When 400,000 men couldn’t get home, home came for them off of the shores of ‘Dunkirk’. The film that is written and directed by critically acclaimed filmmaker, Christopher Nolan, depicts the dramatic and true story of the Dunkirk evacuations from a war torn beach and harbor in France May 26- June 04, 1940, following the seemingly doomed plight of allied soldiers in World War II. As the immense enemy German soldier forces close in following the evacuation of Operation Dynamo, it seems the troops have nowhere to go, but help is at hand and a fierce battle ensues, forging the ultimate battle of sacrifice among them. ‘Dunkirk’ is rated PG-13 for intense war experience involving brutal violence, and some adult language.

Is there any doubt left that Christopher Nolan is one of the elite masterful filmmakers of our generation? Throughout his storied career, the man has made some of the most articulately crafted gems of the past two decades, but ‘Dunkirk’ might very well grow with time to be his magnum opus. From a scope perspective, this is the kind of film that was made for the IMAX screen with enhanced sound system to craft an out-of-this-world experience that is second to none. I myself have never served in war, but I can imagine that Nolan hits the mark with the kind of triumphant precision that pays homage to those men during this particular war who paid the ultimate sacrifice in standing up for what they believed in. So none of this of course comes as any surprise that ‘Dunkirk’ riveted me in ways that very few war films before it have with such unapologetic circumstance. It’s a technical marvel that is easily immersive through tight camera work that follows our soldiers through the most compact of situations, a trait that sometimes brought out the worst in this critic’s claustrophobia. That’s not to demean his breathtaking sequences, but to say that Christopher knows what it takes in capturing the essence of this week of war that will leave every man involved in it changed forever.

Time has always played such a pivotal role in past Nolan films, and once again the director bends the very notion of minutes and seconds to play to the unpredictability factor of this story. The film is presented through three different time periods, each involving different characters involved in their particular angle from this immense devastation that is crumbling everything around them. This is a huge risk for Nolan because it has the chance in backfiring against clouding the usually narrow timeline of events that take place in war genre flicks, but he pulls it off brilliantly because it is involving the viewer watching at home to always think six moves ahead to see how each respective plot will eventually overlap the others. It’s an original take for chronological sequencing similar to that of his earlier film ‘Memento’, and it’s measures like this that prove that Nolan is playing on a psychological ball field that many haven’t even sniffed the grass to. My only lone problem with this aspect and the entire film as a whole was the ‘one week away’ perspective that lacked any kind of nighttime scenes to relate the passing of time that eventually meets up with another perspective. It just didn’t feel like a week had passed for me, and I felt that additional scenes could’ve helped not only in believability, but also in beefing up the runtime which is surprisingly thin at 102 minutes.

The presentation here is almost as scene stealing as the violent outbursts that are happening within its walls. It is incredible what Nolan is able to pull off with IMAX cameras, in that way that he twists and bends each angle to offer us a perspective of what that character is experiencing without settling for the POV angles that have grown stale in 2017. The sound is crisp and should earn no less than an Oscar for its achievements in mixing and editing that carefully commentate everything even when it becomes too much to keep your eyes open at the horrors. An impressive aspect to this is that Nolan doesn’t need blood or gore to get across the barbaric sacrifices of war, he instead plays to the volume of water, as well as the burdens of captivity that slowly reaches for the vulnerability in each and every character involved. My favorite aspect of the technical however, was that of a gorgeous cinematography coloring by Hoyte Van Hoytema. Hoyt captivated in collaboration with Nolan in 2014’s ‘Interstellar’, and his usual pale greys and aqua blue shadings are exerted again in ‘Dunkirk’, but this time with more symbolic meaning. Most Nolan films have similar palates in cinematography, but here is feels warranted because of the inevitable cloud of dread that has overcome not only the abandoned landscape, but also the soldiers who feel that their time is numbered. The altering on this grand of a stage by Hoyt visually feels what we can feel so heavily in the water, on the land, and even in the air; the scent of death that follows this army everywhere.

Musical composer Hans Zimmer again crafts a must-own collection of ominous tones and building tension numbers that faithfully narrates hand-in-hand with the terrifying visuals. Being my favorite composer going today, I could speak for hours about Zimmer’s masterful touch on the films he musically enhances, but for now we’ll stick to ‘Dunkirk’. It feels like Zimmer is the most valuable player in this ensemble production because his tones barely ever leave the screen, more so because the film surprisingly doesn’t have a lot of long-winded dialogue to it. The music is constantly blaring and increasing with each passing second, and boy does it payoff in leaving the audience on the edge of their seats. Some of his tones here are as simple as repeating the same few notes, but adding a slight orchestral accompany with each passing verse to really trigger the impact that it has with what is being depicted. At an age when most composers start falling into obscurity, Zimmer continues to be the most familiar name associated with musical score because he wraps himself up in these unfolding stories, setting the stage for inevitable confrontation and a spring of goosebumps that repeatedly spring to life on the arms of those leveled by their enhancing pitches.

There is a great lack of character building within the film, but I confess that this aspect didn’t bother me in the slightest because I took it with great reasoning. There is no one person bigger than war, so when someone dies, the next person comes along to continue it. Sure there are some notable exceptions in actors like Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Fionn Whitehead, and Kenneth Branagh being featured so repeatedly, but when you really think about it, you learn very little about each character’s backstories, and it’s in that fact where I give Nolan great respect as a screenwriter because he is essentially building a great film without so much as a single shadow of character between them. The performances are solid from this ensemble cast, but I’d have to say that my favorite of the three different stories involved that of Rylance commanding a small boat on his way to Dunkirk to help with his kids in any way he can. There’s great sense of pride in his character, and sometimes the biggest changes come from the smallest of places, and even though his group isn’t actually involved within the war until the third act, their stark contrasts to that of a soldier they pick up (Played by Cillian Murphy) reminds us why war, no matter how paralyzing, does serve a purpose.

THE VERDICT – Nolan once again blows away our minds and our ears with the most impactful war film of the last twenty five years, undertaking this important memory in history with terrifying immediacy. ‘Dunkirk’ is a technical masterpiece that rivets us in all of its atmospheric horror on land, sea, and air, mimicking the moniker that never quits or surrenders. The movie never feels weighed down by the immense responsibility, nor the narrative gimmick that it adopts, establishing itself at the forefront of the 2017 Summer blockbuster season with an homage that honors the forgotten on a scope that feels like the next most terrifying thing to being there.

9/10