One of the years best

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2017)

Dunkirk is a director's achievement.
It's in the way that Nolan stages a handful of brutally suspenseful sequences of peril with an unobtrusive grace that so many directors lack. He allows the camera to linger when others may have cut. He knows that there is no rush to get to the next scene or set up. The characters are stranded on the bleach shores of northern France. They are not going anywhere, so why should we. We can feel their frustration at being a stones throw away from England while the Nazi fighters and u-boat sink every vessel that attempts to get them off the beach.
Nolan has a rare ability to make the audience feel small though his placement of the camera and the depth of his frame. The wide shots are stunning, but without being distracting. That sea and the sky go on forever, which is as beautiful as it is intimidating because certain supporting characters are racing the clock to get to reach that spot on the distant horizon.
There are certain sequences of human drama spread across the film with many be small but they represent what is great. If you are looking for character in Dunkirk you may be disappointed. Similar to films like Gravity, the characters are us. The only distictive individual is Mark Rylance as a veteran sailor taking his boat across the channel to get some of the boys home. He is going on a virtual suicide mission with a casual demeanour that is some kind of extraordinary. It is as if he has convinced himself that if he fears than he fails. He represents what is the movie's strongest theme; the power of ordinary people. The soldiers get home on the private vessels and fishing boats of ordinary Englanders who were willing to heed the call.
The one weakness of the movie is the same as that of Nolans last two films, the sound mix is murky and the dialog often inaudible.