a review of 敦刻尔克

Since I heard of it, I expected Dunkirk to be a massive war spectacle in the likes of the beach scene of Saving Private Ryan. Realism pushed to a new, impressive level. Well, maybe it was a very realistic film, as war can undoubtedly be quite boring at times, and so was Dunkirk in my humble opinion. The synopsis: airplane above sea, ship in the sea, soldier with stoic glance, another airplane flying, another boat, water, beach, more stoic soldiers, plane, ship, sky, even more soldiers, beach, plane, Tom Hardy with serious glance behind goggles, boat, water, sky, soldiers, plane, ship, beach, sky, Hardy, soldiers... Hey, they're back in Britain. The end. And all the while there's this never-ending, ominous soundtrack that keeps giving you the feeling of a buildup to a climax, which never arrives. Then there's the strikingly absolute absence of Germans in the whole film. You might call that an interesting narrative approach, but to me it made everything feel like a one-dimensional reenactment, with an abstract, faceless enemy out of sight. As you might guess, I've got a mixed opinion about Christopher Nolan's films. I quite liked Memento, Insomnia and Batman Begins, and I love The Dark Knight, but Inception, Interstellar and The Dark Knight Rises were not my cup o' tea. Dunkirk will now be added to my list of lesser Nolan films. Sorry, Chris.