Dunkirk

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2017)

Dunkirk Review
While this is a really good movie, Dunkirk is not your typical war film. It's not about heroes and winning battles but rather a movie about survival. The end message is that surviving a war is simple enough, you don't have to have won. The movie is about the British evacuation of Dunkirk, and the German's bombing them before they can do so. Like other films that director Christopher Nolan has done (ex. Memento), the movie is not told in a linear or chronological order. There are three stories going, that don't intersect until the end of the movie.
There are the characters on the beach that are trying to leave on ships that keep getting bombed. Then there are the civilians from London that sail to Dunkirk to try and help rescue men. The third story is the shortest and that's the Airman shooting down the German planes, to prevent them from bombing more ships. It's not a complicated story line but it helps to know that each story is not taking place at the same time until the end.
The movie is not driven by dialogue, in fact, there is little dialogue. Instead, the sound and spectacular visuals are what drive the story. The sound of the guns and bombing contrasted with silence are there to give a sense of experience to the situation the characters are facing. Because the movie is not about winning a war, it has no real political agenda or alliance. In fact, we never even see any German soldiers up close. The details of the war are not what Nolan focuses on which is what makes it a very different war film.
As far as the story goes it's very compelling and sad to see the characters trying to do their best to merely survive and get back home to London. Overall this is a good movie, but you should go into it knowing what to expect. It's a movie that slowly builds tension and has little dialogue between the characters. It's a drama, not an action movie that is meant to engage the audience in the experience of the events that take place.