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Dunkirk (2017)

Dunkirk is a film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Whenever a Nolan film comes out, I am very excited. I am a fan of each and every film of his. So when I knew Nolan was going to direct a film on WW 2 I said "He is Nolan. He won't do anything straight." And that's what I got.

Plot: Set during World War 2, this focuses on the evacuation of soldiers trapped in Dunkirk.

Story and direction: Whenever I go to a Nolan film, I always expect to be surprised in every way. And Dunkirk is exactly that. It got me surprised in each and every scene. I don't expect less from a Nolan film. And since it is written by him too, you don't expect the story to be that simple. We get the story in 3 perspectives: Land, Air and Sea. And each of these have a time-line attached to them. And also we get the non linear narrative, which is Nolan's style. The most people have complained about little characterization. I don;t think we need characterization for a war film. In real time, we don't have time for any chitchat. And we don't also get to see any of the opposing forces. Which was also a change. The horror that someone is always behind you just to finish you off, was enough to keep me scared. Which I think Nolan got right. Then we have the vast production values. I heard that to minimize VFX extras and planes were actually used. Even if VFX was used, I couldn't know. It was seamless. Nolan gets a Hats Off from my side. Taking such a risk actually paid off. The sound design was awesome too. The gunshots, bombs, etc... I guess they sounded real as ever. I have never paid to sound design in any film except for this one. Ans finally Hans Zimmer. He is a genius. The BGM enhanced my interest in this film further.

Acting: I guess when it comes to casting Nolan nails it. Fionn Whitehead and Harry Styles were great in their roles. So as Jack Lowden and Tom Hardy. The amount of depth and conflict that Hardy's character faced every minute was riveting. Mark Rylance was exceptional. You could easily see the dedication on his face. Not to miss out Kenneth Branagh. He too was good in the limited role he had.

Favorite Scene: I guess it would be where Cillian Murphy's character says Dawson to turn around the boat. We get to see the horror a soldier has faced and why is he scared. And then Dawson says that he is just scared. He will get over it. That scene was just picture perfect.

Verdict: The film is very good but not excellent. In comparison to other war films the film is a shortfall. I actually can't fault it. Everything was perfect. But not to give it a 10.

I am going with a 9/10.

Dunkirk was an excellent movie in regards of the technical viewpoints. It had excellent direction, which is expected from someone as innovative as Nolan, it had a brilliant score by Hans Zimmer, a score that has resonated with me even now and ofcourse Hoytema's incredible cinematography. The one thing it did lack was characters, inspite of a talented cast comprising of Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy. Now they were fantastic in what they did but the movie had no lead person that you could root for, instead you root for the soldiers as a whole and despite the lack of a base character, it still had some incredibly dramatic moments amped up by the score. The lack of exposition only made the movie better as we are hooked into the war as soon as the movie begins and till the end, I was on the edge of my seat. It was a masterpiece in terms of filmmaking and Nolan brought all of his experience as a filmmaker to give us something that is beautiful and thrilling.

I love when a movie goes beyond their traditional notion of setting plots, background, past, future and boldly focus on the present to achieve something truly mesmerizing. Last time I had such feeling was Mad Max. The feeling continues with Dunkirk.
The movie hooked me from the first scene. The effects feel real rather than CGI based. Found out later that Nolan spends $5 million on a vintage Luftwaffe plane in order to crash it. The scenes were visually stunning. The chronology of 3 narratives was impressive (yes this is a movie, not a documentary, so don’t complain it was unnecessary). There is a constant nerve-racking tension throughout and watching it in IMAX feels like in the middle of war zone.