Dunkirk Review

Dunkirk was directed by Christopher Nolan and was the dramatic depiction of the Battle of Dunkirk. It stars a wide variety of actors like Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Fionn Whitehead, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles and Cillian Murphy. I was really excited to see Dunkirk, I am a fan of war movies and I think Nolan is a terrific director. After walking out of Dunkirk, I was really impressed. The whole premise of this movie is not what I thought it would be. I am used to getting the stereotypical war movie, Dunkirk was anything but that. It was innovative and gripping and chose to tell a really compelling story in the most creative way. This was a visual masterpiece.

Let's look at the best parts:

1. The Production- This movie was unbelievably real in it's production. Nolan used as many practical effects as he could. It was constructed with real planes, real boats and real locations. Nolan didn't cut any corners in his portrayal of this battle. I was just floored by the beauty that was being displayed on screen. It was so beautifully shot and edited. There wasn't mindless gore, Hollywood explosions or cliche war movie scenes. It all felt so real. Props to Nolan, this is one of the best looking films of the decade.

2. Story Telling- This was easily the most creative war movies I have scene. It was a movie that had very minimal dialogue and most of the characters don't even have names. Nolan chose not to put in exposition for the story and it paid off great. This entire movie is strictly about the Battle of Dunkirk. I loved the quiet and minimal approach to this movie. It was just amazing to see something like this be on screen. The entire movie went against the standard for war movies, but Dunkirk was one of the best I have seen.

3. Exciting- I was blown away by how intense this movie got. The dogfights in this movie were some of the best ever put on screen. There was a scene in which my fiance reached over and grabbed my arm because of how intense and suspenseful some things truly were. There were several times I sat up in my seat and started to bite my nails. The shootouts, the dogfights and even the ships sinking in this movie were just intense and incredible. I truly loved it.

4. Emotion- Nolan did an incredible job of adding a sense of emotion to this movie, but it wasn't added in a way that felt cheesy. The emotion wasn't added with people sitting in fox holes talking about their life, or sitting in an abandoned building waiting for sunrise. The emotion in this movie was built strictly off of watching the characters try to survive horrific events. In a lot of ways I think that made the movie better than most, I loved it.

5. Score- The score to this movie was amazing. There really isn't much else to say about it, other than it was just tremendous from scene to scene.

One thing I could see other's having an issue with, but I didn't have a problem with:

1. Characterization- Like I said above, you leave the movie without really knowing any one's names and have no real tie to the characters themselves. I can see this bothering a lot of people, as we've been conditioned for those emotional conversations in war movies, and they just don't happen here.

Overall, Dunkirk was amazing. Almost every aspect of this movie worked for me. It was breathtaking visually and emotionally. The realism of this film added to almost every scene and created and amazing sense of tension. The short run time of this movie was perfect, any more it would've been bloated and any less it wouldn't have worked. Go see Dunkirk, it's a movie that deserves to be seen in theaters. I am going to give Dunkirk an A+.