Anonymity of principal cast honors anonymous heroes

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2017)

The story of this massive evacuation of British and French troops back across the English Channel in 1940 has been depicted several times before, but never so intriguingly or compellingly. Writer/director Christopher Nolan pulled off what seems to be oxymoronic in crafting a powerfully understated presentation of such a famous event. The preceding military action in France was a disaster, but rescuing most of the 400,000 soldiers pinned down by all branches of the German forces allowed England to keep Hitler on the Continent until the rest of the Allies would become fully armed and engaged.
Most war films focus on one or more heroes, played by stars and familiar character actors, with relatively predictable story arcs. The 1958 account of this historic achievement starred John Mills and Richard Attenborough; in 2004, Benedict Cumberbatch and Timothy Dalton headlined. This time, Kenneth Branagh is the biggest "name", but his role is marginal. Instead, we switch among several story lines of anonymous soldiers, sailors, pilots and civilians, with few of them even being given names. We also see their fears, moments of cowardice or selfishness along with their heroism. By not knowing who is who (and, typically, who we figure will either save the day, die tragically, or both, based on decades of cinematic convention) we feel the utter randomness of which imperiled character will live or die, and whether it will happen on shore or during evacuation.
British pride over the event comes largely from the way innumerable civilian boat owners, with vessels of all types and sizes, bravely responded to the call to help its over-matched Navy by crossing the channel to carry as many lads back as they could hold... if they survived the threats from enemy U-boats, bombers and fighter jets. For the troops, reaching one of the boats proved to be far from an assurance of safe passage.
Nolan delivers all the sound and fury of being among their ranks, sustaining nearly two hours of the intense fear, chaos and frustrations that the actual figures must have experienced. It's among the closest approximations I can recall of the masterful D-Day landing sequence at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. We see many fatalities from many causes, but without the explicit display of bloodshed that an R- rated production would have contained. We didn't need it to get the layers of emotional impact in that ordeal from all perspectives. The jumps from one mini-arena to another, and even repeating certain sequences from different character perspectives adds to that sense of no one in position to deduce what action or location will be safest for themselves or their comrades.
The experience is grueling for the audience, and honors the soldiers most by putting us in their actual, not idealized or glorified, boots. This Dunkirk marks quite an achievement for all its creators and cast.