Review of Dunkirk (2017) by William H — 24 Jul 2017

Dead-kirk: Almost dead on arrival, not even close to being in the same league as 'Saving Private Ryan,' 'Platoon,' 'Hacksaw Ridge,' or other Great War films. Nolan is totally overrated as both a writer and a director - his only great film was Batman Begins. I almost walked out from boredom and because the psychotically pulsating musical score was driving me crazy. No context, no real information about the event - just a haphazard series of scenes with little character development. Ugh! For example, you would never know that Winston Churchill became Prime Minister just 10 days before this event and that the entire war could have been lost for Britain/France except for the daring rescues. Or that the evacuation was called, 'Operation Dynamo,' or that any one of the three rescue vessel escape routes involved travel of over 70 miles through bombardment, ocean mines, or submarine torpedoes. I guess this movie works for some in the video game generation, but for my money anyone who says this is in the same league as other great films is someone I won't listen to in the future. The tragedy of the movie/story is you don't know anything more about the battle of Dunkirk coming out than you did going in...Had Dunkirk unfolded differently Nazi Germany might today control Europe and the US might never have fought WWII...

Save your time and money and watch A Bridge Too Far, or Battle of the Bulge. Then read the Wikipedia entry on Dunkirk - I guarantee it will be far more moving.