Amazing film - almost

Rating: 8/10 (28 July 2017)

As a cinematic experience, especially when viewed at an IMAX, Dunkirk is an astonishing achievement. Story, acting, tension, atmosphere, soundtrack, cinematography, it's all brilliant and I thoroughly recommend it.
However, two caveats: there were 350,000 British and French soldiers in and around Dunkirk in May/June 1940, there were masses of abandoned vehicles and equipment, dozens of wrecked ships, destroyed buildings, continuous raids by the Luftwaffe. After watching this film you will wonder where they were all hiding. Christopher Nolan seems to have concentrated on the individual more than the masses; no bad thing except visually. Dunkirk looks empty.
Also, as is being pointed out in the Goofs section, there are innumerable factual errors where modern buildings and trains, road signs etc. are visible or used. Nolan's wish to film in the real location rather than in front of a green screen is laudable, but there has been no attempt, either physically or digitally, to make the surroundings look like they did in 1940. For once there is a case for the use of MORE CGI in a film.
These anachronisms do detract from the overall brilliance of the film, and by quite a lot. Rather like a Shakespeare play performed in modern dress, the sense of time and place is missing. This is the Dunkirk evacuation set in 2017, not in 1940. A shame, but it's still worth seeing.