A monotonic and essentially dull film

Rating: 4/10 (20 July 2017)

I saw the film at the BAFTA screening in NYC on 18-July-2017. I went with some trepidation as my father was at Dunkirk (and my mother's first husband was a RAF pilot who was shot down during WW2). Much to my surprise I found the film rather boring. The vast majority of the action is extremely repetitive. The British soldiers trying to escape are continually thwarted in some way by water, holes in the hulls of the boats, followed by lots of swimming, standing/sleeping on the beach waiting for the next chance to do the same thing. This frustration is inter-cut with two other main story lines (not really stories, and that is the problem). RAF Spitfires coming over the Channel to help. Finally, the heroes of the rescue, the plucky small boats from the south coast, sensibly represented by one craft with three crew. The reality is this is film which we know what happens, as this is a historical truth - many soldiers are rescued by the small boats (I ticked spoiler in case you do not know this!). The inter-cutting of the latter two story lines with the soldiers is filmed is a poor way. First from a technical point of view - the no continuity of lighting. I know the weather is highly changeable in the Channel but the same scene is at once brightly sunlit, then cloudy, then grey, then sunlit within seconds. This happened so much that I wonder if they did it deliberately. Secondly, there is a slight historical non-linear telling of the three stories as they intersect. The idea is obvious to see the story from different points of view. But why? It is not as if the view points generate fundamentally different moral perspectives. However the core problem is there is no real narrative in the film. We do not get a chance to care in any way about the characters. This truth in stark contrast to much much better films about war. The simplest example to point to is "Mrs. Miniver", a truly great film about war and, as it happens, Dunkirk. There are many reviewers giving this new film 10 with 'greatest war I have ever seen'. With no narrative and scene scene showing the same thing, it cannot be. Other great war films: "The Grand Illusion" and "Apocalypse Now" and "Full Metal Jacket".