96% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: A must see;
Watch it in cinemas;
I'm buying the DVD
Watch it if you: Want to see an intense and suspenseful war drama;
Aren't expecting any action or combat sequences that you would associate with other war films;
Aren't expecting anything like what Christopher Nolan has previously done (in terms of mind-blow stuff);
But still want an amazing film!
Usually when I hear that Christopher Nolan is doing another movie, I'm immediately excited for it. But I didn't know it would be possible for me to be even more excited when I heard that Christopher Nolan was doing a war movie.
In WWII, 400,000 British troops are stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk. The film follows the experiences of three groups of troops: those on land, those in the sea, and those up in the air, as they await either their rescue, or their death.
I think I subconsciously built up a lot of pressure from this film, because after the film ended, I was legitimately so happy with what I had just seen!
Yup, Christopher Nolan has done it again! And this time, instead of another phantasmagorically complex mind-blow twist of a movie, this historical war drama is very different from what we typically see from Nolan, and even from other war films.
For a start, it's not a typical war drama. It's not a film where troops rush into battle, heroically fighting off their enemies. Nope, the Germans themselves are never to be seen, the troops almost never fire their weapons, and there's hardly any dialogue. Instead, the film is nearly two hours of intense suspension, where you anxiously wait in the shoes of the British troops. You feel a sliver of the amount of terror that they must have felt, you sit hopeless as you watch these men stand hopeless, waiting to be bombed on the beach or sunk in their ship or gunned down in the air. There's not much you can do, because there's just not much the characters themselves can do.
It's a dire situation, and it's nervewracking to see failed attempt after failed attempt of troops trying to board a ship and leave the beach of doom. But at the same time it's quite uplifting, even in the midst of the chaos. It's a huge relief when you see even just one German plane get gunned down, or just one British soldier get pulled up out of the water and onto a boat. It's uplifting to see how patriotic and selfless some can be even in the face of guaranteed death. It's heartwarming to see comrade aid comrade, even when all seems hopeless.
The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is fantastic at setting the tones of these scenes. The ticking clock as the soldiers count down to their deaths, the tense and repetitive music as we sit on the edges of our seats, and sometimes even the deafening silence as a German plane approaches Dunkirk.
To be honest, I can't find any faults in this film. I think it was a perfect representation of the difficulties of war when combat isn't even in the picture. It's emotional, and it makes you question what you would do to survive. It was also pretty cool to see the events play out over different time spans (on land: one week; on sea: one day; in air: one hour). Watching some reviews of this film, I see that some critics don't really like the structure of this film, because of the different time spans, however I really did not see the issue with it. It wasn't confusing to me, it wasn't like the film was jumping back and forth through time points, it was just shifting perspectives, and I actually liked the way he did this.
Another critique I see other people talking about is the lack of background story for characters. I had no issue with this because to me the film was done so well that I didn't need to know what their family was like, who they had waiting at home, or what their hobbies were, for me to actually care about the tragic situation they were facing.
If I had to nitpick I'd say that the one flaw is it's probably not that rewatchable, but that's not really a flaw with the film, it's just a flaw with the subject matter.
The acting is nothing spectacular, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. Because it's an ensemble cast, there is a relatively equal spread of focus on characters. If you had to pick a main character, it would be Tommy, played by Fionn Whitehead, who is only 20 years old and for this to be his acting debut is amazing. Looking forward to seeing him in more films.
Speaking of acting debuts, Harry Styles is in this! I only heard about this the day before watching the film, and was slightly worried, but he did a good job too. I was worried he would try to overact or dramatise his role, but like all the other actors in this film, there was nothing over-the-top and it was quite realistic and believable, and he wasn't a distraction in the film. Also, his presence in the movie might explain the numerous groups of young, teen-looking girls who were in the cinema for the advanced screening of this film...
Tom Hardy as the pilot Farrier was great. There was even a scene which was reminiscent of Bane x Mad Max so that was awesome.
Mark Rylance's scenes were also decent, but again nothing overly special. Although he seems a lot taller (unintended BFG (2016) reference) than I remember him being in Bridge of Spies (2015), but perhaps that is because he was up next to Tom Hanks.
Also, I would have liked to have seen more of Kenneth Branagh and Cillian Murphy, but on the other hand any more scenes with them would have been unecessary so I understand the decision to let them only have brief appearances.
So while the acting was nothing Oscar-worthy, it was a strong enough cast to make the film believable and none of the actors overdid it, which meant we didn't have anything to distract us from the glorious directing and cinematography.
In the end I think this is a fantastic film that everyone needs to watch. While it is a war film, it's not action-packed liked Saving Private Ryan (1998) is. It's still a drama at the end of the day, and it's a really refreshing take on your typical Hollywood war film.
