41 When asked about the movie, they felt it accurately captured the event, but that the soundtrack was louder than the actual bombardment. Fact #2. Director Christopher Nolan had long wanted to direct a film about the Dunkirk evacuation, ever since he did a class project on it in primary school, saying that it was one of the most inspirational stories that he had ever heard. Fact #3, the scene in which Farrier Spitfire lands on the Dunkirk beach was real, done on location with an actual Spitfire, and it was the first time a plane had landed on that beach since 1940. Well, that's. Cool. Right. Huh. So #3 is interesting because when they actually show the plane landing on the beach, you don't see the town in the background.

45:28 They the background is the ocean or the channel I guess. So doing it on location doesn't really make a ton of sense because unless you're going to show Dunkirk in the background like it could have been, it could have been Myrtle Beach, you know what I mean? Like no one knows the difference. So there's there's just like bikini clad women running around in the background, It's. Just a guy in like a Joe's Crab Shack tshirt, so I'm immediately suspicious of 3/2. Sounds pretty plausible. I know that Nolan had been wanting to make a Dunkirk movie and developing it since the late 90s. I assume he heard this story as a boy growing up in England. One also sounds very plausible, so I think I'm.

46:11 I have a pretty equivalent chance of getting this wrong regardless. Canada. I'm so sorry. I'm going to go with three as the falsehood. Brad. Bob, you are back under 500. No. Fact number two was the falsehood. Man, Christopher Nolan did not like this story. As a child, he hated it. He actively was rooting against the English. At that point, it was actually a bet between him and his brother that he lost and his brother was the one who loved the story. Oh, interesting. No, I'm, I'm completely. Oh, you're making that up too. Man, I believed you. This is the problem with two facts and a falsehood. You've you've got me gas lit at this point, man. Oh man.

46:57 OK, let's talk about this movie a little bit. And we don't usually do the like we're history buffs. Let's let's compare this to how it really happened. But there are a couple things in the movie itself that didn't work for me, Brad. And I think that you have to kind of bring the historical record into it a little bit to highlight them. The first of which is that at the end of the movie they say that 300,000 people get off of the beach and get rescued. At no point in this movie does it look like there is anything remotely approaching 300,000 people on that beach. Like you see the planes going overhead and there's like a string of 20 people that are like, and I think that Nolan is really good at.

47:43 Taking small stories and making them appear to have huge scope. Like I think about the scene in The Dark Night where you get that, the showdown of the Joker and Batman on that abandoned like Chicago St. when he flips the semi truck and stuff. Like literally that is just two guys and a semi truck and it's like it's an iconic action scene now, even though nothing really happens. But I feel like it's almost the inverse. When Nolan has a gigantic scale to work with, like this movie doesn't have the heft and the scope and the scale that I feel like it needs, You needed to get more extras on that beach or CGIA.

48:25 Couple people in like we would have forgiven you for CGI ING a couple soldiers in there, dude. Like I know most of this is is done practically, but he had like 30 guys on the beach and they were like, look at the 300,000 soldiers. Yeah, no, I I'm with you. I think that. I mean, honestly, if you want to pause this episode right now, just go Google the Dunkirk evacuation and go to the Wikipedia page. Right at the very start, there's a picture of the beach and there's just countless troops in lines on the beach. And I'm like just literally just recreate that shot. Like, how cool would it have been if the opening shot of the film was like a grainy film reel of that exact, you know, still. And then slowly morphed into color and you see them all moving about.

49:14 And then a plane swoops in and tries the bomb on. Like, that would have been an incredible shot. And yeah, it, you know, it should be too hard to find 300,000 extras. They don't even be easy. Like The thing is, you know when they make like sports movies. They usually only get enough extras to fill one section of the stadium, and then when they cut to the other side, they just move the extras. Like all you got to do is get like 1000 people and then just make it look like 300,000. I don't know. Anyway, that's that's always bothered me about this movie, like the execution of the movie, the craft of the movie is incredible. But then there are just certain things about it where it's like, am I supposed to not notice that there's only like 30 guys on this beach, like? In what world would this would?

50:02 Would you even find a corner of the beach where you'd only have 30 guys? Yeah. And the other half of that is the, the naval part of the equation, right? Like at the end of the day they show quite a few, you know, civilian boats heading there. But you got to think like even if each boat carried 40 people on it, you still need. What is that, 1000 boats or 10,000 boats? Well, I assume that they made many trips back and forth, right? But the way the movie portrays it, it's like we scooped them all up. We're done and left. We're going back, yeah. Yep, exactly. And and so that's like, that's the the hard part where you're like, show me some more boats, show me some more men like it.

50:46 It would have been pretty incredible to just see the scope of it and honestly like. It makes me think about the opening of Saving Private Ryan. Like that movie captures the scope of the D-Day invasion incredibly well, where you just see thousands of men storming this beach and there there's an impact of the size of it. So yeah, I'm I'm there with you, man. I I think that they could have done a little bit better at at showing the the scope and size of it all. So I was talking to Google's A I Barred about Dunkirk. I was asking the questions about the movie Dunkirk and the real life historical events of Dunkirk. And I'm going to read you an excerpt from the transcript I have with Google Bar.

51:35 We're introducing a I. We're introducing a I Yeah Man, Who? Would have thought that it would have come from an event 8090 years ago. So I was asking it questions like what are some of the inaccuracies in the movie Dunkirk? Then I asked it like. Were the soldiers really just hanging out on the beach? Were they not getting shot at by the enemy more than this? And then Google bar got very snippy with me and said the soldiers on the beach at Dunkirk were not just quote hanging out, they were under constant threat of attack. And it goes to talk about like how often they were getting bombed and shot at from behind the barricades and I asked it what kind of attacks were coming from behind them and. It just seemed like in this movie you don't really have this constant threat of what's behind the walls. And I think that no one really could have leaned into some of the more horror aspects of movies like Memento or even Inception and had that kind of creeping sense of something is is creeping up on them from behind and they are trapped by this wall of water on the other side. It felt more to me the rhythm of the movie, the pace of the movie.

52:43 Like they made it to the beach and they were like, well, we just got to wait till they get here. So we're just going to sit here and not so much like we are being actively pursued. Like, you know, Pharaoh and his Chariots are chasing us to the edge, you know what I'm saying? Like, I I want something like that where the desperation of I cannot move any farther, but I am getting pursued from behind. I think that's another element that is missing from this movie for me. So for you it didn't work that he doesn't show any German troops other than like half a second when they capture Tom Hardy. I mean, I I like that this kind of like a faceless presence, but you only, you know, that's very offscreen.

53:24 You get a couple bullet holes in the hall of the ship they're hiding in. But even if they had just had more shots where Finn Whitehead, you know, the cameras pushing in on his back and then he turns around because he knows there's something there, even if you can't see it like. Just to increase the paranoia of it a little bit. Yeah, I mean, I I think that the opening sequence kind of establishes that a little bit when when Finn is escaping, you know, he's the lone survivor of his troop that is killed by Germans in the town of Dunkirk. And honestly, like that opening scene was incredible. It, it's the most colorful part of the movie. And I I remember thinking I was like, man, this is just a beautiful opening shot of this film. And then everything else is kind of just Gray and blue and and sad, as it should be.

54:14 It's a good proper British film. But I I think that you're right. I I think that there's places where the the drama could have been extended. I just for me, I think that the focus on the troops and the focus on you know the Air Force and the the naval part of the film was more than enough to keep my attention, I feel like. You're going to give this movie like an 8 1/2, and yet it feels like you're talking about it like it's A7. That's The thing is, like, I'm not going to say my score, but I respect this movie and I want to give it like the recognition it deserves. It's kind of like this movie gets nominated for Best Picture, but it like no one thought it was going to win.

54:58 It was nobody's favorite movie of the year. Except yeah, I guess we came to find out later. Tarantino loves this movie, but. But it's kind of like, yeah, it totally deserves to be nominated for everything. It is like an impeccably crafted film. It just doesn't all click for me. Yeah, that's that's crazy, man. I mean, maybe it was just my first time through that that it hit for me. I thought that this was incredibly well done. Like, I'm with you, there's flaws. It's not a perfect film. But I think it's one of the better war films that I've ever seen. I think that it captures a lot of the fear and terror of of what it's like to be at war. I think the few moments where you see real human terror and, you know, just walking off into the ocean basically to commit suicide, like that's brutal.

55:51 And I think Killian Murphy gives an incredible performance showing how. Desperate you feel in moments of of feeling that shell shock and PTSD at for me so many avenues of this film worked well and I and I'll say like most all of this film was like a B + 2 an A minus. You know it's it's not perfect but none of it was ever like a C minus. The only part that kind of struggled was Finn Whitehead. So I, I just. I come at this movie and go, man, I I just think this is a really technically brilliant and beautifully shot movie that I I'm, I'm in for. Okay.

56:32 So I was going to talk more about what I was asking the A I, but I don't think I want to do that anymore because you just have set us up for a perfect segue into our final two segments of the day, the first of which we call Let's make it a Double. Near the end of the episode. So thanks for listening to the film and whiskey show. Let's pair another film with this one, even if it's struggling. It's a final segment of the day. Now let's make it a double. Let's make it a double is the part of the podcast where we pick a movie to pair up with this one to make the perfect double feature. Brad, you are the you're the fan of this movie. I want to see what you pair this up with. Man, this is an interesting one. I I remember hearing somebody, I don't know if they talked about it or if it was a video I watched that talked about cinematic universes and you know, we have the MCU and then all the other spinoffs that never actually worked. But they talked about how in history there's like historical movie universes, the largest one being the World War Two movie universe.

57:37 And I I think you kind of have to stay in that realm for Dunkirk. I'm trying to. I'm trying to remember the name of the movie. I liked it a lot. Was it The King's Speech? Yeah, that's that's nothing like Dunkirk. But yeah, the the movie with Colin Firth where he has a speech impediment and he. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, totally reminds me of Dunkirk. I'm going to pair that with Dunkirk because I think that there's something of capturing the element. Of what's going on at home in England and the struggles they're facing there with the military operations that are happening, I think there's something worth watching there.

58:18 And so I and I also just really like The King's Speech. So I'm that's what I'm pairing up with. Bob scoff at me all you'd like. Scoff, scoff, Sir. All right, I'm going to pair this up. With a movie that I went to the movie theater to see this and it freaking blew my mind at the time. It's a documentary that was made by Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings films. It's not The Beatles documentary, although that would have been really funny if I had done that. It's a movie called They Shall Not Grow Old. It is basically Peter Jackson and all of his folks at Weta Digital. They were given access to hours and hours and hours of original footage from World War One. And they took it, they colorized it, they upscaled it all to 4K, they restored it, they took all the pops and scratches out of it.

59:07 And basically what they did was they recreated, they hired people from like different different areas of England based on the patches they saw on the soldiers uniforms to read the lips of what they saw in this footage. And they just recreated what life was like for soldiers in World War One. It brought this war that was 100 years old at the time. Into the modern day. And it was like it was a game changer for me to see that, Brad, because I'd never seen, you know, once in a while you see colorized World War Two footage. This was colorized and updated World War One footage. And there was just something about the way that Jackson imparted such a humanity to these people in small strips of film from 100 years ago. It really is just like it balances out for me. What this movie's lacking in terms of character development, and so I think it'd be a perfect double feature with Dunkirk. There you go.

1:00:07 I think that's a great, great pairing, dude. Well, thank you very much, Sir. No scoffing here. Oh man. What? What's your final score on this, Bob? I'm really curious where you're gonna end up. I think, like objectively, this movie should be given an 8 out of 10. I think that I enjoy it, a 7.5 out of 10. It's a like and that feels weird to say because like this is a much better made movie than 90% of three Star Movies, right? Like it's just it's incredible to look at. You can tell there's a genius behind the camera and also writing the script, but it just doesn't all click for me. It leaves me feeling a little detached, a little cold, and I think for that reason I can't really go above a 7 1/2 on this one.

1:00:59 Yeah, I this just worked for me, man. I I think that the action sequences are brilliantly shot. I think he captures the claustrophobia of being in a sinking ship incredibly well there. There's just so many brilliant moments throughout this movie that just like took my breath away. So I'm going to give it a nine out of 10. I I think that this is a stellar movie and one of the better World War 2 movies that we've gotten in a very long time. All right, so I'm giving it a 7 1/2. Brad gives it a nine. That brings our average to an 8.25 out of 10. But I'd like to know what you think. Film and Whiskey Nation seems like I'm more in line with the general public on this, But if you're a Nolan fan, then I have a feeling you probably appreciate this movie a little bit more.

1:01:46 So let us know what you think. You can find us on social media at film, whiskey, on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, all the things. At Film Whiskey. Or you can jump on the Discord, which I'm sure will be bought into the Metaverse at at some point. You can join the conversation on Discord. There's a link to it at the end of every single one of our show notes. Brad, next week we are just fully diving into the Japanese stuff. We we we dipped our toe into it with Mizonara this week. Next week we are introducing Akira Kurosawa. I cannot freaking wait, man. We're starting with his 1950 masterpiece Rashomon. How pumped are you dude?

1:02:29 I am incredibly excited to jump in to Kurosawa. It's it's something that, like I've wanted to do for a while, but I've held off because I know we're going to do it on the podcast. So here we are and I am so, so pumped for it. All right. We will see you guys next week for Rashomon. But until then, I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.