A Fresh and Inventive World War II Film

Rating: 8/10 (30 October 2019)

What director, Christopher Nolan, manages to do with Dunkirk is make a straightforward war movie feel fresh and original, by creating an unusual narrative structure. The film tells three intersecting stories. The stories are told from land, sea and air, taking place over a week, a day and an hour, respectively. This storytelling technique may seem unnecessarily complicated on paper, yet it works tremendously well on the screen.
The film does an incredible job of creating a realistic depiction of war, without the use of any blood or gore. This is done not only with the fantastic practical effects but also by the young actors in the film, who feel like they could be 18 or 19 years old, as opposed to 30-year-old actors who typically play teenagers in war movies. There is almost no backstories or character development for these soldiers, as one would expect from a film of this calibre. Instead, we are in the moment with these young men and do not have time to stop and talk about their lives before the war.
Hans Zimmer produces a masterful score once again. Like with his previous collaboration with Nolan for Interstellar, Zimmer incorporates a ticking clock into the music which builds tension and intensifies the action. It is, without a doubt, one of his finest scores.
The movie is very much a visual experience. There are no backstories for the characters and very little dialogue throughout the runtime. It is over 30 minutes before the film's "lead", Fionn Whitehead has his first line. The story is told primarily through images, which makes it feel refreshing.
The practical effects are phenomenal throughout the movie, whether it's the fantastic aerial battle or the action scenes that take place in the middle of the ocean. At no point do you question if any of the effects are CGI or if they were shot on a soundstage. The aerial battles, in particular, are jaw-dropping. Nolan, along with cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema film these sequences with IMAX cameras, which only increase the scale and make the action even more epic than it already is.
The editing of this movie is outstanding. The way in which it intercuts between the different stories, supported by Zimmer's music, is simply breath-taking.
The movie also borders on horror at some points, due to the intensity of the action. One scene in particular, where a German bomber is approaching the beach with thousands of soldiers running for their lives, is truly terrifying.
The movie isn't perfect, however. While the lack of backstory and
characterisation works, for the most part, you don't have the same emotional involvement as you would in other great war movies, such as Saving Private Ryan, for example. And although this film has minimal dialogue and exposition, one scene involving Kenneth Branagh explaining the situation felt a little forced. Finally, while the sequences shot in IMAX are stunning, the changing aspect ratios can be a little distracting at times.
Overall, however, this movie is an amazing cinematic experience, unlike anything I've seen in the cinema before. From a technical point of view, this film is a masterpiece. It deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible.