Reviews & Ratings for
Dunkirk (2017)

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Mangoman reviewed Dunkirk
When the Sheep sink...
Nolan is a magician who knows how to sell average for a premium and has a support of rabid loyalists who amplify the PR artillery. Those who don't belong to the loyalist fraternity, succumb to the peer pressure of agreeing to praise even forgettable, unoriginal work. I can definitely say neither this is his best work nor the film the best film of summer. It never picks up! Yes, the background score is great and definitely will win an Oscar for best score, design or editing but the film is not much about to take home.

Nolan is genius "product maker" and now a "better marketer", a rare case where the consumer is held responsible (considered dumb, juvenile, ignorant, gawky etc) if he doesn't find the product good and not Nolan. Moreover, the mistakes and flaws are celebrated as deliberate strokes of mastery. I saw countless articles floating on internet dubbing it as "the best war film ever", "best work of Nolan" etc.. There are better works on a backdrop of war than Dunkirk but never received praise as much this play fetch movie did. Hollow and shallow would be correct adjectives and not masterpiece and genius when describing average works.
You might wonder I haven't talked about the plot or characters, or the play with timelines and vantage point: the mole, the ship, and the air since there is not much to talk about. Especially the characters,

PS: no doubt the film is technically strong, be it the score, visual effects(quite a good amount) or camera work, the whole film is immersive.

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Intense and Insightful!
Dunkirk Movie Review:
From his very first film (Memento) Chris Nolan has been obsessed with using TIME as his narrative tool. From Batman Begins, The prestige to Interstellar, he has used this tool effectively many times.
So his effort in contributing to the WAR film Genre also uses this narrative tool.
THIS is NOT A Spoiler….
The movie runs in three separate stories.
1. The beach – Plays out over a week.
2. The Boat – Plays out over the course of a day
3. The Place – Takes place in the span of an hour.
If the viewer misses this important cue about the film, the rest of the film can feel like a jumbled mess. Which it is definitely not.
So now we have events taking place in on story which overlaps another story and so on…
This and using strings and a clock beat to the background music, makes this film unique in this genre. The pacing is super tight and very very tense. The film tries very hard not to slow down at all, so even the slower scenes have a rhythmic clock tick sort of music to it.
The plot is quite simple. The British and French armed forces are stuck at Dunkirk and they are waiting for rescue / evacuation on a large scale.
This story could have become a melodrama fest with lots of sobbing and teary eyes. But instead Nolan keeps it matter of fact, no jingoism, no needless British patriotism (he IS British, least people forget). This is film is all about showing the horrors of war and the toll it takes on a person without going down the drama route. The tense is felt in the music, the atmosphere, the acting and the pacing. Not in the dialogs of emotions.
But that is not to say the film is devoid of emotion, it just SHOWS you a scene and lets you feel the emotion rather than dictating what you are supposed to feel.
These above things, make this one of the best war genre films ever made.
Not to mention, all of the film barring maybe 1 or 2 scenes is all practically shot minus CGI. That hugely adds to the film’s authenticity.
The aim of this film is to tell this story of the biggest civilian helped evacuation of an army in all of history. It doesn’t show the war fare, the gore, just the plain and simple facts.

In the acting department, everyone is pretty good as is expected in a Nolan film, but other than Tom hardy, no one really stands out too much, mostly that is intentional, this is about a group effort, but films need a few central characters to narrate a story, or it becomes a documentary.
Kenneth Branagh is good as the admiral (or some high rank) of the Navy and his is the role which shows the gravitas of the British forces and their dignity under fire.
Rating: Just as a WAR FILM, I would rate this a 9.5/10. But compared to this director’s masterpieces over the years, as a NOLAN film, this would come somewhere in at 8/10. Pretty good, but not his film till date. But a GREAT change from Sci-Fi and super heroes to a real incident.
Final Rating : 8.5/10.


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Nolan's visual masterpiece
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.
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The epic movie experience to be seen in IMAX
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.
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Must-watch
Christopher Nolan has done it again. This time with a very unusual genre.
This movie chronicles the condition of the Allied soldiers when they were stuck at the Dunkirk beach, waiting for evacuation. Nolan, with his amazing storytelling, has recreated the tragedy and is going to laugh all the way to the bank.
This film tells the story of the soldiers trapped on the Dunkirk beach in 1940 and follows the journey of Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), Alex(Harry Styles) and Gibson(Aneurin Barnard) as they try to survive the constant bombarding, sinking and everything that's happening around them. With Mark Rylance playing the brave captain of the rescue ship, Cillian Murphy playing the survivor with PTSD, Tom Hardy shooting down the planes - this film is brilliantly scripted and well-directed.
With his regular cast - Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, and with the brilliant Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, James D'Arcy, Nolan has brought the story of Dunkirk to life. With the constant ticking sound in the background throughout the film, building up the tension, this film is nothing less than an edge-of-the-seat thriller. With Hans Zimmer painting each scene with emotions, this film is a must-watch.
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8.8 / 10
A Nolan- Hans Zimmer epic. The background score plays a vital role in the whole film and the cinemat is a sureshot winner . Starscast is fascinating and the surprise of the lot is Harry Styles.
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Vishnu Ch reviewed Dunkirk
An Experience.
Christopher Nolan is a phenomenon. He made few movies from very few genres, and uprooted them from their roots, to say the least. He made The Dark Knight(Best comic book based film), Inception(Best heist film), Interstellar(Best space film) and The Prestige(Best magic based film) and defined new heights in their respective spaces. With Dunkirk, he enters into the elite by stepping into the notoriously difficult WAR movies.

Cillian Murphy stands out in the limited cast of Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Harry Styles(Ladies, calm down. Please.) and the newcomer Fionn Whitehead. Murphy pours his soul into the role of a PTSD stricken soldier, giving a chilling portrayal of the outcomes of war. Tom Hardy is mostly seen with a mask for the entire film but still manages to make a lasting impact in a way only he can do. Fionn gets ample screentime on par with the great stalwarts along him, but barely manages to be remembered after the movie. Part of it can be attributed to the movie's survival approach. Others perform their roles accordingly.

Nolan is known for getting the best out of his technical crew, but he entirely knocked this one out of the park, earth, galaxy and the universe. This is the most immersive movie I've ever seen, after Gravity. The scene where the bombs keep going off one after the other, slowly approaching the camera and knocking it the sand off your legs is the most effective shot of the movie.The sound mixing is one of the best ever shot in a film. Not to mention the conscious decision to avoid any backstory to any of the characters and focus solely on the tragedy at hand is a HUGE gamble. But the studio's faith in Nolan, his intellect and his brand paid off, and the movie is expected to get Nolan's hands on the Coveted Gold next year for the best director.

This is as good as experience can get. If you already missed this in the cinemas, repent. It's worth it.

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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.
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A masterpiece we all have been waiting for
Nolan is a Genius. The moment he makes a movie of a genre... So many similar ones follow... Like superhero movies changed after him, rival stories came after prestige, time stories came after inception (which he treated as a heist movie than anything else). Similar for Interstellar which he treated as a father daughter story than a space exploration. Dunkirk is a VERY different war movie from any other. There's no flash back to good times. No strategizing by people at top, no blood, nothing. The emotion is brought in just by showing you what is really going on and can be seen with eyes without dramatizing. He treated it more as a suspense and survival movie than a war movie, justifying all the accolades and praise.
hen I had first heard about the storyline of Dunkirk, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed. No magic, no superhero, no sci-fi, no mind numbing brain puzzles, but a story about the World War II. A Nolan movie - a plain old war movie! However, as one would expect with the director, it turned out to be different. It's a gripping story that keeps you captivated with the Hans Zimmer music in the background.
It's not so much about the warriors as about the survivors. Not so much about the destroyers as about the saviours. The palpable tension in the pin drop silence. The stillness of mind amid the explosions. There's no denying the fact that if anyone could revel in portraying such paradoxes, it's Christopher Nolan. Victories are overrated. A victory would just be a one time affair whereas true success would lie in the sustained excellence, in beating sky high expectations again and again, in delivering a masterpiece after masterpiece.
Dunkirk isn't just a war movie, it's a roller-coaster of emotions, a salute to the human spirit of survival.
Highly recommended to all.
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Aditya rated Dunkirk
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