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Dunkirk
STARRING: Fionn Whitehead, Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
Genre: War
Rating: PG-13
RUNNING TIME: 106 minutes
Christopher Nolan, one of the most innovative and envelope-pushing directors of this generation, has done it again.
The genius behind the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Memento and Interstellar has graced us with his latest masterpiece, a tale of the famous British retreat at Dunkirk.
If there’s any justice in the world, it will be a shoo-in for a glorious haul at the Oscars, and I’m confident in saying we won’t see a better film this year.
Thousands of extras huddled together on a narrow strip of beach. Reconditioned Spitfires screaming above the real English Channel in perfect formation. Three different perspectives and timespans, unfolding and intersecting. Dunkirk is ambitious, monumental filmmaking, to say the least, but Nolan handles it all masterfully, delivering an unconventional and stunning war movie.
In fact, ‘war movie’ is doing Dunkirk a disservice. Yes, it tells of the evacuation of Allied soldiers stranded on the beaches of France during World War II. Close to 400,000 soldiers were cut off with the German army surrounding them and slowly enclosing, with only days to escape.
However, it isn’t really about facing nor fighting the enemy but the desperate act of survival. If you’re expecting a Saving Private Ryan-esque beach landing, or a bunch of beefed-up meatheads spraying bullets and leaving a hail of punctured Nazis on the floor, then you’ll be in for a shock.
This is about men, nay, boys forced to adopt the mantle of men, sent to fight a battle they didn’t pick and now trying to get home to their loved ones.
As with many of Nolan’s movies, time is hugely significant. With the German forces marching ever closer, the stranded soldiers are running out of it. Events are seen from three perspectives – land, sea, and air – each one unfolding at a different rate – one week, one day, and one hour, respectively.
As the film progresses, the events of the young infantrymen, the civilian sailors coming to their rescue, and the RAF pilots guarding them up above begin to dovetail in surprising and satisfying ways. The effect is brilliant, with pressure and anxiety mounting as you see these distinct timelines grow closer and eventually collide. The whole movie feels like watching a ticking bomb and it’s a delight spotting details from other timelines intersect each other and then play out later in the film.
Dunkirk never lingers on gruesome shots of mangled corpses to convey the horror of war. In fact, ‘horror’ isn’t the right word. Dunkirk evokes the sheer terror of it all; the huge, abstract forces surrounding and threatening to swallow the lives of ordinary people.
Moments of eerie silence are violently smashed by thunderous walls of sound – piercing gunfire and screeching Spitfires. The sound design is incredible, especially if you experience the film as it was intended, in IMAX. 75 per cent of the film was shot in the format, and it shows as glorious wide shots of the beaches and the Channel are peppered with gunfire that is intentionally overly-loud so the audience seems trapped themselves.
The tension is only heightened by Han Zimmer’s colossal score, which plays a crucial role in making Dunkirk feel so intense and suspenseful as a ticking clock motif plays throughout most of his pieces.
But amidst the sound and fury, Dunkirk possesses a meditative quietness. There can’t be more than a handful of pages of dialogue scattered within its 106-minute runtime. It’s a bold decision, creating a starkness at the level of plot and character, but it never bothers the viewer in the slightest, such is the quality of filmmaking and acting on show.
The actors do brilliantly with relatively little in the way of dialogue. The cast of unknowns are compelling, whilst Harry Styles laughs in the face of sceptical doubters by handling scenes with skill beyond his experience.
The young cast is shored up with assured performances by Kenneth Branagh’s Navy commander and Tom Hardy’s ace RAF pilot. But the standout performance is undoubtedly Mark Rylance as the quietly heroic Mr Dawson, who answers the call and sails his pleasure yacht towards Dunkirk and into war.
The metaphor isn’t thickly smeared on but soon becomes clear: Dunkirk turns into a purgatory for the stranded men. Home is within sight, but Hell isn’t far away, either. Men leave by boat only to be thrown back upon the sand. The point is underscored by some stunning visuals, with the beach – slate-grey, fog-bound – seemingly becoming disconnected from time and space.
This isn’t a war story that leads to victory. That’s not what the story of Dunkirk is about; it was a retreat, an inglorious defeat. The war would continue for five more years. But through its miraculous events, Nolan and an outstanding cast of both young unknowns and veterans are able to depict not only the overwhelming, inhuman forces in play but the power of small acts of decency and bravery.
When the genre is flooded with tales of brutality and The Great American Saviour swooping in to save tiny Britain, it’s nice to bask in the bravery and courage of our little island. In fact, what other film so aptly demonstrates the restorative powers of a jam sandwich and a good cup of tea?
No film has ever conveyed the great man’s words so gracefully and artistically: We shall go on to the end. We shall never surrender.
Showing at: Cineco, Seef II, Saar, Wadi Al Sail, Mukta A2, Novo Cinemas
