Relentless, realistic, unforgettable

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2017)

I'm a huge Nolan fan. Almost all of his films are in the IMDb top 250 and deservedly so if you ask me. Dunkirk lives up to his high standards but it's different from anything he's done before, including the fact that it's based on real events (during World War II no less).
It's a pure movie. It captures events as accurately as possible with little artistic "interpretation". The enemy acts like the shark in Jaws or the Joker in The Dark Knight, they appear at any time, without a face, and cause havoc, fear and destruction. The planes in particular are terrifying as they scream from afar and get 10 times louder when they pass overhead, dropping bombs or strafing along the way. The soldiers drop in anticipation. Most of them get back up once it's gone. Also, it captures the loudness of the bullets and explosions in a way that I think hasn't been done before. It's in-your-face from the beginning.
Many films try to affect us by having characters *emote* and tell us their thoughts and feelings. Nolan understands that evoking emotions is really about creating striking images and situations with characters we can relate to. No-one screams out "NOOOO!" or sobs as a friend says their last words. It's like classical music in its restraint. The movie is emotion-less in a way but I found it powerful and moving. I don't need "sad music" and melodramatic acting to tell me to cry. Simply understanding what is happening and why, how it relates to world history and what I might do in such a situation is enough. We feel the continually alternating terror and relief of the characters all the way along.
There is little if any CGI in the movie (I can't tell because all of it looks completely real). It's depressing the extent to which movies depend on CGI these days. It frequently doesn't look real at all and can take you right out of a movie (the Justice League trailer shown before Dunkirk was a good example of this). As a result, Dunkirk looks spectacular.
The music makes use of ticks (from Nolan's personal watch), constantly reminding us of the scarcity of time and the impending doom surrounding the soldiers. Like the opening of The Dark Knight, there's a lot of string ostinati, gradually building tension as the events unfold and lives are on the line.
The movie is made up of three main aspects/locations which unfold in parallel but on different timescales: land (a week), sea (a day) and air (an hour). Nolan has done this several times now. In Inception, dream layers occur at different paces from each-other and reality. In Interstellar, time dilation causes great discrepancies in the passage of time between characters. Memento is made of two main story-lines (one going forwards and one backwards) which eventually meet. Many of the climaxes in his Batman trilogy involve multiple events occurring in parallel. Dunkirk similarly cuts between multiple lines but it is easy to follow and it helps build suspense and connect the parts of the story.
There is little dialogue. And that's appropriate, there isn't much to talk about. Characters exchange looks and that's all they need. They're alive. The stranger next to them may as well function as their best mate for now but who knows what will transpire.
Dunkirk is a profound experience. It doesn't try to be beautiful or sad or triumphant but just real. And yet, I think it's all of those things. It's thought-provoking and haunting. It's about one of the darkest periods in human history and the biggest evacuation of all time. It's incredible film-making and a serious contender for Best Picture IMO.