Not your typical war film, but a film about survival

Rating: 10/10 (4 March 2019)

Usually when you watch a war film the first thing that comes to mind is a couple soldiers sitting around a campfire talking about how they miss something about home. But this film isn't like that. We get a full emersive experience of what war itself was like. Nolan structured his film on 3 different perspectives which consist of The Air, The Land, and The Sea. The Air perspective is obviously the air force, and the lead pilot is played by noneother than Tom Hardy. The second perspective was The Sea and that story is told by a Sailor and two young adult boys who seek to set out on a dangerous journey to rescue the soldiers from Dunkirk beach. And finally the third and most centered aspect of the film's perspective is The Mole, and this one is probably the most significant because its about the survivors, the ones that had to endure watching other soldiers get killed in action, and towards the end of the film, we see that all three of these different perspectives aren't told at the same time but we see them unite towards the end as they all get rescued and the last pilot in the sky finishes his last mission. Now of course I was confused when watching this for the first time in theaters because it took place at different times and I was a bit confused with the film but then I found out during a second viewing that it was all done intentionally to blend into one long story told at different times to show what would happen to each character as the story was told. Like almost tell the audience each perspective story arc.
This was a beautiful film, especially towards the end when all the soldiers got rescued and witnessed what Tom Hardy's character did. The triumph of being rescued was exhilirating to watch. And don't even get me started on that score from The Great Hans Zimmer that had me and my mom at the edge or our seats for most of the movie especially with that ticking theme, Zimmer was so clever for that. You can never go wrong with the insane duo of Nolan & Zimmer. I honestly wish this film had won best motion picture instead of stinkin' Shape of Water which was far from being an oscar-worthy film, but of course the academies will just look at this film as a typical war film that lacks character development, but thats not what its about.