Nolan took me there.

Rating: 7/10 (7 January 2019)

I've written it before: The Second World War is a factory of stories worthy of making a movie out of them. Even if there are those who question and criticize this fact, arguing that the Academy will always pay much more attention to a film whose historical context is this specific conflict, the truth is that if there is a quality standard when it comes to rating these films. We can notice that, even if it is a tendency, the great movies based on this part of human history are in the place that they are in a more than justified way. In 2017, the academy nominated no less than two films located in this era for Best Picture. I already talked about Darkest Hour, what does Dunkirk leave us then?
To begin with, we can once again appreciate the great ability of Christopher Nolan not only to direct a great cinematographic project, but to break the mold of the conventional film. In Dunkirk we can perceive an excellent script. Maybe not enough to get an Oscar nomination, but it does contain incredible details to take into account. In the first place, considering that the dialogue is very scarce (rather it occupies a merely descriptive role) so most of the narrative of the film is composed by actions and body language, which is carried out in a way that is at least acceptable . The actors, even if they do a very good job, occupy a circumstantial role, and their brightness lies more in the value of them as a crowd and in the way they form a whole within the story. While it is true that if there are memorable characters in the film, I am left with the feeling that it is the environment and the situation treated in the production that is the protagonist of Dunkirk. No aspect, both acting and dialogue, seems to be misplaced. Good script, good synergy.
The production design is spectacular, full of remarkable aspects. As I said before, it is the surroundings that occupies the leading role in the project. To achieve this goal, the production design must be at least excellent. Dunkirk is up to it, even if The Shape of Water got the Oscar in this respect. The work of cinematography is superb, with dramatic and precise shots, placing the viewer in the exact place where the director surely glimpsed it in his mind. However, it still had to beat Blade Runner 2049 in this category in the 90th ceremony, which did not happened. Hans Zimmer, although he was surpassed by Alexandre Desplat for his work in The Shape of Water, gives us an extraordinary and reasonably vertiginous musical project, proving once again his quality and talent as a composer. In editing issues and both categories of sound, it got the prize as expected. Good technical aspects.
The film has very noticeable tints of reality. More than referring to being based on real events, Christopher Nolan manages to make the viewer really feel at Dunkirk during that time. It does not seek to be very dramatic, although it has very well-known and genuine dramatic overtones. It raises an authentic war drama, endearing but as if it came straight out of a history book. The conflict, even if it is the war itself, is presented in such a way that the viewer can feel within the plot. The symbolism is also handled in a very clever fashion. It seems that, since the environment is the protagonist, the antagonist of all the characters is the water and the ocean mass that separates the English soldiers from their home. However, these characteristics also make this production a bit difficult to process, and it gives a slow pace unfortunately.
Summing it up, Dunkirk proposes an innovative way of making a film not only of the Second World War, but of war as a movie genre. The technical details of the production are incredible and the acting works very decent. It's a production that, while probably remembered as a great work by Christopher Nolan, was not worthy to take the Oscar home. However, it is perhaps the work of fate that Darkest Hour has premiered and been nominated on the same year, because both sides of the story are presented in each of these films. Even the end of both is a speech by Sir Winston Churchill. And, although these productions are not connected from their productions, the truth is that it raises the interest for what happened in Dunkirk in the year 1940. Good movie.