Focussing on the event, not on the characters, with a couple of problems

Rating: 7/10 (30 July 2017)

We get to see the Dunkirk evacuation from land, air and sea, without getting too attached to any of the characters, which worked fine for me.
A WEEK: The land guys are a bunch of soldiers trying repeatedly to get on a boat to England, but ending in worst trouble every time. Some claustrophobic moments in sinking ships are quite uncomfortable. The evacuation lasted a week so we get the feeling of a long wait.
ONE DAY: On the sea, we follow the story of one of the many civilians who helped carrying soldiers back to England with their own boats. The two-way journey lasted one day, so the experience was different.
ONE HOUR: The RAF pilots add more seasickness opportunities, with their daring manoeuvres to protect their stranded comrades. Their tanks could support one hour of flight, and this is the third, different view point.
For the above mentioned reasons, the plot is not edited in chronological order, which was slightly annoying, but there was enough tension to keep the story going without a dull moment. If you like character-driven stories you will not like this, but I appreciated the lack of personal stories and the focus on the general, dismal feeling of defeat.
Two small problems: the beach was too quiet, with relatively few soldiers waiting for a ride home. Over 300.000 soldiers were evacuated from Dunkirk, but we see at most a few hundreds waiting on the beach. Finally, the soundtrack was overbearing. It is clear it was a dramatic event without the need to have it hammered home with the hyper- dramatic, anxiety-inducing music.
PS I know Nolan did not want to use CGI, but in this case some extra men on the beach would have added realism, rather than the opposite...