Dunkirk (2017) - Movie Review

Christopher Nolan is one of those directors who seems to ferociously divide audiences, usually in reference to the director’s more staunch defenders. He has made some truly incredible films, like the cerebral heist flick Inception and the ground-breaking superhero film The Dark Knight, both of which I’d count among my favourite films ever… but the guy’s reputation has been stuck in a bit of a mire for a while now.

 

Interstellar wasn’t that well received overall, and while The Dark Knight Rises still holds up as a good Batman film, it and combined with his involvement in Man Of Steel resulted in the current state of the DC Extended Universe, one that was definitely painted with Nolan’s dark brushstrokes from his Batman work. Naturally, as is the case with pretty much all of his films, the marketing for his latest has been rather inescapable. Knowing my own hesitance to full-force advertising of films and my want for him to pull through with a film that I don’t have to defend quite so hard as something like Rises, this is already looking like an interesting situation for a film’s release.

 

But that’s all background noise; what’s the actual movie like?

The plot: In 1940, after a botched military operation by the Allied Forces, thousands of Allied soldiers ended up stuck behind enemy lines, finding shelter in the town of Dunkirk. As the Allied commanders try to set up a rescue effort, enlisting soldiers and civilians, the German forces start to close in on the stranded soldiers.

Fionn Whitehead works very well as our entry point character/everyman soldier, giving a strong common face to the conflict and the horrors within. Harry Styles (yes, that Harry Styles) makes for one of the bigger surprise performances of the year as a more shaken and desperate counterpoint to Whitehead. Tom Hardy and Jack Lowden as two RAF pilots channel a lot of comradery in their scenes, helping further to highlight the reality of the scenario in rather disarming ways. Cillian Murphy gives a more downplayed depiction of PTSD than the usual Oscar-aiming war film goes for, resulting in a rather tragic and harrowing performance.

 

Kenneth Branagh fits in nicely as the Navy Commander overseeing the evacuation efforts from the front line, providing an element of humanity to the military higher-ups behind what we are seeing. Mark Rylance brings a lot of working-class determination to the production through his low-key performance, while Tom Glynn-Carney as his son echoes that mentality while adding some flustered aggravation to the mix.

Nolan’s oeuvre throughout most of his career has shown a real fascination in deception; lies, the people who tell them and the ultimate reasons why. From the painful truth behind the resolution of The Dark Knight to the reluctant self-deception of Momento to the logistics involved in tricking others in The Prestige, Nolan’s place in the industry has always been that of a cinematic illusionist. I bring this up because this film? This is about as far removed from that methodology as you can get, to the point where it represents a deeper connection to reality than a lot of recent films set during wartime. While maintaining his penchant for disjointed and somewhat labyrinthine plotting, the story being told here is rather confronting in how intimate it is. The audience is effectively placed into the mindset of the soldiers working to be rescued: No reprieves, no mercy, no breaks in the tension; even if it’s out of chronological order, what is shown is in real-time, placing emphasis on how confronting the situation is and how likely the soldiers are to be killed off at any moment. 

 

Actually, first and foremost, this entire production is a masterclass in building tension. Nolan, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoyten and editor Lee Smith do some inhuman things with the pacing of this film, making it incredibly smooth while not making it a point to shy away from the more horrific notions of the event. Where this gets bizarre is the fact that, especially for a modern war film, this isn’t even all that graphic. The most blood and carnage we end up seeing comes from a civilian death, not any of the soldiers, and even then, it’s the result of a soldier who has been deeply disturbed by the things he’s seen on the front line. Add to this Hans Zimmer’s compositions, which incorporate anxious string sections and even a pocket watch among other things to create a pulsing heart rate of a musical score that manages to raise the already-oppressive tension levels to the point of genuine discomfort, and you have a film that truly never lets up.

Through the emphasis on visuals and sound, there is a definite lack of dialogue to be found here. As much as this kind of sucks for someone who loves reading into the scripts of certain films, that would be underselling the fact that, when we do hear the characters talk to each other, the dialogue does a lot to emphasize the hell that is war. Every so often, there will be a small beat in the story where two characters are exchanging very few words with each other, and it’s in these small moments that the film’s apparent want to reflect real humanity is at its strongest.

 

Early on, we see the fuel gauge on Farrier’s plane break so he can no longer read it, so he communicates with Collins and uses his fuel gauge in place of his own, writing down the tank level and time with chalk on his dashboard. It’s such a seemingly minor note, and yet it might be one of the most resonant moments in the entire film because of how small it is.

 

When Murphy’s Shivering Soldier is trying to explain to Mr. Dawson that he absolutely should not go to Dunkirk, the way that the whole conflict has affected him feels similar to Brian Cox as Churchill in how his fear has completely overridden his mind and made him fearful of anyone else having to witness the same horrors that he did.

 

As Tommy and Alex try to get home by whatever means they can, their determination to make it back quickly turns into desperation, reaching the point of doing whatever is necessary to make it out alive… even if it means other soldiers have to die in the process.

 

Between all of these and more, we get a wide scope of the mindset behind the people involved, turning the story into a little clockwork mechanism in how the separate pieces fit together.

Modern attitudes towards the military tend to fixate more on the individual rather than the side that they are fighting for. The individual soldiers are shown sympathy for what consists of “just another day at the office” for them, while the higher-ups that send them out (usually to their deaths) are shown as power-hungry and rather malicious.

 

Now, I personally get why people think like this and end up echoing it myself more times than not (see my review for Billy Lynn for a glimpse at my own attitudes on the matter). However, situations like Operation Dunkirk are a different matter, as are most “failed” military operations like the U.S. intervention in Vietnam. Whether a military assignment succeeds or not, they still involve human participants who might not even make it home regardless of the outcome. Even if they do return home, like with the Shivering Soldier, the things that they witness on the battlefield end up changing them for the rest of their lives.

 

By placing the audience into the boots of the soldiers, all at varying levels of desperation to escape the battle and return home, Nolan manages to one-up a hefty amount of modern military films in terms of generating a sense of understanding between us and them. As I rather inelegantly put in my last review, people nowadays seem to have real difficulty in showing sympathy for others, especially for those in circumstances in any way removed from their own. Well, with this film, Nolan wants to make for damn certain that you understand just how horrific the situation is, the odds that were stacked against them and, ultimately, the elation that they even made it back at all.

All in all, this is easily one of the most intense films of the year. Wielding a heightened sense of realism and nail-biting tension, Nolan and co. craft a story about the horrors of war that manages to cover somewhat new ground within that well-worn sub-genre. The acting is brilliant across the board, the production values on display here only serve to make the danger feel even more visceral, the soundtrack works as its own accelerated heart rate to accompany the action and the small moments of true humanity pile together to give one of the most sympathetic and harrowing depictions of war I’ve seen in quite some time.