Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Jake S — 25 Jul 2017

To have such a high RT score, I watched the film with high expectations. An astonishing 93% out the gate on opening weekend. I came out the theater utterly disappointed. Even though it's visually stunning, that does not mean it's a great film. There was little to no dialogue throughout the movie that I felt like I could write the entire script in a 140 character tweet. Minutes upon minutes will go by without a single word. Just sad ominous music and different camera shots of soldiers being terrified. Editing in this film was horrendous and confused not only me but my entire party that came to see this film. We didn't know what was real time and what was a flashback.

This movie focused heavily on trying to make it as "real" as possible. With that being said, they completely forgot about grabbing the audience and making them feel some type of emotion to the deaths of some of the characters. When people died within the movie I had no connection to them. We did not know a single thing about these men. You get dropped into a bunch of strangers that for the sake of the movie you just have to force yourself to connect with (or try to in any case). But no connection was found between me and the characters of the movie. You use all these types of sad sappy music to draw emotion to the audience, but with no connection to the characters you're trying to show, we just felt awkward watching some random bloke die in front of us.

The only reason this movie doesn't get a 1 star is on the pure fact that this movie has to be one of the most visually stunning war movies in the past decade. When the fighting was going on and the intensity was kicking off, you feel it. You embrace the danger of war. The screeching of those German planes coming down to do air raids on the beach made you genuinely terrified.

(Fun fact about the screeching noise from the plane: Hitler put a device in the plane to make that noise. It wasn't from the engine. It was a psychological play from the Germans. Which worked because once soldiers heard that noise, they were too scared to lift up their weapons. That noise alone made them bunker down in their foxholes/ ditches.).

This movie overall needs a lot of work on the story and characters. They have the visuals on point. But like I said, visuals alone doesn't make it a good movie. Script, characters, connection with the audience, and editing all play vital parts to make a movie succeed and I honestly believe Dunkirk succeeded in only one.