Dunkirk review

Right, well since I had been to the cinema this week, I figured I would put up a review of the film I had seen, which was Christopher Nolan's latest flick, the war drama "Dunkirk" based on the true life events of the Dunkirk evacuation of the Allied forces during World War II. 

And the film already has garnered much critical acclaim on its release, so does it live up to all the hype????  Well, let's take a look and find out....

Oh, and while I might refer to a little of the plot I will do my best not to spoil much (although historically if you know about the events of Dunkirk, this film will be of little surprise).  However to be fair I will issue the warning as usual...

POTENTIAL SPOILERS MAYBE AHEAD!!! (DON'T WORRY, NOT TOO MANY THOUGH!!)

STORY

So, the film basically shows the perspective of the Dunkirk evacuation from three different ways, land, sea and air and each of these perspectives are told over different periods of time with land covering one week, sea, one day and the air, one hour.  And by the end of the story all the perspectives will interweave together.

The land story, primarily follows, Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) a young British private, who comes under fire from German soldiers on the streets of Dunkirk but he manages to make it to the beaches where he finds the British and Allied troops awaiting evacuation.  And the rest of Tommy's story essentially follows him trying to find a way to safely evacuate from Dunkirk but he encounters many dangers in his path....

The sea story follows a small private seaboat crew, lead by Mr Dawson (Mark Rylance) who aid in the Royal Navy's task of sending out boats to help with the evacuation of Dunkirk.  Dawson is helped by his son, Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) while his other, younger son, George (Barry Keoghan) on impulse decides to join them in the hope he can do something good.  On their way to Dunkirk however, they soon encounter a lone shell-shocked survivor (Cillian Murphy) of a U-boat attack and take him aboard.  However survivor soon comes anxious when he realises that Dawson is heading towards Dunkirk and ends up causing problems for the crew.....

And the air story follows three RAF spitfire pilots, Farrier (Tom Hardy), Collins (Jack Lowden) and their squadron leader "Fortis Leader" (voiced by Michael Caine) who all provide air support during the Dunkirk evacuation.  However their fuel supply is running low, so they know they have limited time to provide support to the evacuees and "Fortis" is shot down, leaving Farrier in command and together with Collins, they get involved in an intense dogfight with German soldiers.....

THOUGHTS

While I would have to say that it is a bit overrated in terms of the plaudits it has received, Dunkirk nevertheless is an intense, gripping war film that is relentless in its pace and intensity as it never let's up from the first moment until the end.  And the film tells an important story very well and rather than get too bogged down with characterisations, Nolan instead keeps things very tight here as the film itself is surprisingly short at just 1 hour and 46 minutes, which for a war film nowadays is practically unheard of.  However this is something that is definitely in Dunkirk's favour as its fast pace ensures it will never lag.

PERFORMANCES (No notable scenes this time!)

As for the performances, well they are all very solid from the ensemble cast even though no individual performance really stands out more than others, probably due to the tight screen time and frantic nature of the story.

Fionn Whitehead (I wonder how many times people call him Fiona!) is a young English actor, who has made his debut film role here, does a fine job with his part as Tommy, the young British soldier, who does all he can to try and survive the Dunkirk evacuation. 

Tom Glynn-Carney is also very good in his role as Peter, the elder son of Mr Dawson, who sails in one of the boats to rescue the Dunkirk evacuees.  Barry Keoghan also does fine in his part as George, Peter's younger brother, who impulsively joins him and his father in their journey.   

Jack Lowden does well too in his role as the RAF pilot, Collins, who does his bit from the air to try and give support to the Dunkirk evacuees although he ends up getting involved in a hairy dogfight with German fighters.  

Cillian Murphy provides a solid performance also as the shivering soldier, the shell-shocked lone survivor of a German U-Boat attack.  Murphy plays the shell-shock aspect of the role well yet at the same time he makes his character somewhat a bit creepy and sinister at the same time, despite the fact that is essentially playing a solider, who is scared out of his wits.

Mark Rylance is great in his role as Mr Dawson, a sailor, who's boat is commandeered by the Royal Navy in their efforts to evacuate the Allied troops at Dunkirk.  And Rylance gives his character alot of dignity, courage and honour as he stands up to the task to try and rescue the Dunkirk evacuees.

Kenneth Brannagh is excellent as ever in his role as Commander Bolton, the pier master during the evacuation of Dunkirk and naturally you can always rely on Brannagh in most things, particularly in period drama, so he is in his element here.

And last of all is Tom Hardy, who we barely actually get to see his actual face in the film (until near the end and I won't say anymore than that!) as he plays the part of Farrier, the RAF pilot, who tackles a dogfight with German fighters.  In fact rather amusingly with his pilot mask on, its almost like we are watching Hardy reprise his role as Bane from The Dark Knight Rises!  Hardy basically as a result doesn't have much to do here other than stay in the cockpit of his plane, so his performance is purely a perfunctory one.  So in this instance you could call him Tom Hardly on this occasion! ;-)

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for the director, Christopher Nolan does an excellent job here with ratching up the tension throughout the film as it is a pretty intense and relentless experience to sit through.  Nolan also cleverly weaves the three narratives together of land, sea and air and its interesting how the events all intertwine as do the characters.  Nolan also deserves credit for keeping the pacing of the film very taut as you could never accuse him this time of creating a film that is overlong and drawn out, this is as tight a film as he has ever made.

And lastly we get onto the music score, which is by Hans Zimmer and this must rank as one of the most intense scores he has ever done as it features a much relentless use of synthesizers and orchestrations.  In fact there are times where you think you are listening to a frantic human heart beat rather than music and to Zimmer's credit this is a fine score that while not the most suitable it will stay with you.  Its also well worth mentioning that Zimmer's score runs throughout the whole film and as far as I can remember there not a moment in the film without music, which is very rare in itself. 

FLAWS

As for flaws.....well yes Dunkirk has some and I can't quite get into them all though as it may give some plot points away (well possibly!) so I will mention only a few.

For starters I think one of the issues of the film is to do with the lack of characterisation, as while you empathise with the characters, you really don't get much of a chance to know them.  Instead you are thrown right into the film without much room for development, so in a way they have sacrified characterisation to keep the film taut and well paced. 

Another issue is to do with the fact that the film's score and sound is at times pretty bombastic and overwhelming to listen to.  It is of course a war film but there are times where you feel there is little let up in terms of the full on intensity of everything that is going on.  Nolan really wants to pull you into the experience and it does work but it can also threaten to be a bit overbearing aswell at times.

Anyway that will do for now.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Dunkirk is an intense and gripping war film, which tells its story well and it shows Nolan really has put himself forward for a potential Oscar nod for next year as I'm sure this film is one that will rank high on Hollywood's list. 

Is it a masterpiece???  In all honesty and in my opinion, no its not.  I just feel while it is a solid and involving film, it doesn't scale any great heights and any of the overwhelming plaudits it has received so far just seem a bit much.  Don't get me wrong, Dunkirk is a good, solid film but in the end its just not quite a great one.  However this is just my opinion of course and if you think its a great film that's fine with me and it is definitely a film that is worth seeing regardless.

OK, so that's it for now and I will be back again soon with some post or other of some kind.

Till then, its bye for now.