Dunkirk (Review)

'Dunkirk' is a action war thriller which stars Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy. This film is written and directed by Christopher Nolan.

Nothing director Christopher Nolan has made has ever been released quietly, whether that may be because of
the advertising and word of mouth from the critics and media moguls who boast about the IMAX and 70mm film formats, or it might be the fact that so far, Nolan's career has not made a wrong step, with each of his films being a hit with audiences and critics alike.

'Dunkirk' is another successful chapter in Nolan's Filmography. One of the complaints audiences and even some critics have about the directors work is that the running time for a Nolan film is too long, fortunately for those who were not impressed by the large scope of 'Interstellar' will be pleased to know that Dunkirk is only 1 hour and 40 minutes long and is more stripped back, having more in touch with Nolan's early works while also featuring the mature filmmaking sensibilities and craftsmanship of his more recent work.

The film is mostly told though the visual imagery, which is a fair distance from the directors previous films such as 'Interstellar' and 'Inception' which use the dialog as the major device for information and drama.

Anyone who knows of Nolan's work does not need me telling them that this film is well directed, c'mon everyone and their mother knows that by now, but the scenes involving the air force in-flight are worth mentioning because of the camera's focus on the central rotation of the real-life inverting planes, which is nothing less than an example of A-class cinema. The Music from Hans Zimmer is the emotional center of the film, not only because the film has little dialog, but also because of how Zimmer is able to capture the right emotion for every second of a film as fast paced and chaotic as this. The sound design is amazing, simply amazing, if it does not win the academy award, something is wrong, the film really would not work without it, similar to Zimmer's score it is the primitive core of the film and without it the film would feel hollow.

The performances are all good from the cast, yes even Harry Styles. This film however does not focus on performance and character as most war films do, in fact the focus is more on the event rather than the characters; for most films this would be a major fault in my eyes, but because of the impressive technical aspects, it actually works well.

Overall 'Dunkirk' is a masterful war film which is really worth seeing on the big screen, but is also capable of being engaging while seeing it at home. I would not give it a perfect rating because I did not have that rush of excitement or that feeling that you have just witnessed something that you feel is outstanding, but it is a piece filmmaking that is worth taking notice of if you haven't done so already.

Rating: 9/10

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