Immensely Immersive - need to be watch in IMAX

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2017)

Dunkirk is the story of the evacuation of Allied troops from the beaches of... well... Dunkirk, France... from the oncoming German advance during the beginnings of the 2nd World War. Unusual as a film as it follows a story between three different settings, in this case, the bottom line is line, sea and air, between a pilot, soldier and crew of a pleasure boat. Shuffling between the three different environments can be confusing if you don't know the back story or in this case, the history. There's is little to no character development, no back stories, and lucky if you catch a name. Compounded with little dialogue and chronological but mismatching time lines and for a war film, never seeing the enemy close up. So, got the makings of a confusing film? You betcha. And as usual with Nolan films, he will assume the audience can work it out.
So why is it any good? Because it's filmed on IMAX? Even close ups? Makes it gorgeous? Huh?? So what!! No, it's good because it portrays what it wants and it does without the need cf complex characters and back stories. It's a story about people, and their struggles to get off the beaches from an oncoming enemy. The despair, the fear, the despondency, the exhaustion, the madness, the sacrifice of being caught up in a situation like that. And Nolan knew, the only way to catch that is no green screen technology. Real locations, real explosions, real planes. No chaff, no fluff, even strapping a huge IMAX camera to the side of plane for the cockpit shots. All the struggles coming into a climax on the beaches of Dunkirk.
It doesn't have a moral message, just the relief for those who did make it off the beach and pity for those who didn't.
Very fresh, very new way of story telling, and it works. Uninterrupted suspense all the way through. 10 out of 10.