A different kind of war film!

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 2017)

The anticipation for this film was pretty high before going into it, come on its Christopher Nolan directing and writing a war film, who wouldn't be excited for this. Not only directing a true story but Warner bros releasing the film in mid summer takes some guts, however did the film live up to all the hype.
I am pleased to say that this a new type of film for the genre of war, and what a breath of fresh air it is, however it still keeps the same traits that majority of war films have. Nolan has some how made a 12A rated war film that still has the tension and fear as any other 18 or R rated war film. He has really pushed the boat out on the sale and scope of this film as well as telling a really emotional heavy film at heart. The directing in this film is some of Nolan's best to date, the huge wide panning shots of the beach are stunning, especially with the hundreds of extras used, its works perfectly. The flip side of these wide shots are the extremely tight shots in the boats and in the cockpits of the aircraft, a fantastic contrast. His directing perfectly portrays a sense of claustrophobia which is incredibly tense and power especially with the boats sinking after torpedo strikes. The directing in a nut shell is sublime.
Christopher Nolan has written a film that doesn't have much dialogue or main characters, whilst in most films this would seem as a negative in Dunkirk it is a huge positive. By not having lots of dialogue and lots of scenes without any it amplifies the situation to a new level because the audience is forced to focus on the situation rather that specific characters. It is the first war film I can remember that doesn't focus on a main lead actor with lots of dialogue, and works so well. Instead of being like "Saving Private Ryan" or another film on those lines, you don't see an actor playing a solider you just see a solider. There is none of the pretentious inspirational speeches, its showing the grim reality of the situation that everyone finds themselves in and you don't need dialogue to understand what they are feeling. Finally the jumps in time and the method that the story is told works incredibly well and makes us the audience work to keep up and understand without being spoon fed information left right centre, what is going on. Multiple scenes shown through different perspectives throughout the film is really interesting way to tell a story and not conventional for a summer blockbuster, challenging the audience brilliant.
The writing links directly into the casting of this film, and what a brilliantly job they did with casting this film. The reason for not having many big name actors in the film is perfectly, because as mentioned earlier you as the audience are not seeing an actor, your seeing a solider. The casting of the "unknown" actors in the film plays as an advantage and they all give brilliant performances that are extremely realistic. The portrayals in the film made by well know actors whether that be Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance , Cillian Murphy or Tom Hardy are all still extremely good, but the fact that there roles a smaller makes you forget about who they are at times during the film.
The editing and score of this film are sublime to say the least, the editing in the spitfire dog fights is impeccable. The fast pace to the editing makes for a really intense ride for the audience and is really compelling, obviously coupled together with the amazing Hans Zimmer score which is out of this world. Whenever there is action in the film the editing and the score work perfectly in harmony and elevate the scenes no end, the tension in the film cause of this is nail biting.
All in all this film is really good however I would say that for Nolan its definitely not his best film that's not to say that its not any good. 85% out of 100 are really interesting take on the war genre that has no gore or overall bloody violence which is really refreshing and worked really well in the context. The directing, writing, acting, editing and score are all at the top of there game, this film was made to be watched on the big screen for the spectacle.