The war film genre is about as ancient as the musical or western ones, and Hollywood simply markets on it, especially since our country has been at war seemingly forever. However, films about WWII don't get produced as much as Middle East ones--the WWII films have to take a back seat. So when I saw my first trailer on "Dunkirk", it was a must see on my list.
This is a miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from the British Empire, Belgium, and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France in WWII. When these 400,000 soldiers were trapped on the beaches, it occurred after a catastrophic defeat, so a number of civilian boats, one helmed by Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) and his two sons, Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) and George (Barry Keoghan), set out to rescue them before they are decimated by the approaching Nazi forces. While these men were being picked off in droves, Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) and his officers, Colonel Winnant (James D'Arcy and his lieutenant (Tom Nolan) stood there devastated. A ray of sunshine finally happened when the Air Force arrived where both Farrier (Tom Hardy) and Collins (Jack Lowden) retaliated, but not before many had already perished.
Others to round out the cast are Fionn Whitehead as Tommy, Aneurin Barnard as Gibson, Harry Styles as Alex and Cillian Murphy as Shell Shocked Soldier.
This was amazingly well written and directed by the incomparable Christopher Nolan ("Following" '98, "Memento" 2000, "Insomnia" '02, "Batman Begins" '05, "The Prestige" '06, "The Dark Knight" '08, "Inception" '10, "The Dark Knight Rises" '12, "Interstellar" '14) plus shorts. With all the different and quirky characters that Nolan writes about, he certainly knows how to get his actors to exude that certain emotion to bring that character to life. The reactions of the characters toward one another are rich and bring a whole new dimension to his directing technique. There were a couple of places of lack of continuity, or possibly they might have been purposed, where a scene would go from a daytime scene to a night scene and then back again, but he might've been showing us what was happening on two different days. Not sure, it appeared to jump a bit, otherwise this script was solid, tight, and chilling, keeping you on the edge of your seat the entire time of this film. Nolan has proven his talents time and again with his quirky plots and even quirkier character developments in his films, so when I see this consummate pro's name attached to a production, I will make tracks to see it. I f you like this filmmaker, a reboot of his "Memento" which he is rewriting, has already been announced.
As mentioned above, with the quirky character developments only Nolan can do so well, "Dunkirk" will please, because it's not your typical war film we've all seen too many times. And if you like the larger than life film size, this is being presented in a 70mm super Panavision and IMAX format. Take your pick.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG-13 106mins.
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