Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Bigdegs29 — 24 Jul 2017

Dunkirk is more a visual and auditory treat than a great movie. It tells its story not through dialogue, but largely through powerful visuals: the anguished and fearful looks on the faces of the characters, the hopeless waiting on the beaches by masses of people, the frustration of the fighter pilot, the panic of the drowning, and so on.

While it kept me entertained, I think most people are heaping acclaim on the movie simply for this novel way of approaching things. To me, doing things a new way does not automatically a masterpiece make. For some reason, the director unnecessarily played around with the timeline. You'll see a flip from daytime to nighttime and back again between scenes. I think the director dispensed with a coherent timeline in favor of portraying a certain emotional feeling, but it doesn't always work well.

As visual storytelling, it does a great job. On any other level, it's simply decent. If you're interested, go see it in theaters. Unless you have a good sound system, you'd be missing out on half the experience otherwise.