Director Christopher Nolan always seems to hit a home run with each of his movies (even the disjointed THE DARK KNIGHT RISES).  He has decided to switch genre and do a World War 2 movie on the British evacuation from Dunkirk (in 1940) told on three different timelines (a one week storyline through a soldier’s eyes, a one day journey with a civilian boat captain who has been recruited to help rescue the British troops trapped in Dunkirk, and a one hour fight to survive in the air through the eyes of two British pilots).    These three perspectives weave together in this tense World War 2 tale.  Hans Zimmer score and the cinematography are like two important characters in telling this story as a British pilot risks all to protect British ships, an old civilian Captain is trying to just do his job in rescuing the trapped troops (with many other boats), and a British soldier trying to get off Dunkirk and get home.   The Germans are slowly picking off the soldiers from the air and the tanks have withdrawn.  They have dropped flyers to urge the British and French troops to surrender.

 

DUNKIRK is a well crafted WORLD WAR 2 movie as the story weaves back and forth between three perspectives on different time scales, but they do collide and overlap during the movie.   Christopher Nolan has created another landmark movie in his career and probably is one of the best movies of the year.  DUNKIRK is so full of details drawn from real history.  It isn’t trying to tell the story for drama’s sake or manipulate your emotions.  It makes you feel like you’re experiencing the war at times as the soldiers wait to get rescued with the Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) knowing they won’t be able to evacuate everyone (that the British government is hoping to get 30,000 troops out of the 400,000 that are trapped on the shores of Dunkirk) and they have to leave the French soldiers behind due to the British government leaving their destroyers behind to the United Kingdom.   I wonder what Christopher Nolan will be doing next as a director because he hasn’t let me down yet. He is able to switch the stories up from BATMAN to THE PRESTIGE to INCEPTION to INTERSTELLAR to DUNKIRK.  If you want a good movie to watch, DUNKIRK is your surefire ticket and it is destined to be nominated for awards season.   

 

This review is ©7-29-2017 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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