A subtle yet terrifying depiction of war by Christopher Nolan

Rating: 9/10 (24 August 2017)

Dunkirk is a war movie directed by Christopher Nolan. And like any other Nolan movies, this movie is different. This movie was absurdly short for a war movie. It barely reaches two hours. This was understandable since the movie focuses only on one event, The Evacuation of Dunkirk, where around 300,000 British troops were evacuated from a small beach in Dunkirk that was surrounded by German Troops. The war movies that we're used to seeing usually follows the journey of our protagonist as he battles the odds of war. In this movie, we instantly jump to the situation of Dunkirk without first getting to know our characters. To add to that, there are very minimum dialogues in this movie.
This was a bold decision made by Christopher Nolan. Dialogue is an important aspect of movies. They allow the characters to develop and compels us to sympathize with them. In this movie, Nolan replaced those dialogues with actions. Their action in the event defines who they are.
Now this is the thing that I appreciate the most from this film. The astonishingly realistic depiction of war and its impacts. There is no actual main character in this movie. The main protagonists are actually the men who are struggling to evacuate and to be evacuated, which is incredibly relevant to a sickening fact of an actual war. It cares not about individuals. There are also claims that the Dunkirk movie is a propaganda by the Brits, showing that they are a superior nation, regarding the Brexit matter. For me, this statement is unjust. The film does not shy away from the fact that their assault on France and Belgium is a massive failure. One scene shows a soldier complaining about how he is ashamed of the loss and expects to be spit on back at home. However, the movie is not about the omnipotent Britain and their mighty evacuation. It is about the hopeless men, stranded on the beach of Dunkirk, longing for the scent of home and how despite the horrific war going on, there is still a good chunk of humanity somewhere in this world. We witness as the civilian back at home, fishermen, elders and such, volunteered sailing across from England to Dunkirk in order to save their fellow countrymen. And finally, back at home, when the evacuated men came home in a train with their head ducking in shame, the villagers mobbed their train. And instead of spitting on them, they cheered in triumph. Because victory is not always achieved by conquest. It could also be achieved by unity.