A technical masterpiece and proof that Nolan is one of the absolute best filmmakers today...

Rating: 9/10 (9 January 2018)

Christopher Nolan's latest film, "Dunkirk", sees the director's take on a topic he has not made a film about since now, namely war. Depicting "The Battle of Dunkirk", Nolan's vision for the film is pretty unique and makes it possibly one of the best war films I have ever seen. Nolan has had the idea of making this film before his film career skyrocketed with The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception and Interstellar and it is very apparent that he handled this project with care and wanted to make the best possible film he could about the fascinating story. Additionally, Nolan set out to make a realistic and intense war film, instead of one filled with needless violence (not that that can't be an enjoyable factor and can add to a film if it makes sense, as it did with Mel Gibson's recent film "Hacksaw Ridge").
The thing that Nolan did with this film is put the characters in a life-threatening situation and portrayed the characters' fight for survival as intense as he could while letting you know what you need to know about the soldiers through their actions and not through clichèd dialogue. Working once again with legendary composer Hans Zimmer, the soundtrack is expectedly amazing, Zimmer implements a ticking of a watch sound throughout the whole soundtrack (an idea of Nolan's) that really added to the tension and feeling of time running out. One track in particular titled "Supermarine" is one of my favourites, as with previous Zimmer tracks from Inception and Interstellar, it builds and builds and when it kicks in, it's completely riveting and its use during one intense dogfight scene in the film just reminded me of why Zimmer is one of the best if not the best composer working today. Also returning to work with Nolan is dutch cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, who worked on Nolan's previous film, "Interstellar". Hoytema manages to make "Dunkirk" absolutely gorgeous, despite the topic of the film being war, its colours perfectly fit its tone and the film is overall a technical masterpiece. It also boasts a terrific cast, with actors returning from previous Nolan films like Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy while also having other great actors such as Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance. Newcomers Fionn Whitehead and Harry Styles are also fantastic in their roles as 2 british soldiers who are right in the middle of the evacuation and in constant danger. Another thing worth mentioning is the 106 minute run time, normally Nolan's films are around 140-180 minutes and I could've easily watched around another hour of "Dunkirk", yet I feel Nolan ended the film before it would've started to drag, even though the pacing is magnificent throughout the whole film and never slows down. By the end of the film I remember audibly saying "Wait, it's already over?" and being amazed at how I had just watched 1 hour and 46 minutes of an intense war film that felt more like 1 hour and 20 minutes. All in all, "Dunkirk" is momentarily one of my absolute favourite films of the 2017, the doubts I had of Nolan tackling a subject such as war beforehand were all put to rest after seeing this latest masterpiece of his and I recommend it very much. It is an immensely gripping film with a fascinating way of telling its story while avoiding clichés that you'd normally see in a war film, jaw-droppingly beautiful shots and cinematography, some of the best music composed for a film I've heard this year, a perfect run time with excellent pacing and a cast that offers some great performances. If I had to name any flaws, I'd say there were a few editing choices I wasn't the biggest fan of, but they were few and far between that they had pretty much no effect on the film whatsoever. If you love war films or just films in general, you have to check this one out.