A gripping and emotional viewing experience! 5 STARS!

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2017)

From the first frame projected on-screen, I was there! I was experiencing the everyday struggle of these men, trying to survive long enough on a God-forsaken beach to just get home! Hour by hour and minute by minute, one didn't know when to expect the next air strike, or when the next boat would arrive with even the slightest chance of succeeding in its dangerous mission!
Steven Spielberg succeeded in placing us all on Omaha Beach with the American troops on the morning of June 6th 1944, during the brutal and traumatic opening of his Historical Epic 'Saving Private Ryan'(1998). Now in 2017, Christopher Nolan has gone a step further I believe, in changing the movie experience as we know it. With his extremely intense, real and moving motion picture 'Dunkirk', we as the audience are given the best of both worlds. We are still given the safety net of having characters in the film through whom we witness the events unfold, while at the same time truly feeling that we are seeing this horror in action, directly through the eyes of the protagonists! This became so from stunning direction, camera work, sound design and cinematography, creating the next best thing to virtual reality! The clock is always ticking and we are kept on the edge of our seats throughout the two-hour duration!
I have read many reviews and heard many critiques of this film, all sharing the opinion that it suffers from a lack of character and depth in its main protagonists. I understand this viewpoint and see where those of this opinion are coming from. But I wholeheartedly disagree in this particular case! I believe this is one such aspect of 'Dunkirk' that separates it from other war films and in turn, helps it succeed in creating the unique experience envisioned by its brilliant director! Believe me when I say that in most cases, I would lean towards the other side of this argument for most films I see! Well written characters, with brilliant actors to portray them are what I love most about movies and television series!(Hence why 'Breaking Bad' is my all-time favorite series!) But what this film might lack in its exploration of its main characters, it more than compensates with its character!
By giving the brilliant actors limited dialogue and less focused time on their social interactions, we are left to observe what is mostly their physical interactions with each-other and their environment. We as an audience get to watch the character of Dunkirk as an intense environment, with its harsh changing weather patterns and its threatening and vast bareness, open for enemy airstrikes! This gives everything that happens, and everything the characters do in the film, more of an urgency and a realism, as the dreaded clock relentlessly ticks with impending doom! There's no time for us to sit on the beach around a campfire with the characters, to hear clichéd war movie lines about their lovers waiting for them to come home!(THANK GOD! CRINGE!) Unlike the recent Mel Gibson film 'Hacksaw Ridge', which managed to re-use almost every clichéd army film line and trick in the book! 'Dunkirk' has brilliant performances given by talented actors without being a necessarily 'protagonist driven' narrative! It throws the 'How to make a war film' book away and that's what makes it brilliant and unique!
I have nothing but praise for the sound design of this film! If this wasn't produced well, the film wouldn't have had half the intensity it does! Hanz Zimmer did a great job along with all others involved, but I will be careful here! Most people have said "Hans Zimmer's SCORE is genius!" People tend to generalize when talking about film soundtracks either because they don't really know what they're talking about or they claim to know better! Being a musician myself makes this point very irritating! I think it more correct to say "Hans Zimmer's soundtrack is brilliant!", not his score! Soundtrack can refer to score also of course, but I like to separate these things for obvious reasons! Score refers to music! A musical score! Sheet music! No doubt there probably is an actual physical score for this film, but I can tell you now that it won't have much written on it that is very musical or musically complicated in any way!
In conclusion, 'Dunkirk' is an intense, gripping and emotional film that will make any viewer ponder a thought about what sacrifice is, or the value of life or the value of home for that matter! It's a film that is more than just entertainment. It felt so authentic that it doesn't even feel right to call it entertainment. 'Dunkirk' is based on a real event that took place during WW2, and so Christopher Nolan made the film an event! For this reason, it is probably not very re-watchable in some ways. It is unlike any of Nolan's previous films because Nolan wanted it to be so! Nolan creates films but he does it with a greater intention. He does it to create not just a film, but an experience! He is a man who has a love for traditional film-making while also wanting to progress it! He loves practical effects and the use of actual film and not digital. He wants to keep people coming to cinemas and to do that, he knows he has to make it worth our while. Therefore, he tries to create a film-viewing experience like no other for audiences! We need more visionary directors like him and less CGI mad directors! We need more unique films like this and less Marvel! Christopher Nolan is a masterful storyteller and I look forward to more of his work. "