A Psychological War Film

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2017)

Dunkirk is the story of the allied troops who were stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk and surrounded by German soldiers as they try to survive and escape, meanwhile volunteers sail their boats out to save the soldiers, meanwhile fighter planes attempt to defend the soldiers on the beach from German bombers.
Typical to Christopher Nolan, this movie is fantastic. Nolan directs the crap out of it. Not only is his camera-work fantastic, but the scenery he captures is beautiful. They manage to really nail the tone, with it being a little claustrophobic despite the location being a massive beach. The characters are stuck and there is absolutely no way for them to escape. Right from the opening scene, Nolan nails the tone and realism of the film.
On top of that, Hans Zimmer's score is far from only being the icing on the cake. In truth, the music proves to be something of a major character, assisting in the carrying of the rest of the cast through this horrible event. The music perfectly suits every situation, and whether or not you feel for the characters, the music makes sure you at least feel a little tense.
Speaking of the characters, there really aren't any. Sure, there are like 300,000 soldiers on the beach, yet we still feel for them. The main character has maybe four lines in the movie, yet the reason why he's so good along with the rest of the characters is because the movie sets up this horrible situation and instead of filling the movie with gratuitous war violence, a lot of it is psychological. When a character is desperately trying to escape from drowning you definitely feel for them. I don't know about you, but I don't want to drown. And even without speaking, the characters make decisions and do things that are completely logical and understandable. There are no dumb people in this movie, and as a result they prove to be very human. There is so much humanity in these characters, so it's very easy to relate to them in some way.
Part of why the characters are so humane, however, is because of the acting. From the big names like Tom Hardy and Kenneth Branagh, to the first-timers like Fionn Whitehead, there is not a single bad, or even average, performance in this movie. The lead, Whitehead, is absolutely outstanding in his first full-length film role, pulling off a very human performance simply by the way he moves, acts, and reacts. My personal favorite, however, was Cillian Murphy. He plays a shell-shocked soldier and absolutely nails it for the short amount of time he spends on screen. His character holds so much depth and intrigue, I looked forward to every moment he spent on screen.
The movie feels real too. The gunshots sound real, and the way the action scenes are shot are in-the-moment and authentic. When Hardy flies his plane and attempts to shoot down others, it's not epic. It's not really even that fast-paced. It's honestly just kind of tedious and frustrating, watching him carefully line up his shot before shooting. And again, the claustrophobia is very real. We get plenty of in-the-cockpit shots that show just how incredibly uncomfortable it would've been in that plane. Again, it's very real and no matter how 'weak' the characters are I felt for each one. And there's so little hope in this movie. Characters end up in terrible situations and don't always get saved last minute. Things happen that would happen in real life but in a conventional movie? No way. Just when you think the movie may be divulging to conventionalism it throws a grenade at your face and you remember that this is real.
Towards the end of the movie it felt a little over-dramatic. The music, the narration, the way it was shot. Of course then I remembered that this was a dramatic event. What happened was not pretentious, it was a big deal. Deciding to use a dramatic filming style at the end made sense.
If I can find one problem with this movie, it's that at times it felt a little slow. Not that it wasn't interesting, the movie is fantastic at showing the audience what happened without making it long and boring, but it does slow down from time to time. Certain moments may feel a little out of place, but in terms of the plot still make sense.
Overall Dunkirk is fantastic. Just about everything works, and you should absolutely go see it. From the music to the directing to the acting, it's great. Go see it. It's worth your money.