I don't remember seeing him injured. So what happened to him to kill him as he slept? Sorta hoaky. Not that it can't happen but we weren't shown the cause, that I recall. Help me on this.
The scene on the beach at Dunkirk was worthy of a Fellini film with the carnival equipment still running and the merry go round going round merrily.
"He who swaps his liberty for the promise of 'security' deserves neither." Ben Franklin
Several times in the walk to Dunkirk he is worrying over a chest wound he sustained earlier. The wound became infected - the bullet was probably still in him - and ultimately led to septicemia.
shareI think there's a little bit of brilliance in what we were seeing. What we're seeing is not actually the 'real' events but just Briony retelling the accounts as best she can. And since she's rewriting history so that Robbie won't die of septicimia she won't draw too much attention to it - which is why Robbie appears fine for the most part.
Here's how I see it...
Remember the quick scene when he opened his shirt and you saw the wound? It was a small wound(compared to all of the other injuries we all in the later scenes with Briony in the hospital), but it's all important because as we saw on the beach the medical care wasn't the best.
Fast forward to when Robbie is walking with his friend and he sees his mother. At this point I know he was going to die. He's hallucinating and keeps talking about the cabin. Also it's important to note that the injured(and obviously the dead) were to be left behind. So not only did they not have the capacity to take care of the injured on the beach but they couldn't do it on the ship.
The reason we saw the beautiful scene with the beach was to show how bleak it really was. There are soldiers with eye patches on, men fighting, yelling and bombs going off.
Hi maybe you can help me with some questions as well
1) After Briony showed their mom "The Letter" why didn't Cecilia told her Mom that she and Robbie are in Love. Even when she disagrees with the relationship it would at least put Briony's suspicion a bit under question?
2)Why did Robbie's health and mental status decline so dramatically after the met the hallucination of his mom? he seems stable when he and the 2 others arrived at the beach (he even asked for further orders)
3) How did Briony knew the cause of Robbie's death. I mean why did she knew it was Septicemia. She could have said: Robbie died of his wound in the battle at Dunkirk (or so).
4) was there any way Robbie could have survived this. As you correctly said : that the injured were to be left behind. and even if he made it back to England. I don't think they would have been able to cure him of the Septicemia.
5) Did Nettle knew Robbie was dying ? was it a lie when he said that the Ships are back just to comfort Robbie ?
and why did the took his letters for Cee.
6) What happened to Mace ?
i thank in advance
I'm "cheating" a bit, I think, because I read the book - but here are answers to the OP's original question and your numbered questions:
To the OP - Robbie was hit with shrapnel from an explosion at some point before we join him on his trek to Dunkirk. The small piece of shrapnel becomes more and more infected as he takes this LONG hike (in the book it is a very long journey before they reach Bray Dunes). It is this infection that ultimately kills him.
To Nick -
(1) The "relationship" between Robbie and Cecilia was so new that it probably would not have mattered much to Emily (her mother) that Cecilia thought they were in "love." Cecilia makes it clear that she believes Robbie is innocent, but the letter said what it said, and it was quite a salacious thing to say at that point in history. It was the "icing on the cake" to solidify their suspicions - borne by Briony's accusation - that Robbie was a sex-hungry rapist.
(2) See my answer to OP. It was a LONG trek to Dunkirk (and, ultimately, Bray Dunes because Dunkirk was under siege by the time they were close). The wound gets more and more infected as they journey forward.
(3) Briony did a ton of research as an older woman in connection with writing her book, including meeting with historians and digging through military and medical records. She presumably made this discovery through this research.
(4) Robbie died in his sleep - he was far, far too sick to have survived a long boat ride across the channel.
(5) This is a good question. It is not clear either in the movie or the book whether Nettles was certain he was dying, but it is implied in both that he probably suspected it. My reading of the scene in both the book and the movie is that he was telling Robbie what he wanted to hear (we are meeting at 7am to get on the boats) so that he would put his mind at ease and die in peace.
(6) This one is definitely a cheat because I've read the book ... in the book, Mace rescues a RAF officer who is being berated by a bunch of drunken infantrymen for the RAF's failure to keep the German bombers at bay. The crowd was ready to lynch the guy but Mace hoists him up and carries him out the door. Robbie and Nettles then spend a significant amount of time first looking for Mace, and then looking for food and water. They don't find him again.
First of all : Thank you for answering my questions:
The wound gets more and more infected as they journey forward.
No problem! As to your two new questions, let me see if I can help. These are interesting questions because both involve scenes that were not necessarily in the book:
(1) You could read the film to suggest that Robbie was confusing Dunkirk for a beach where the cottage is located. In the book, there is no cottage and the scene at the very end of the movie (where they are living together in the cottage) doesn't happen.
(2) In the book, right after they leave the bar Robbie and Nettles wander through the streets and ultimately begin following a gypsy woman. I think in the film you see a glimpse of this woman. At first they are looking for Mace, but then they give up on that and follow her to her house hoping they can find a place to sleep or at least some food and water. The gypsy woman is nervous at first, but she tells him that if they can catch her pig, who is running loose in the street, she will give them water, food and wine. Him and Nettles catch the pig, and she gives them what she promised. At this point, however, Robbie is delirious with fever so it isn't entirely clear if everything that is happening is "real." The scene where he imagines his mother is not necessarily in the book (and there is no feet washing) but when he enters the gypsy woman's home there is some confusion. I believe he thinks about his mother, although it is not clear if he is confusing the gypsy for his mother. By the way, the scene in the film where he walks into the movie theater and the French film is playing behind him was only in the film, and not in the book.
And reading your very informative answers to Nick, I'm not sure though that you answered the question about what happened to Cee's letters. Any insights there?
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Coincidentally, I happened to watch "Dunkirk" right before this movie. It's interesting that in "Atonement" they said many of the injured were to be left behind. But in "Dunkirk" all the injured were evacuated first and had priority. I wonder which is the correct version of events.
shareExcellent analysis, Andrew.
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