Better than Dirt

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2017)

Now don't let the title fool you. I loved this film, but on our way home after seeing it, my brother, father and I discussed the grain on the film stock (we saw it on 70 mm, which was pretty cool), and we joked that it looked dirty and he coined the phrase "better than dirt".
But let's get on topic, Dunkirk is an incredible film, and maybe Christopher Nolan's best, it's certainly up there. I think I would have to rate The Dark Knight and Inception higher, but Dunkirk could be in the Top 5 Chris Nolan films.
As you probably would expect from Christopher Nolan, the film is a technical masterpiece. It was shot on 70 mm and IMAX, and boy did it pay off. The picture looked great, shot by the great Hoyte van Hoytema. It was also edited by Lee Smith and scored by Hans Zimmer. I really hope the film gets a lot of awards consideration in the technical categories, because they really deserve it.
The level of suspense in this film is on an awesome scale. You're almost always on the edge of your seat, just waiting for something bad to happen. And when something happens, you definitely hear the noise and the music very clearly. It was actually so high that at one point, my brother who has sensitive hearing, had to hold his ears because it was so loud.
I know the biggest criticism of the film is that people didn't care that much about the characters, because there is very little dialogue and the film starts right in the middle of it all, skipping all sorts of exposition. I can totally understand where they're coming from and that is definitely the weakest part of the film. But the reason why I cared about the characters was because Nolan did such a great job at creating a creepy atmosphere and you're just rooting for the soldiers to survive, and ultimately I think of the film really as an experience.
I also want to give a quick shout-out to the historical accuracy. Now I can't say I Know the entire story of Dunkirk back to front, but I am aware of certain facts. It was really nice to see the French being depicted as the ones that were defending the beaches and many of them were sacrificed to let everyone else live. It would have been easy to exclude them, but Nolan is way too smart for that.
So to conclude this review: Dunkirk is a great movie in a long line of great Christopher Nolan films. Probably the best war movie since Saving Private Ryan, and it was one of the best movie going experiences I've ever had. If you can see the film on 70 mm or on IMAX, do yourself a favor and watch it.
My final score, 9/10