Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Matthew A — 30 Jul 2017
It is partly due to the massive hype that I was so thoroughly disappointed with this film. All the claims of realistic portrayal of panic, horror and grim determination at the face of certain death simply were not there.
Or rather, these themes did appear, yet only superficially. There are several films that have done it just as well or better. We did not get attached to the characters because there really wasn't any reason to.
Yes, there were vaguely thrilling moments, but overall one did not really care about what happened to any of them. If anything this was a bog standard war film without actual infantry combat. It somehow managed to be tedious while clocking in at under 2 hours.
Long silent cuts are a great tension building tool, but you cannot make a whole movie using one strategy as a crutch and a professional should know this, as should all the critics fawning over it. Constant long silent cuts do not automatically make a movie deep and meaningful, it is in fact superficial and lazy.
This review of Dunkirk (2017) was written by Matthew A on 30 Jul 2017.
Dunkirk has generally received very positive reviews.
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