A TOUR DE FORCE ! A MUST WATCH (in IMAX) !!

Rating: 10/10 (27 October 2019)

Ace auteur Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk is based on a daring rescue of allied soldiers from the French coast where they were pushed to the brink of annihilation/capture by German army which had surrounded them on the land, Luftwaffe fighter planes that rained bombs and fire from the skies and U-boats that torpedoed any approaching rescue vessels.
With as many as 400,000 soldiers stranded on the shores and hopes of their survival growing slim as every passing hour found the German army testing their weary resistance and every sortie of the Luftwaffe slaughtering these sitting duck soldiers by the dozens. Only a miracle could have saved those men.
Indeed, a miracle did happen and it was made in the way that best of miracles are made. It was made by ordinary men who performed extraordinary feats and dared to push the horizons of the faintly probable into the firm shores of the possible. In narrating this story, Nolan too weaves a miracle of sorts as he keeps us hooked to the suspense and thrill throughout its duration even when we are familiar with the history of this monumental evacuation of nearly 300,000 men which was one of the crucial turning points of the war.
A sense of foreboding permeates every frame like a fuse that is lit with the very first frame threatening to blow everyone to smithereens at any moment. Nolan brings his trademark twist to a genre by bravely desisting from the time tested template tropes of war movies such as creating backstories for characters which help the audience connect to them and root for them, bloody war sequences, tense discussions of a war-room, rousing speeches from leaders and villainous enemies.
Without resorting to any gruesome imagery or ever showing a single enemy soldier, he strikes terror with the perennial threat of deadly attacks and the attacks that strike at the most unexpected moment. Again, despite abstaining from any backstories to any of his characters, he forges a near universal connect between the faceless group of us - the audience - and the group of hapless, near strangers fighting together as soldiers for survival on that blighted beach. We root for their survival through a gruelling battle that spans land, water and air and witness those near nameless boys graduate in the tough school of war and become men.. That is.. If they don't end up as bodies.
Once again, we find Nolan showcasing his mastery in seamlessly weaving together multiple timelines - in a la Inception mode - where he sets these timelines to tick at different paces; a week on the shore; a day on the waters; and an hour in the skies, thereby elevating the sense of urgency.
A cast consisting of of largely unknown/lesser known actors with cameos by Tom Hardy (once again behind a mask for the most parts), Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Brannagh deliver competent performances. Besides Nolan, the real stars of the movie are the excellent technical crew that he has marshalled. They are lead from the front by music director Hans Zimmer who pounds you with a ticking, thudding time-bomb of a score that at once sees you quivering on the shores, bouncing on the waters and soaring through the skies and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema who cans the stupendous aerial action sequences which make your eyes stretch wider than the IMAX widescreen. Editor Lee Smith comes out with flying colours, in what must have been one of the toughest jobs, as he brings together the multiple timelines into a smooth narrative.
Nolan has delivered another masterpiece that is like no other. Within a few moments, with a masterly sleight of hand, enlists each of us in the audience as a private and transports us to those treacherous shores of Dunkirk, desperate for survival for nearly two hours. And.. that is his successful inception.
A heady cocktail of a riveting suspense thriller, a superlative spectacle, an immersive and nerve racking experience of war as never before. If one looks beyond the gripping war drama and digs a little deeper, we might find some resonance with contemporary issues of Brexit and swelling waves of refugees as well.