That Hans Zimmer score...

Rating: 5/10 (21 January 2019)

DISCLAIMER: If you suffer from any form of anxiety, panic attacks or PTSD, then take caution when watching this film.
I feel a bit shell-shocked after watching this, so if one of Nolan's aims was to ensure the audience felt like a shell-shocked soldier then he was successful.
The Hans Zimmer score was so intense, so anxiety-inducing, that at times I found it incredibly distracting. It felt like probably the most developed "character" in the whole film. Because character development was mostly thrown out the door in 'Dunkirk'. The opening scenes gave me more anxiety than the opening of Saving Private Ryan - and this was achieved without any gore.
The film depicts events from three different perspectives. Personally, I wish the film had focused mainly on the everyday fishing boats off to rescue the lads - Mark Rylance's performance was the best and I felt really invested in his boat's story.
I love Spitfires and the fighter aces of WWII. They're one of my favourite topics to read about and explore. I found the dog fight aerial scenes underwhelming in 'Dunkirk' though. I actually found them somewhat unrealistic, where I had actually anticipated them to be the most authentic depictions in film yet. If you want to see a better example of this; check out 'Battle of Britain'.
Why go to so much effort in creating authenticity in a war film, only to just throw it away at times? Some scenes felt contrived. Events weren't always chronological which made it feel disjointed. Emphasis was put on 400,000 soldiers needing to be evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk. Yet, here I was watching 3 blokes sitting around on the most deserted stretch of beach I've ever seen.
In a film with limited dialogue, it actually managed to include "filler" dialogue. The Kenneth Branagh scenes in particular came across as if Nolan was trying to educate an assumed dumb American audience on this part of the war.
I felt more invested in the film right towards the end. Perhaps by then, I'd got accustomed to the jarring Hans Zimmer score, or maybe it was the three perspectives coming together that made the film feel more 'whole'. In a film that was my most anticipated of the year, I'm left feeling a little disappointed and underwhelmed - it was an alright movie but could've been so much more.