Christopher Nolan. This man has continued to impress me ever since Batman Begins in 2005. His realistic, grounded and character driven movies, with engaging screenplay, and some amazing soundtrack/BGM by Hans Zimmer, provides for a memorable movie experience. All his movies are amazing to the level that you could probably call me a "Nolan-fanboy" :P, but don't worry. I'm not one of those extreme types who cannot accept the fact that not all his movies are out-of-this-world or fantastic, and that he does not get everything right! One can just say I love his movies a lot, that's all.
(NO SPOILERS)
Hence, you can imagine my excitement for "Dunkirk", a real-life story about the evacuation of 400,000 soldiers stranded on this beach during World War II, waiting to be rescued, that was shot on the actual location, with actual planes and ships! Nolan is known for his minimalistic use of CGI, and you have to appreciate the efforts everyone in the crew takes for us to enjoy the movie we are watching. The use of real planes and ships, and the actual location proved to be very effective. You could feel the fear when you heard the loud sound of those enemy planes approaching the beach. You felt the intensity, the deafening sound of the bombs that went off. Knowing the fact that they have used actual ships gave you that psychological feeling that you are also in the war with them, making everything realistic to the core. Only after seeing this movie do I realise that planes don't just blow up with one shot! All these combined with Hans Zimmer's electrifying, gripping and riveting soundtrack, are simply out of this world! Hans Zimmer, you bloody piece of genius! You never fail to impress me with your mesmerising soundtracks! Kudos to you man!
This is a movie that no matter what you do, must watch in theatre (or watch at home, if you have a good home theater system). This movie is visually magnificent to look at. It's all about the visuals and the sound effects. The cinematography, camera-work, the editing, and especially the sound effects, was spot on! Nolan took an intentional decision to focus more on the event, than on any one particular character(s). Hence, keep in mind that this is not like you would expect an usual Nolan movie to be : well character-driven, great acting performances etc.
This decision frankly surprised me, when I heard of this before I watched this movie, but after watching it, I see no reason why many feel it needed more dialogue, or it was boring! Yes, in general it probably needed more depth into the characters, but problems due to not getting attached to any particular character was not the case for me! I did care for every soldier to get out of that horrible situation. I cared for the fellows on the ship, who go into Dunkirk despite knowing how dangerous it is. Probably Nolan's intention was also to make you care for each and every 400,000 soldiers who were there, and to show you the event through great visuals. Also, its pretty understandable that when you are in a situation like that, you wouldn't engage in small talks, like how most war movies show it to be. Hence, the lesser dialogues in this film.
(I would like to take a moment and thank the person who made sure my expectations for Dunkirk didn't turn out into a disappointment. All thanks go to Chris Stuckmann, a YouTube movie & TV series reviewer. Thank God I saw his review before going into this movie. His review stated the point of this movie perfectly, that the focus was not on characters, but on the event, and all thanks to him, my expectations were well-adjusted! Thanks Mr. Stuckmann).
I like how Nolan showed the evacuation from 3 points of view, the beach, the sea and air. Each aspect gave some great scenes, especially the aerial ones. Tom Hardy's eyeballs acted well. Haha. What an actor, even with something on his face! I never even knew he played Bane in Dark Knight Rises until like 5 months after I watched that movie. Lol.
All that being said, why I feel "Dunkirk" was not as great as Nolan's other post-Batman Begins films was probably due to being very simplistic. Did you hear that? A Nolan movie, without any mind-twisting science stuff like Interstellar or complex dreams like Inception! Probably it's because of the huge expectations I had, that Nolan was going to direct a war movie, and hence it would have interesting characters to root for, with great emotional arcs for them, well shot etc. Thankfully, my expectations were made right, but probably not enough. While the entire movie was thrilling and riveting, beautifully shot and edited, my high expectations probably make me feel this way. Also, they could have used a little bit of blood. Just a little. Violence can be shown in such a way that it is not over-the-top and gory. This movie seriously lacked it.
Eh anyways. Leaving what my expectations were aside, I'd recommend every one of you to go watch this movie. Those who understand the true art & beauty of cinema, would appreciate the idea and the intention of this movie. If your expectations are fine-tuned, you'll really really enjoy it.
My rating would probably be around say 8-8.5/10. Must see at least for the visuals!
Do check out Chris Stuckmann's reviews here. He reviews movies in depth, he has sooo many categories of reviews, his videos are entertaining and fun to watch too!
To view my other reviews of English & Tamil Movies & TV series, click here.
(NO SPOILERS)
Hence, you can imagine my excitement for "Dunkirk", a real-life story about the evacuation of 400,000 soldiers stranded on this beach during World War II, waiting to be rescued, that was shot on the actual location, with actual planes and ships! Nolan is known for his minimalistic use of CGI, and you have to appreciate the efforts everyone in the crew takes for us to enjoy the movie we are watching. The use of real planes and ships, and the actual location proved to be very effective. You could feel the fear when you heard the loud sound of those enemy planes approaching the beach. You felt the intensity, the deafening sound of the bombs that went off. Knowing the fact that they have used actual ships gave you that psychological feeling that you are also in the war with them, making everything realistic to the core. Only after seeing this movie do I realise that planes don't just blow up with one shot! All these combined with Hans Zimmer's electrifying, gripping and riveting soundtrack, are simply out of this world! Hans Zimmer, you bloody piece of genius! You never fail to impress me with your mesmerising soundtracks! Kudos to you man!
This is a movie that no matter what you do, must watch in theatre (or watch at home, if you have a good home theater system). This movie is visually magnificent to look at. It's all about the visuals and the sound effects. The cinematography, camera-work, the editing, and especially the sound effects, was spot on! Nolan took an intentional decision to focus more on the event, than on any one particular character(s). Hence, keep in mind that this is not like you would expect an usual Nolan movie to be : well character-driven, great acting performances etc.
This decision frankly surprised me, when I heard of this before I watched this movie, but after watching it, I see no reason why many feel it needed more dialogue, or it was boring! Yes, in general it probably needed more depth into the characters, but problems due to not getting attached to any particular character was not the case for me! I did care for every soldier to get out of that horrible situation. I cared for the fellows on the ship, who go into Dunkirk despite knowing how dangerous it is. Probably Nolan's intention was also to make you care for each and every 400,000 soldiers who were there, and to show you the event through great visuals. Also, its pretty understandable that when you are in a situation like that, you wouldn't engage in small talks, like how most war movies show it to be. Hence, the lesser dialogues in this film.
(I would like to take a moment and thank the person who made sure my expectations for Dunkirk didn't turn out into a disappointment. All thanks go to Chris Stuckmann, a YouTube movie & TV series reviewer. Thank God I saw his review before going into this movie. His review stated the point of this movie perfectly, that the focus was not on characters, but on the event, and all thanks to him, my expectations were well-adjusted! Thanks Mr. Stuckmann).
I like how Nolan showed the evacuation from 3 points of view, the beach, the sea and air. Each aspect gave some great scenes, especially the aerial ones. Tom Hardy's eyeballs acted well. Haha. What an actor, even with something on his face! I never even knew he played Bane in Dark Knight Rises until like 5 months after I watched that movie. Lol.
All that being said, why I feel "Dunkirk" was not as great as Nolan's other post-Batman Begins films was probably due to being very simplistic. Did you hear that? A Nolan movie, without any mind-twisting science stuff like Interstellar or complex dreams like Inception! Probably it's because of the huge expectations I had, that Nolan was going to direct a war movie, and hence it would have interesting characters to root for, with great emotional arcs for them, well shot etc. Thankfully, my expectations were made right, but probably not enough. While the entire movie was thrilling and riveting, beautifully shot and edited, my high expectations probably make me feel this way. Also, they could have used a little bit of blood. Just a little. Violence can be shown in such a way that it is not over-the-top and gory. This movie seriously lacked it.
Eh anyways. Leaving what my expectations were aside, I'd recommend every one of you to go watch this movie. Those who understand the true art & beauty of cinema, would appreciate the idea and the intention of this movie. If your expectations are fine-tuned, you'll really really enjoy it.
My rating would probably be around say 8-8.5/10. Must see at least for the visuals!
Do check out Chris Stuckmann's reviews here. He reviews movies in depth, he has sooo many categories of reviews, his videos are entertaining and fun to watch too!
To view my other reviews of English & Tamil Movies & TV series, click here.
Nicely written..
ReplyDeleteThough was a bit disappointed that I understood the movie in a single go which shows that it wasn't a typical Nolan Movie.
Yeah. There was a slight thing with the chronology of the scenes, but well. Still didn't bore me though
DeleteThis movie is awesome but not so awesome than these movies released before like
ReplyDeleteMemento, Dark Knight and Inception. These movies has some iconic and memorable scenes that we will never forget but Dunkirk, it has less amount of those memorable scenes
Not a big fan of Memento, but I do agree that it's not as good as his movies including and after Batman Begins
Delete