Dunkirk (2017, directed by Christopher Nolan. U.S.A./U.K., English, Color, 106 minutes) In the realm of war movies, the most memorable one of recent years is 1998's "Saving Private Ryan" - even though "The Hurt Locker" is better. It's violent, it's bloody, there's a human interest aspect to it, and it has pretty boys acting out a young man's fantasy of shooting guns and fighting off the Nazis.
Almost 20 years later and Christopher Nolan releases "Dunkirk", a film with a keen eye for suspense and storytelling that it easily eclipses Spielberg's one-trick pony of a film.
"Dunkirk" interweaves stories told from the mole, the air and the sea about the hundreds of thousands of English soldiers stuck on the northern French shore as they wait for someone to take them home. In his typical style, Nolan plays with the chronology of the events as they unfold which makes us see incidents occur more than once. This effortless jumping between past and present will take getting used to, but you won't be bored as it happens. To some extent, it's a display about the confusion and never-ending feeling that one may experience in combat. When will this end? Haven't we seen this before? Why again?
If there's anything someone knows from Nolan's filmography is that he is a master of action. "Dunkirk" prepares well-focused and clear action scenes that range in variety from a gun fight on the streets, the bombing of Dunkirk beach, the torpedoing of a ship and aerial dog fights. There are so many different elements Nolan was tasked with shooting from his own screenplay and each time there is a ferocious suspense that lingers throughout.
"Dunkirk" is a film with perfectly executed action sequences and that is its greatest selling point. Even action movies need a level of restraint to it that makes each moment seem logical and easy to follow, nevermind the fact that it has to look good: "Dunkirk" follows all of these. It's a blessing that Michael Bay could not write an action-heavy script like this, let alone direct it.
The smaller moments of human interaction in the film present enough emotional connection where the characters are all coordinating to do one thing: survive. As the world deteriorates around them they only need to know how to stay alive, a basic function of war. It's harder for the characters because they were forced to participate in the royal armed forces. We have only volunteered to watch their adventures and it's hard to try to imagine what they had to really had go through. "Dunkirk" gives us a very close look at what it must have felt like without being there, and, thankfully, showing as little blood as possible.
Even though Nolan has not labeled it as a "war" film, he has created a new standard by which war movies should aspire to be. It's a beautiful, methodical exercise in dynamic storytelling with all of the bells and whistles.
Rating: A
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