Written and Directed By: Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception, Memento)
Starring: Fionn Whitehead , Tom Hardy , Kenneth Branagh
Since the release of The Dark Knight in 2008, Christopher Nolan has had his way with Hollywood. Sure, he was far established by then with incredible directing efforts with Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins and The Prestige, but 2008 marked the beginning of Christopher Nolan's domination of the big screen. His advanced understanding of time structure, storytelling and character development was only overshadowed by his keen eye for beauty and grandeur. As a result, we were awarded such amazing follow ups as Inception, Interstellar and The Dark Knight Rises. What we really were getting was an auteur mastermind of filmmaking who had refined his craft to the teeth. His efforts as a filmmaker could only be quenched by his need to tell amazing, original stories. From all of this, after the superhero franchise trilogy and the space odyssey and the magic show, Nolan was finally ready to make his passion picture, Dunkirk. While he takes many risks with this war film based on the true story of British and French soldiers during World War II evacuation, there isn't an inch of this film that isn't addressed with complete adore and attention worth watching. This is Nolan reminding us that he isn't just another director, he's a filmic genius and we need to stop forgetting.
First, let me just say I loved Dunkirk for what it was, a story without telling a direct story, built on actions and scenes of motion rather than a cast of characters explaining everything to the audience as if they weren't smart enough to grasp it. Nolan never insults his audience that way, however some people find his work in Inception to be insulting for the complexity of the story as "arrogant". Nolan has a specific vision within his mind and attempts at the most finite level of everything to get his shots the way he sees them inside his mind. Does this alienate the audience? I always looked at it this way, would you rather have a person trying to cash a check by making the same crap you've seen twenty times or a person who would go through personal trials to take the risk of doing something original or amazing with the utmost respect for the source? No brainer, right? That is why 90% of Michael Bay movies have over-dramatic explosions and trash-bin reused one liner jokes and Christopher Nolan won Oscars with a Batman movie.
Dunkirk is built on the concept of telling the story in three phases, land, air and sea. We get to jump through the beaches of Dunkirk, where the soldiers are nothing but sitting ducks for the constant swarm of enemy fighter planes bombing them, to the air where Tom Hardy seems to battle the entire enemy sky fleet on his own, then focus on the rising water of a sinking ship as the young men soldiers pile out into open waters to survive. Without a focused narrative, Nolan is able to build this "snowball effect" he attempted to create purposely where everything builds up throughout the entire movie on it's own. Without force. That is a kind of skill almost no filmmaker has besides Nolan. In fact, he is perhaps the greatest director of all time when it comes to juggling scenes within different time frames, while still holding the integrity of the drama. What he does great in Dunkirk is find a young cast, led by Fionn Whitehead in an almost silent role, to display the desperation of the British soldiers in limbo. We follow them, wanting to know what will happen next, but the split between the sky and the sea make for a nice pace of action and story.
If nothing else, the air battle scenes with Tom Hardy are a calculated adventure to behold. Everything about his character, from the beginning of the film to the end is powerfully placed as a reminder of the slow spots on land or sea, where people are trying to survive, that there is still a war above them. With great performances all around, Nolan's care of casting is safely managed by his actors. He then places them in danger and lets them slip in and out of it like waves on a constant tide.
Visually, the film is a wonder, but that was a given considering how much Nolan loves IMAX cameras and widescreen format. He continues to be the closest grand scale director to Ridley Scott, who's The Martian mirrored Interstellar visually in a lot of ways. Nolan has taken his visual talent to many different levels however and seems in complete control of everything in Dunkirk. His care of the fictional characters telling a real life story have purpose and meaning, which is missing in so many movies these days. If nothing else, Dunkirk is further evidence that Christopher Nolan should be given $200 million and let loose upon the Earth whenever he has an idea. Dunkirk was born in the 90's, when he traveled the route of the English Channel that rescue boats from England took to save soldiers. He refused to make it until he had enough experience with action films. That kind of care, waiting twenty years to make a movie right, is a dying art in cinema and one that we are ALL rewarded with by the masterpiece that is Dunkirk.
8 out of 10
Tyler Baker
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