Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Willy M — 01 Aug 2017

Dunkirk delivers a well-rounded theatre experience that will be nearly impossible to translate to the small screen.

Perhaps my expectations were too high, but Dunkirk really didn't come close to meeting them. Nolan's first (and likely only) hand at a WWII epic is carried by masterful cinematography almost to a fault.

An evasive chronology almost necessitates the Zimmer score which often times seemed like a lawyer leading a witness. In this film, the Germans are entirely faceless, lingering in the skies above and the streets behind, and there is nary a mention of the enemy in the film, which I found odd.

I expected to come out of the theatre with an easy 4 to 5 star review, but this film lacked most of what makes an epic WWII film...epic. There were over 300,000 casualties in the nine day evacuation, but thus film focuses on the survival of a select few, without ever humanizing them.

I want to say that this film needs an R rating to deliver what I was expecting, but I suspect that given the narrative and theme Nolan was pursuing, PG-13 was on the money.

If you're expecting a depiction of the utter desperation and suffering of the soldiers at Dunkirk, you will be as disappointed as I was. If you can see the film for what it is, you'll likely come away loving it.