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Dunkirk, wow! What can be said? I don't think anyone I know of came out of that 1 hour and 47 movie not shell shocked at its enormity. I remember going into it not expecting much but it had Christopher Nolan's name to it. In my opinion his one of our current day best artists.
His ability as a director is on another level and I can't say I've been disappointed or let down by any film he has directed. Like many I guess I fell in love with his directing skills in the 2000 film memento that follows a man with amnesia tracking his wifes murderer. A tripped out film that I can only explain as starting at the end and ending at the start. If you haven't already seen it I'd definitely recommend it.
Before I go onto the film I want to talk about it'd cinematography and how the story was told. Typically war movies of this calibre are gory, violent and gruesome as they depict scenes of war, which is what surprised me most and stuck out is that this film written and directed by Christopher Nolan was only rated PG-13. I was initially put off by it but I had to book into the cinema to watch it.
I do remember when I first started reading up about Christopher Nolan and him being English, I was a little worried as just like Aussies we don't make films very well. Yes we make a few good ones but the US are the masters at film. But Nolan has not ever disappointed.
Nolan's choice to use a non linear story telling style adds additional flair to the film, didn't realise? No one could cross the English channel in an hour back then, can they now? The non linear style sees the film jump from days to minutes back to days and then hours. All of it almost blended perfectly without notice but there are a few gafs when story lines converge but not that noticeable.
Following the story of Dunkirk where Allied forces were stranded in Dunkirk as Nazi's continued to advance towards Britain we see a story about fear, loss, confusion and heroism as average Joe's man ships and head to Dunkirk to rescue 400,000 allied troops from the shores who are out numbers and out gunned by the Germans.
The film is of epic proportions and Nolan doesn't do anything half arsed avoiding CGI and opting for real filming which includes real explosions, real crashes and real people. He had a heap of replica to scale planes and ships created for the film. So the crashes your seeing are real.
He spared no expense and had the long-retired French warship the Maillé-Brézé fully restored and operational just for the film. The added investment pays off with a truly realistic experience for viewers. Also used in the film were actual restored planes of the era which can be seen at international air shows.
Filming was all done on location, the actual site that the war took place so you would see everything and just about experience the things the soldiers saw as they scrambled to evade the Nazis.
Dunkirk historically is also one of the most intriguing moments of war almost in the history of war. For no apparent reason and one that gave allied forces enough time to plan an escape the Nazi's issued a halt order for 3 days. They anticipated the allies to be stronger than what they were and fearful of defeat decided to halt their advancement securing the allies one of the most successful retreats of almost all the troops. Sadly over 60,000 allied forces soldiers lost their lives.
I was truly captivated by the willingness and heroism of British citizens to disobey their government and head across the English channel on private vessels to rescue the stranded soldiers. No doubt being on that beach with Germans advancing and knowing an impending doom was approaching hoping for a miracle, seeing those boats would have had you praising God as you ran for your life.
Christopher Nolan delivers another wonderful film in his first ever historical war drama which is action packed and filled with scenes that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Saving Private Ryan was long known as one of the best war films and gave many actors their first big break (Vin Diesel) but Dunkirk, oh my. It is on another level and if you haven't got around to watching it I'd highly recommend it. If you have seen it, let me know in the comments section below what you thought.
