acid reflects

Monumental
Review by Vives Anunciacion

Dunkirk
Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan
Rated PG
Published 7.21.2017 Inquirer Libre, PH

Dunkirk trailer

In 1940, a few months into World War II, Allied forces of Belgium, the United Kingdom and France were surrounded by the advancing units of Germany on the beaches of Dunkirk. Christopher Nolan’s latest masterpiece is the retelling of the ambitious rescue of 400,000 Allied soldiers in sweeping, gripping suspense and drama.

Three converging points of view are told: first on land, with a young soldier Tommy (newcomer Fionn Whitehead) who dodges bullet and bomb to wiggle his way onto any possible ship that can take him away from the madness of inevitable death; second on water, with civilians Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) and his son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) as they race their private yacht towards Dunkirk hoping to save as many men as they can; and finally on air, with British Spitfire pilot Farrier (Tom Hardy) who bravely tries to down as many enemy fighters and bombers as he can while his air fuel lasts.

One Direction star Harry Styles makes a film debut as a soldier, Kenneth Branagh is British Commander Bolton who oversees the rescue on the shores of Dunkirk, and Cilian Murphy appears as a traumatized soldier on board Mr. Dawson’s yacht.

Few war epics are able to balance scale and intimacy onscreen at such a short length as Warner Brothers’ and Nolan’s Dunkirk, fewer as audacious as a production given the relatively less famous historical event and non-superstar status of its performers (in film terms, One-D fans.) The triptych plot also runs on a complex time differential – one starts a week away and another just an hour away from the time the story converges.

Somehow, Christopher Nolan’s imagination has managed to mix these converging plots with emotionally engaging characters who, by all means, are unknown stakeholders of the war just trying to save as many souls as they can. And this feat is told with so short dialogue that half of the film plays out like an old silent film. On one hand it is without a doubt a big movie, on another it is so engaging with the main characters that it feels small.

It also feels like you’re watching several classic war films put together – Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 U-Boat thriller Das Boot, Steven Spielberg’s 1998 Normandy epic Saving Private Ryan and even the old-school dogfighting in William Wellman’s 1927 milestone Wings .

It’s already amazing to think about how the production went about filming everything that happened on the beach, on water, and on air – more so when you catch the moments when the story merges.

The film’s suspense wouldn’t build as great without Hans ZImmer’s intense musical scoring, mixed with that unnerving ticking of a clock, the heart-stopping zing of a rifle bullet and deafening explosion of bombs.

This is monumental filmmaking at its finest, when technical mastery of all elements of film synchronize with the human elements of gripping performance and drama, maximized on large-format screens that no home cinema can possibly match even with a 100-inch projection.

See this on the biggest screen you can find (preferably IMAX), just make sure you go see it.