Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Matt F — 28 Jul 2017

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has seen any of Christopher Nolan's previous gems that Dunkirk is a thought provoking piece of cinema that is far beyond its time, but the way Nolan reaches this level of quality in Dunkirk is much different than how it is achieved in his other works.

A staple of nearly all of Nolan's past work is the powerful and emotionally impactful dialogue, which often manifests itself in grandiose speeches (take Gordon's speech at the end of The Dark Knight) or breathtakingly tense conversations between two characters (Dormer's confrontation with the suspect on the side of the road in Insomnia). These tend to be the moments that stick with us the most in Nolan's films, so how would he fare when making a movie with dialogue accounting for a very small portion of the runtime? Somehow, with one of his greatest assets no longer at his disposal, he thrives. The overall lack of dialogue not only adds to the realism, but makes the viewer grasp onto every last line of dialogue spoken, thus increasing the impact of each line. It also becomes evident that Nolan does not need heavy-handed dialogue to deliver meaningful exposition, but subtle imagery and the characters' actions deliver all we need to know about the entire situation and the people involved. This can be evidenced by minute inclusions such as Cillian Murphy's wedding ring, which is only depicted for a brief amount of time. Another fantastic scene which characterises our protagonists very well is the scene under the deck of the first destroyer to be torpedoed. While Harry Styles's character was quick to question the choice of the Frenchman to not follow the crowd, Tommy is equally quick to jump to his defense. This establishes Harry Styles's skepticism and Tommy's naivety, both of which will come into play later. Though it is true that all of the characters lack extreme depth and a solid arc, it is no accident. Nolan clearly wanted to focus on the events surrounding the characters, but that is far from a major detriment to the film's overall quality. The fact that the audience is not too emotionally invested in any of the characters is, of course, is far from what we as an audience want, but it was not Nolan's intention to make a character driven war film like Saving Private Ryan, his intention was to focus on the spectacle itself, and the result is breathtaking.

A lone familiar element of Nolan's previous work prevalent in Dunkirk is the non-linear storytelling method, which hasn't been so effective since Memento. Without spoiling too much, it plays into the film so subtly at first, only to later maximize the climax's intensity immeasurably.

The performances in Dunkirk are all inconceivably authentic, with the highlight being Tom Hardy, whose eyes alone provide what is arguably the best performance we have seen in 2017. Considering the scarcity of the dialogue, all of the cast members have to be exceptional at emoting, and they do not disappoint. Another standout was surprisingly Harry Styles, who somehow exceeded everybody's expectations in a very convincing debut performance.

On a technical level this film is nothing short of perfection. From the gritty, realistic camerawork (even implementing shaky cam properly), to the deafening and occasionally guttural sounds of the German bombardments, it is clear that nobody in the industry today is on Nolan's level when it comes to pure cinematography, editing, and implementation of sound. Hans Zimmer's score matches the brutality of the sound design and imagery as well, and the seamless way they are intertwined makes the already powerful moments infinitely more effective. It is an exemplary film when it comes to truly immersing the audience in the events taking place on the screen, and if I had to represent the experience in one word, "immersive" would be the one.

Overall, Dunkirk succeeded at everything it set out to do, and despite the characters being slightly underwritten, it shapes up to be yet another brilliant masterpiece in the already decorated filmography of Christopher Nolan.