A fast and visceral war movie

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2018)

Watching this movie again at home almost a year after it was released to theaters on July 21st 2017, I still have a great deal of respect and love for how this movie and how it portrayed war and how fast and visceral it can be. Christopher Nolan mastfuly helms his shortest movie to date clocking it at 1 hour and 48 minutes, and it flew by. I orginally watched this movie at my local IMAX theater when it came out last year. Though I didn't write my review when I originally saw the movie, I waited to see if it still holds up on my 42 inch TV. Though the booming orchestra was gone and the massive screen was now small, the movie still brought me in to its setting and quick paced nature. This movie is about the event of Dunkirk and how everyone from land, sea, and air were affected. The movie is constantly jumping from these different perspectives.
The editing is quick and strong. Every frame and cut seems necessary and tells it's own story. To the shots of the young men on the beach diving for cover from the enemy bombers, to the dad and his 2 boys saving a scared shell shocked soldier from drowning. It all feels very quick in nature and strong in heart. The main gimmick you could say in this movie is the switching of time and location or our main 3 stories. The Mole, The Sea, and The Air. Each with different amounts of time shown and cut between. I found this style unique and interesting on how it showed originally 3 unrelated stories and how they came to cross paths. Something rarely seems from a movie now a days.
The cinematography in this movie is breathtaking. Very beautiful and intensely shot movie with master cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema behind the camera. He has shot movies including Interstellar, Spectre, and Her. Wide open shots of the beach and ocean soar high in the sky and swallow everything in the frame. These shots really show the scale and epicness of the event. These shots are often mixed in with close up shots of the soldiers in constant fear or pain. Or both. Almost everything in this movie is real. Hundreds of extras, real boats and planes, locations. Extremely immersive. This movie is a something to see visually wise.
The characters and plot of the movie may be the one thing that is lacking here. You don't get to get into the characters minds very often. The movie is so quick paced and intense that very little time is left for talking. But for this movie it really works as a good things. The movie is not based around the characters. These characters that Christopher Nolan have written are strong characters for a backdrop for the main character, that is Dunkirk. I understand this might annoy people but when the movie concluded I still found the events they went though very engaging even if the characters sometimes weren't so fleshed our.
The acting in the movie is also very good. Newcomer to limelight is actor Fionn Whitehead and does a great job with the little dialogue he has. Harry Styles, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy all also bring in good performances. Though I believe the best performance in the movie is played by Mark Rylance. He places a strong father and gives much passion and relaxedness to the movie. Great job by all.
I'm conclusion I am giving this movie a 9 because it is a masterpiece in film editing, cinematography and showing the massive scale of war in such a unique way. The acting all around it great but nothing ground breaking. Story and characters may be sometimes be lacking but never seems to bring down the movie much. In IMAX this movie was a joy to see because it is a more visual movie. Most of the joy from watching this movie comes from the events unfolding and not the characters connecting. From the beginning to the end this movie is quick paced and extremely immersive. Never a dull moment. Nolan often brings very visual stories to the silver screen in amazing ways, and this movie is no exception. This movie is about an intense visceral event that 330,000 soldiers experienced on the beachs of Dunkirk directed by Christopher Nolan and it is Amazing.