Dunkirk

Synopsis:

In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. At the end of this heroic mission, 330,000 French, British, Belgian and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated.

Movie Review:

"Dunkirk" is the new war movie directed by the great filmmaker Christopher Nolan about the 400,000 British forces that were trapped at Dunkirk by the Germans. The troops were slowly evacuated from the beaches using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. This was the turning point for the British that proved that they will never surrender to the enemy. This was one of the most engaging and tense-filled films I have seen all year. I was engrossed in the story from the first scene until the ending credits. The artistic directing enabled the look of the film to be realistic as if you were on the beaches where all of these soldiers were trapped by the enemy. The performances by the supporting cast like Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance and Kenneth Branagh were powerful and added to the telling of the story. Newcomer Fionn Whitehead is the main character and brings a great deal of emotion to every scene that he is in even though he didn't say a line until half way through the movie. The actor who surprised me the most was Harry Styles, famous for One Direction. He really impressed me with his skill for drama. The film takes place in 3 different locations, the beach, in the sky and by ship and was told in non-lineal storytelling; this style was very creative and only the talented director, Christopher Nolan's could pull it off with such success. Also, the practical effects of the film are outstanding especially where Christopher Nolan uses old, real battleships, planes and fake bullets from that time period that made you feel like you are in the era of World War II. With any film, it has some issues that could be improved such as: there are few times of the movie where it dragged through the talking scenes and also there isn't much character development where you don't know some of the characters by name, but then again this is a movie about events not characters. "Dunkirk" is an emotional yet terrifying war movie that actually made me feel like I was there. I am giving "Dunkirk" a 4 out of 5 stars.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Cast: Tom Hardy, FionnWhitehead, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Aneurin Barnard, James D'Arcy and Harry Styles

Runtime: 106 minutes