Dunkirk is war itself, long periods of boredom interrupted by periods of intense activity.

Rating: 5/10 (5 August 2017)

For some reason, given this films antecedent director / cast / crew history, I expected Dunkirk to be a bit of a Marmite, and I wasn't disappointed. Or rather, I was. The story of Dunkirk must surely demand a massive canvas, within which the myriad of individual characters stories can and must be be drawn, but for me only the latter were played out to a backdrop of something of a day at the seaside with occasional bits of chaotic interference provided by an anonymous foe. There's no cast of Hundreds and Thousands in this confection. That said, those incidents of conflict are exactly what I would expect from a director of Nolans pedigree, up close, multi faceted, slamming, highly personal, and rammed home by thumping sound effects that are the perfect foil to Zimmers delicate and uplifting score, but for me the sum of these parts most certainly do not exceed the whole. Then, Integrity is all when handling history at its best. Modern floppy hairstyles and a mooring line clearly attached to a Royal Navy ship foundering "at sea" made me gasp for all the wrong reasons, that and the protracted flight of the superb Tom Hardys Phoenix that must surely rival the "magic bullet' for historical incredulity. Dunkirks cast is a brave mix of old and new. The twain only rarely meet, with little screen crossover between the youngsters headed by the competent Harry Styles, and the old guard stoically represented by a committee of leading men who seem to deliberately underplay their roles in the manner of the one and only Mark Rylance but are devoid of his presence and depth. I'm sorry, but without all the 'little boats' (such as they were) this film could have been anywhere. Over the years I have come to accept that occasionally history will not be allowed to get in the way of a good story, but this has neither. For me, this version of one of the most pivotal and chaotic engagements in our history has completely failed to engage.