Dunkirk (2017) - 10 stars out of 10

Dunkirk (2017) - 10 stars out of 10

Christopher Nolan is a director that has become known for his films that employ mind-bending concepts (like "Inception") and non-linear storytelling (like "Memento").  So why would he ever direct a war film?  How could his style possibly fit into a period piece of an historical event?  I carried these questions into the theater with me and walked out of the theater two hours later with my mind completely blown.  "Dunkirk" bends the rules of traditional storytelling to create a one-of-a-kind movie experience.  It's hard to say how it compares to other war films because it really needs to be in a category of its own.  First and foremost, this film will be remembered for its unique conceptual use of time.  The script intertwines three stories that occur during the evacuation of Dunkirk.  The story of the men on the land covers one week’s time, the story of the men on the sea covers one day’s time, and the story of the men in the air covers one hour’s time.  It is incredibly confusing at first as the film quickly jumps between timelines without transition, as if the events are occurring at the same time.  But once the puzzle pieces slowly come together as the three stories converge into the same time and place (seen from different perspectives), the result is unlike anything that you have ever experienced.  Beyond this creative approach, Nolan made sure that this story felt real.  He used an interesting combination of unknown actors in the main roles and a cast of all-stars in the supporting roles.  This emphasized the young age and inexperience of the ground troops while providing veteran actors to mentor their younger counterparts.  I’m sure that the presence of big names like Tom Hardy and Mark Rylance were also helpful in drawing in an audience.  To further emphasize the realism, Nolan insisted that the entire cast be British, though one of my biggest complaints is that much of the dialogue is difficult to understand due to the authentic accents.  The combination of quickly jumping between stories, thick accents, and similar style of costumes works against the film as it becomes difficult to distinguish one character from another.  Finally, Nolan’s best decision in making the film realistic was his use of practical effects and thousands of extras instead of a reliance on CGI to make the difficult scenes come to life.  I’ve grown tired of movies that look like a video game and everything in this film was real, from the sinking battleships to the airplanes dogfighting in the air.  When you combine these practical effects with the beautiful cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema, it truly captures this moment in time.

Nolan’s cinematic genius is present in every strand of the film’s DNA, including his decision to place us amidst the soldiers instead of using random cutaways to warm rooms and strategists that would give us an omniscient overview.  As an audience, we are as helpless as these stranded soldiers who know very little of the escape plan.  This fits in with the theme of not knowing who these men are outside of Dunkirk.  The script includes a minimal amount of dialogue because we don’t need background information to create an emotional connection to these men.  The only thing that matters to us is whether they will escape.  Instead, the emotions are derived from Hans Zimmer’s masterwork of a score.   It is one of the greatest displays of music supporting and driving the events of a film with its relentless intensity.  Zimmer often incorporates the sound of a ticking clock into his film scores and it is incredibly appropriate within this time-centric film.  Every time that it cuts through the orchestra, it will fill you with anxiety and make you completely nervous.  He further heightens our anxious state through his use of the Shepard Tone (view a must-see YouTube explanation HERE!!).  I literally felt like I couldn't breathe for two hours because the music kept the action moving even when nothing was happening.  But the thing that nearly left me in tears was its inspired use of Elgar's "Nimrod."  Rather than simply incorporating a traditional recording of this orchestral piece as one might expect, Zimmer manipulates the piece into an incredibly slow motion with a slight echo that layers over itself.  It also adds low bass notes to shift the piece's tone from sentimental to dramatic.  The combination of this lush orchestration and the dramatic imagery onscreen may be the best movie moment of 2017.  I rarely discuss a film score in such detail but it is imperative to this film as the script includes a limited amount of dialogue so that the story can be told through the visuals and music.  You can count on seeing “Dunkirk” on the 2018 Oscar ballot in many categories including Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, and Score.  It is unquestionably the best film of 2017 thus far and worth seeing twice.

[Pictured: Practical effects and thousands of extras make "Dunkirk" one of the most realistic war films ever created]