Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Subseq — 31 Jul 2017

There is a phenomenon in filmmaking these days I like to call the "Gravity" effect, named after the ridiculous Sandra Bullock film in which a truckload of spiffy CGI and cinematography was wrapped around a nifty space premise producing a preposterous and scientifically implausible bore.

It seems to have taken over Hollywood, and "Dunkirk" is its latest manifestation. As a history teacher very familiar with the Dunkirk story, I was eager to see the intense drama exhibited on the big screen, and superlative reviews from everyone assured me it had to be good.

Nope - it was just like "Gravity". There was no story, it was merely one perilous situation after the other. Over and over and over again, people I could not care less about were in danger. In "Gravity" it was Sandra Bullock in space, here it was British troops in the waters off the coast of France.

Over and over and over - interminable anguish splashed in our faces. While Christopher Nolan's technical work with the CGI and film editing was terrific, I can't believe he didn't just sit back and say, "With all this filmmaking technology at our fingertips why have a engaging story with flowing plot lines and defined characters? Let's just pound them with the horrors of war and make it so the viewer can FEEL IT.

" (Needless to say do not see this film if you are aquaphobic.) There were also the extraordinarily annoying scenes like those when the car doesn't start and you need to drive off to avoid something very bad - in this movie it was the gun that malfunctions or the hatch on the plane won't open as it sinks into the sea.

Please. Then there is the completely unnecessary tussle on a small pleasure yacht that results in the death of a sympathetic character - oh my. Sorry but I'm sick of directors taking my feelings and ruthlessly yanking them for the purpose of trying to tell us what a grand filmmaker they are.

At least Nolan didn't move the camera all around making the scenes artificially jagged and distorted - thank you! Still, after the 57th time we had to tortuously endure wondering whether or not people were going to die horrific deaths - this one having to do with men in the water trying not to let the surface flames reach their oil-soaked bodies - I was done.

I left. So yeah, count this one among "My Blue Heaven" and "Grease" as one of those terrible films that I actually walked out on.