Dunkirk (2017)
This is one of those movies I wished I saw in a theater. Still great at home with decent sound, but it is very much a sensory ride where Nolan puts the viewer into an intense situation with all technical film making skills. In many ways, it feels similar to Gravity. It is not a character portrait and barely has a narrative arc, but it is a situational portrait with mostly nameless soldiers in a desperate microcosm fighting for survival.
It is a rather bold move to disregard many unwritten rules about film narrative that usually needs a character arc, but even though we do sort of follow at least one soldier all the way through, it is still for the most part a portrayal of a chaotic situation. I think Nolan makes this work really well. We don’t back stories or names for everyone to understand their situation. There is a point to the sometimes confusing structure where it is hard to figure out where we are, who we are with, which ship is now going down and so on. War is confusing as hell and no one knew much more than what was immediately happening around them.
I do wish however Nolan could trust what he has a bit more, because it seems like he adds unnecessary extra drama and tension to some scenes that could have stood well on their own. Especially when it comes to Zimmer’s score, where I really didn’t constantly need to have an intense score to an already intense scene. Other than that, I need to catch this in a proper theater at some point.
Rating: 3.5