Nolan; masterpiece; immortal

Rating: Null/10 (19 July 2017)

I cannot recall any movie that has a better establishing first 10 minutes. A few cryptic written lines tell you what you are going to see is about 400,000 retreating Allied soldiers trapped at the French beach Dunkirk, waiting for a "miracle" to happen. Whether you are born half a decade (this IMDb user) or half a century after Dunkirk, you would likely have heard of this unique historical event during WWII. If not, Google is your friend.
The first sequence shows half a dozen British soldiers running from German firepower, pinned down one by one, with only one survivor Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) escaping, running towards a French barricade yelling the he is "Anglais", allowed through, crossing the remains of a seaside hotel and finally with the beach suddenly opened up in front. While there are a dozen long lines of soldiers, well-spaced, awaiting rescue, he has to answer nature's call first, then spots a soldier (Damien Bonnard) burying another in the sand (a story right there that I'll leave you to discover) and lends a hand. Tommy's story is one of the plot lines.
The first "title" appears at this juncture: "The mole; one week". A seasoned moviegoer, your subconscious would probably register "week one", assuming this to be the usual chapter title denoting a linear narrative. Cutting right to the next sequence with civilian boat owner Mr Dawson (Mark Rylance), his son (Tom Glynn-Carney) and a passionate young man George (Barry Keogham) getting ready to sail across the Channel to Dunkirk for the rescue, the next "title" appears "The sea; one day". Now you take note: this is definitely "one day", not "day one". Finally, with pilots Farrier (Tom Hardy) and Collins (Jack Lowden) on separate fighter planes comes the third and final "title" "The air: one hour". You are finally on the same frequency as Director Nolan: what he is showing are three parallel, concurrent stories. There is a fourth set of character, in charge of the rescue at "The Mole" (which, incidentally, refers the pier structure that is vital for getting the stranded soldiers onto the rescuing vassals), Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) and Colonel Winnant (James D'Arcy), from the navy and the army respectively.
Through these brilliant "close up" narratives, Nolan traverses time and space, bringing you directly to Dunkirk to share this historic moment, revealing all aspects of human nature from noble sacrifice to cowardly selfishness, and everything in between. There are many, many more characters, of which the only one I would mention is a favourite of mine, Callian Murphy, playing a nameless, shell-shocked soldier rescued by Dawson from the sea.
As this is after all a commercial film (as opposed to strictly art-house work), some nick-of-time, edge-of-seat moments are expected. Two that cut back-and-forth are a pilot trapped in the cockpit in the sinking fighter plane and a group of soldiers hiding in the hole of a Dutch merchant boat awaiting the incoming tide to bring them out to sea while all the time the Nazis soldier are using the apparently deserted boat for target practice. Allow me one spoiler: both have happy endings. (Sorry, two spoilers).
This masterpiece concludes, which is entirely expected, with Churchill's immortal oratory: We shall fight (them) on the beaches, etc. etc., an uplifting note.