Uniquely conceived gripping success.

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 2017)

Some people want "character development." They want what Spielberg gives them. They want a soap opera. They want to be told what to feel and when. Character development means a kind of conventional story with a lot of familiar markers - it tells you whom to feel for and when and why. This is the stuff of Saving Private Ryan: it's hokey often, it doesn't push us too far out of comfort but it is designed to jerk those tears. I'm glad Dunkirk had a different vision, the kind of ontological realism that bypasses Hollywood conventions. This film is not about HUMANITY, really though it's intensely human, it's about war and the human experience of war. We are ants. It's luck and hope when hot metal comes raining from the sky or ambling through the surf. In a massive experience like Dunkirk, the people have not much power individually and the forces are gargantuan. To represent this one needs a vision, not a story or a soap opera, a vision. Dunkirk is unique certainly...gripping, overwhelming, powerful, and even beautiful though terrifying,