Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Kapten V — 31 Jul 2017

Ahh... Nolan. Who doesn't love Christopher Nolan, eh? One of the most acclaimed directors working today, a cinematic genius behind modern classics such as "The Dark Knight" trilogy, "The Prestige", "Inception" and "Interstellar"...

Well, I hate to be a party pooper (as always), but I have never shared the mad love every other movie fan I know has to share for him. I mean, his works are a'ight, but I never found them to be as great as everybody else seemed to think.

I guess I liked early Nolan the best - "Memento" and especially "Insomnia" -, when he was more interested in characters and building suspense than just creating the biggest baddest epics available.

Of course, Nolan is good at creating suspense and orchestrating action setpieces, but even his best works "Inception" and "Interstellar" have suffered from being overlong and pompous. Not to mention his third and last Batman which felt like a big pompous piece of crap.

Having written all that, I liked "Dunkirk" a lot. It's not only one of the finest movies of 2017 (so far), one of the most thoughtful war dramas I've seen, and also Nolan's best yet.

Although if you go to cinema expecting his usual, you may well leave disappointed, because this epic World War II tale is quite unlike anything we have come to associate him with.

After all these years, it must be supremely difficult to create a war drama with something fresh to show or say.

But Nolan is not afraid of challenges, and he has managed to pull off a movie which is both epic and intimate, artsy and mainstream-friendly, adrenaline-filled and deep at the same time. It's what the movie lovers always wait for but rarely get: a thinking man's blockbuster.

"Dunkirk" shows the experience of war from the another angle rarely seen or thought of, at least in movies. It's about human frailty, loneliness, isolation and enduring the limbo between chaos and salvation that war is made of.

Of course, there's also enough explosions and eye-candy, but the whole thing is rather artsy in a good way. Not much dialogue or clearly defined events too, just people waiting (because there's nothing else left for them to do) and trying to survive.

There is not even a single clearly-defined central character, although there are several main storylines to follow, sometimes not in chronological form.

The story is about thousands of Allied troops surrounded by enemy forces, trapped on the beach and waiting for rescuing.

We have some well-known actors here, such as Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh and Cillian Murphy, but it's not really an actor's movie (ie, meant to let somebody shine) but fitting everything into a carefully crafted cinematic mosaic.

Speaking about war part, I especially loved the flight and air battle scenes. The immediacy, the sound effects. Also the fact that they were often made from pilot's viewpoints, so it feels more realistic. The pilot shoots and we see target plane catching fire only after a while, for example.

All in all, Dunkirk" is the Nolan movie that has touched me the most. It's about real things, emotions and experiences, and the action is thrillng. Another beautiful achievement for one of the most liked and successful auteurs working in mainstream cinema today.

Watched it in IMAX which probably add something to the experience, at least from technical standpoint. But it's surely a good looking and sounding movie on any screen or setup, methinks.