Dunkirk is largely considered to be one of the biggest military disasters of all time. Nearly 400,000 Allied troops were stranded on the beaches of France, with German soldiers advancing rapidly, and only 30,000 of them expected to be rescued. That is until the British government sent out a call for civilian boats to help aid the effort and the call was answered by hundreds. Dunkirk, the movie, tells you this true story from three different perspectives: land, sea and air. On land we follow Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), in the air we ride along with Farrier (Tom Hardy) and on the sea we accompany Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance). For being a story about the largest war ever fought, Dunkirk is an intimate experience. However, being a Christopher Nolan film, the story isn't told in a linear fashion and each perspective spans a different space of time with all three timelines converging at the end. This is slightly confusing at times, but it will all make sense in due time.
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| Poster for Dunkirk |
There isn't much in the way of writing in this film. In fact, in a recent interview, Christopher Nolan said the 1 hour and 46 minute movie had a seventy six page script. Instead, Dunkirk is carried on three fronts: the visuals, the sounds and the casting. Although this is a war movie, it is not told in the same way as Saving Private Ryan or, more recently, Hacksaw Ridge. Immersion in the film doesn't rely on gore and guts, rather the sheer intensity of a fighter aircraft coming in your direction with no indication of it's loyalty and then zooming past with it's engines roaring after it's target. This is shown in some of the most beautiful frames of film I have ever seen. And in IMAX the experience is taken to the next level. Looking at the vast seascape underneath a plane and the rows of troops lined up to evacuate gives you a sense of the scale of the event. For that very reason hundreds of extras were cast in the movie and watching it on a small screen, although still beautiful, wouldn't give you the intended experience. Also the film gets especially eye-catching towards the latter half with some superb cinematography implemented in the air and land sequences.
It should be no surprise that a Christopher Nolan film has great sound, but Dunkirk has to be one of his best. Every gunshot and Spitfire flyover is loud and believable. (Oh, and the first gun shot in the film will surely make you jump if the audience reaction in the theater I went to was any indication.) Unlike most films, where gun shots sound pretty casual as our ears have gotten used to their use over the years, Dunkirk's sound design takes the sound effect to a startling level of realism. You never see the guns firing the bullets, but their impact and lethality is made apparent from the start. As for Hans Zimmer's score it is amazing as usual. Although, the soundtrack never jumps to center stage as it does in Nolan's previous films. (Anyone who watched Interstellar will know the goosebumps and sense of awe from watching the docking scene.) Instead it only kicks in during a few scenes and is mostly used to signal a transition.
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| Still from Dunkirk with (left to right) Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard and Fionn Whitehead. |
The cast of Dunkirk is very good in their slightly unconventional roles. Given that they don't have much dialogue, their job is to naturally react to their surroundings and the impact lands. Not giving the cast too many dialogues feels appropriate for the situation at hand and the cast of mostly new faces, like Fionn Whitehead (Tommy) and Barry Keoghan (George), handles their scenes well. There is also Mark Rylance, who is great as a civilian heading over to Dunkirk to help bring back soldiers, and Tom Hardy, who at this point is just amazing at acting only with his eyes. Harry Styles is also good in the movie and handles his part with surprising maturity. You don't see a former boy band member in him while watching, only a man desperate to make it home alive. The only problem with this though is that due to the lack of dialogue there is not a whole lot in the way of character development. I don't actually think the main character's name, Tommy, is ever mentioned in the film. This doesn't hurt the film too much because there probably weren't too many pleasantries going around during the war anyway and you don't wish for the characters to live any less.
In the end, Dunkirk is one of the best films of 2017. Christopher Nolan takes a huge risk, having most of the film rely on visuals and sound rather than dialogue, and it mostly pays off. The film is immersive and breath-taking, however, it is not for everyone. Dunkirk does not have the characters of The Dark Knight Trilogy nor the emotional grip of Interstellar. Instead, Dunkirk is a haunting retelling of a terrifying war story that is as scary as it is stunning.
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