Did our soldiers sacrifice for this?

Rating: 8/10 (28 July 2017)

Director/Writer Christopher Nolan ("Batman" and "The Dark Knight" series) is no stranger to big budget/loud productions, and for that reason he should know that actors need to mic'd correctly in order to understand their dialogue. However, in "Dunkirk," at least three-quarters of the films dialogue is in audible due to the period accents of it's actors and the continuous gun battles, overhead plane attacks, sinking and colliding ships, rough sea sounds and more. Does this ruin the film or storyline, not really, but it surly doesn't help. "Dunkirk," if anything, is a visual film that takes the audience on a journey of survival as its young Belgium, British Empire and French soldiers find themselves evacuated on the ocean front (Dunkirk, France) as the German's attack from land, sea and sky and they await their rescue. The film is filled with a variety of familiar names (Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Harry Styles, relative new comer Fionn Whitehead), along with a whole slue of handsome young men, all who do a great job dodging bullets, leaping from sinking ships, evacuating from downed planes and swimming for their lives. However, throughout the film I kept finding myself fighting my own battle to understand the dialogue. Tragic as the films story was, at the end of the film I couldn't help feel sorry for the soldiers (deceased and survived) knowing that they experienced such trauma to today be represented by a self-center administration as we find ourselves involved with. While the acting is good, special effects terrific, cinematography outstanding and the score is haunting, "Dunkirk" is not the film so many are making it out to be. The disappointment here lies in the hands of the director and sound department.