Don't miss this one

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2017)

So far, over 80% of the people who have rated this movie have given it and 8, 9 or 10. Deservedly so. This is an excellent movie that successfully shows first hand and close up what Dunkirk must have been like for those on the ground, in the air and on the sea.
I don't want to gush too much about it, but the realism and cinematographic artistry are superb. This is a story of survival, after all, but it is a story that is so well told that it feels like time travel. I've seen so many movies about the 2nd WW during my life that I tend to avoid them now. But this one is different. It worked for me from beginning to end.
I'm glad I saw this movie in an IMAX theatre with a great sound system because it really enhanced the experience. The sounds were visceral, more so than in any movie I've ever been in. So this is what it feels like to have a bullet crack near your head. Or to be strafed. Or to be be in an aeriel dogfight. Or to drown. (Some of the negative reviewers found this too loud, too realistic perhaps. So be warned.)
Nolan has somehow captured the strange mix of selflessness and selfishness, cowardice and heroism, depersonalisation and intensive personal narrative that the military and war can bring out. Some reviewers have commented that there wasn't enough character development, but to me that lack of personalisation reflects what being in the military and a huge operation like this feels like.
I felt the desperation and hopelessness. The sense of being trapped. The terror of being shot at. I was moved by the ending. Some reviewers are saying the film lacked emotion, but I didn't feel that. My friend says he wasn't moved at all though. Did these negative critics want more emotion from the soldiers? Screaming? Weeping? I don't think that would have been realistic.
This movie wasn't too bloody at all, although I don't think I've ever felt more strongly the waste of war. It's too easy in these war movies to demonise the enemy and emphasise the bloodiness -- but Nolan did none of that. He didn't show the enemy or the carnage at all really. What he did show was the desperation and fear.
This movie had a few minor issues, but I'll see it a second time before reporting on them in more detail. Right now, I'll just mention a few:
 Nolan didn't use CGI. I was surprised that there weren't more on the beach. Is this really what hundreds of thousands of men look like? I'm not sure this movie depicts accurately what it was like for so many to be trapped on that beach. Is this what 700 civilian boats look like? Why were there only a handful of aircraft in the air? Maybe CGI would have worked better here.
 I sometimes had a hard time telling who was who.
 I would have liked to have walked away from this moving knowing why Dunkirk occurred.
 What happened to the 100,000 or so who were taken prisoner?
This movie puts action fans in the same theatre as old fogeys. That alone is a major accomplishment. You have to hand it to Nolan. He almost casually and unnecessarily turned from his usual fare to focus on an historical war drama. The result is a compelling, excellent movie. Imagine if all these superhero directors did this.
It is interesting that the world continues to make and watch movies about this war, even though the greatest generation has all but died out. This is a war we will never forget, even as those who lived it are no longer around to describe it to us. From now on, every generation will tell this story in its own way.