Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Stefanie R — 26 Dec 2017

First of all this is very unconventional war movie. The movie itself has some stunning imagery and very impressive scenes. The lack of dialogues lets the viewer fills in lines and with that kind of silence Christopher Nolan lets the viewer fills in emotions and this kind of reminds me of the movie Thin red line.

It is completely apolitical. And with the style Nolan took I don't resent him that. I don't think this is the question of political correctness. And from this point on the movie differentiates from the rest.

The movie feels more like a myth than a record of historical event. Of course it is a record of historical event to some extent. But it is more like watching Greek mythology. Where soldiers are trapped in the land of the dead and shores of Dunkirk are just the entrance of the Hades' underworld where he with his two brothers Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Zeus, the god of the sky, tries to seal the fate of soldiers.

And English channel is the only way in and out of the underground. All the small boats remind us of Greek mythology but instead of sailing people into the underworld here were trying so save them from certain death.

Because soldiers were on the other side in Hades' realm they were powerless even though there were 400.000 of them. They were half alive and half dead. They seem mostly indifferent. It's like most of them were under some kind of spell.

Waiting, doing nothing, without true emotions and feelings just some gloomy dark fear was tearing them apart. And from that perspective the movie is again one masterpiece from Christopher Nolan.