My Review of 'Dunkirk'

I've been meaning to watch Dunkirk for a long time but never got to it until this week. I remember seeing the trailer way back when. It was a super long trailer with a whole bunch of soldiers on a dock and some medics trying to get by. Everyone is shoulder to shoulder, so it's really tight. Then, all of a sudden, you hear the music really getting amped up. There is a noise of a plane coming. You can see the fear in their eyes, as each of them start to take notice of the noise. You see a plane coming in and everyone starts ducking. Then the Dunkirk logo pops up.

It had no dialogue and was really long, but it did the trick. I was intrigued and wanted to check it out even though war movies are usually long and drawn out.

Fast-forward to this week when I got to see the movie. This movie doesn't have a ton of dialogue. There's a few famous faces, but you don't even really get their names. I guess that was on purpose as in war there's so many casualties that people become nameless. I'll try to explain the movie the best that I can. Yes, the movie was coherent and I understood what was going on.

This movie is about the allies, in particular the British troops, trying to escape a place called Dunkirk. Dunkirk is surrounded by the axis and it's only a matter of time when the Germans come in and decimate the remaining British and French troops in Dunkirk.

The problem with the escape is that every time they bring in a ship to take their soldiers back to England, the ship would be taken down by bomber planes and other war vehicles.

Now that's a pretty hard tale to tell because it's such a general story. What Christopher Nolan did was focus on specific people. There is a soldier that escapes the axis and gets stuck on the beach of Dunkirk. He befriends a mute soldier, and the two cleverly try to avoid conflict. They continually try to figure out ways to get back to Britain. After all, Britain is so close they can see it across the English Channel.

Then there are these pilots. Their job is to get rid of the bomber plans and other war vehicles from ruining the soldier's escape. The problem is that Winston Churchill is trying to build an army in England, as they anticipate an attack from the axis very soon. This means that there's barely any troops coming to save the soldiers.

There are so few soldiers that they've enlisted, regular citizens that have boats to sail them across the English Channel to save the soldiers. Here we have a father and his two sons making the trek across to save British's finest. A truly noble family trying to make a difference.

As the movie progresses, you see the hell that each of the characters had to go through. The intensity is crazy and really sucked me in. Nothing I didn't expect from Christopher Nolan. He made really good use of the music and pacing of the movie. The shots, although some very gruesome, were done beautifully. I know there were special effects in this movie, but they seem seamless with the movie.

Overall, I really liked this movie. It was a great emotional roller coaster ride. I didn't know much about the battle of Dunkirk but I think it's great that they got to tell their tale to the general public because it's a pretty good one. I'll give this movie an eight out of 10. It's a typical war movie where it can be a little drawn out, but it's made very well so I'm sure those that are curious will have a good time. I only wished I got to see this movie in IMAX as some of the shots were truly breathtaking.