Christopher Nolan may be one of the most talented filmmakers working today.
He redefined the superhero genre with his Dark Knight trilogy, adapted the novel “The Prestige” to critical acclaim and has been the force behind some of the biggest crowd-pleasing intellectual films of the last few decades (“Interstellar,” “Memento,” “Inception”). Now, he is tackling an event where over 300,000 soldiers were evacuated from the Dunkirk beach in just eight days in World War II.
“Dunkirk” has lofty ambitions. Any film attempting to tell a story of such magnitude will face challenges, but Nolan’s pursuit of the physical and practical paid off in helping to create a breathing and believable film. Soldiers rarely talk to each other, simply allowing intensity of the situation play out. The naturally painful nature of the proceedings prevents “Dunkirk” from feeling like a war film.
Psychological thriller fits it much better, and this idea is compounded by the film's best aspects - its cinematography and sound. Composer Hans Zimmer has made delightful use of the Shepard’s Tone concept to add to the anxiety of the film.
The sound of notes rising ever higher coupled with back-and-forth reflective shots adds to the film’s sense of dread. Scenes shot from the air will show bodies flailing to escape from a sinking ship at one moment before smoothly transitioning to gorgeous waves with sunlight twinkling off. It feels eerie.
Despite the lofty ambitions and gorgeous physical nature of “Dunkirk,” its unconventional storytelling proves to be its weakest link. Shown from three perspectives - land, air and sea - Nolan switches between story lines as the events unfold. However, this still doesn’t happen in a linear way.
One ship is hit by a bomb and sinks, and it isn’t until 35 minutes later that we see this event happen again. It leads to more confusion than the film needs, made more confusing since this out-of-order technique is only used for a handful of scenes.
Dialogue within the story is great as it once again adds to the anxiety of the situation. The dialogue could have fit on maybe ten pages of script. This allows a lot of visual storytelling to be done.
Soldiers tell a lot with their eyes, and things are merely enforced with dialogue, as opposed to being over-explained. The audience is given just enough.
Nolan also avoids the sugarcoating that tends to happen with most Hollywood war films. When people die, they die. Rarely does the camera linger on any one body or face for too long.
A boat is bombed, it sinks, and the characters we do follow from then on just survive. The physical nature of the sets and props helps to impact this as well. Planes shoot with worn-out reticles. Scenes are set in real planes and oceans. Nothing feels clean or efficient. It feels raw.
Do not see “Dunkirk” if you expect a war film. “Dunkirk” is a powerful, psychological film that doesn’t glorify or glamorize its subject. The beauty of its visuals and practical effects, as well as its amazingly human emotion and musical score helps to balance out its unconventional and occasionally cohesive narrative structure. “Dunkirk” is raw, beautiful and worth seeing on the big screen. 4/5