Nolan's War Epic

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2017)

War is Hell! That infamous phrase isn't necessarily the first thing you think when watching Chris Nolan's masterful World War 2 epic Dunkirk. Nolan isn't really interested here in the gratuitous and awful nature of war( Hacksaw Ridge take note) but instead relies on cinematic, visual storytelling in its purest form to bring home a more melancholic, elegiac tone. It still has shocks and suspense and although minimalist in certain scenes(the faceless enemy, the stripped back approach to explosions) its scale is huge. Nolan is almost a contradiction...he seems to blend an artistic, philosophical approach with a more bombastic and populist edge to wonderful fruition.
The characters in this movie are vaguely drawn but much like Mad Max Fury Road its all about the mannerisms, the looks that people give each other to convey emotions. Everyone is superb in this, even dare I say it, that young upstart from One Direction(that's one hell of an agent) but its Tom Hardy's spitfire pilot that bears the brunt of the emotional heft and has, by the last few scenes, become an integral part of the story( giving away no major spoilers). And this is an actor who's wearing a mask for almost the entirety of the movie.
Nolan has often been accused of a cold, clinical approach that disrupts the flow of his technical achievements to become something greater. Personally its far from the truth..Inception and Interstellar both contained father issues that were touching and tender and stayed the right side of tender and sentimental and even Insomnia had a very poetic underpinning with that mournful bittersweet ending. Although Dunkirk does perhaps tip near to that theory ironically, its within its last half hour that theory can be well and truly put to bed. Its simply stunning cinema thematically and structurally bringing about Nolans fetish for fiddling with time periods melding together cohesively.
There may well be the whiff of commercialism especially regarding the 12a certificate but this is more like those war films from the 50s and 60s that were not very violent and were more about grace and determination and spirit of soldiers in a seemingly hopeless scenario. Nolan knows how to create cinematic magic in a world which has become obsessed with cgi and over the top action set pieces and that in itself deserves recognition. The mainstream crowd are not all stupid.(take note Bay)
Dunkirk is intimate and tense with another superb Zimmer score(only once is it too overbearing) and many may want their War films dished up with blood n guts and profanity attached. But Dunkirk isn't about War or a particular genre..its a showcase for Nolan and how he now has a legacy behind him that the likes of Spielberg and Kubrick once knew. In Nolan we trust.