It’s Not A Typical War Movie

Reality has never been part of Christopher Nolan’s cinematic canon. From his breakout “Memento” in 2000 through the “Dark Knight” Batman trilogy to “Inception” and “Interstellar,” he has given audiences worlds born in his imagination. So a real event, the miraculous evacuation of more than 300,000 Allied troops from the expansive English Channel beaches of Dunkirk, France, would hardly seem a subject that interested Nolan. Yet it has for over 25 years.

Nolan and his wife and producer of 20 years, Emma Thomas, both English college students and then unmarried, took a day trip across the channel to Dunkirk in a rough, long sail. Nolan became fascinated with the rescue, especially when he realized its story — how hundreds of private boats, many piloted by their owners, others by seamen from the Royal Navy, sailed into Dunkirk’s shallow waters, where large ships could not go, to carry soldiers to England — had never been told in a major film. 

Nolan’s “Dunkirk” is an atypical war movie: There are no generals and admirals setting strategy, no politicians (Churchill’s great “we shall never surrender” speech is read by a survivor at the end of the film); the characters have no back stories — they are ordinary, frightened men desperate to survive and get home; there is little dialogue in what is essentially a visual narrative; there is some blood but little gore; and it is short, only 107 minutes. Yet every minute builds tension and suspense, aided by an amazing, ticking-clock score from Hans Zimmer.

“Dunkirk” is also atypical for being shot in IMAX, and released wherever possible on 70mm film, much of it on a camera balanced on the shoulder of cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema. The effects are mostly practical rather than CGI. 

But its three distinct story strands — the men waiting for rescue under Luftwaffe strafing, the flotilla of small boats crossing the Channel, the pilots flying English Spitfires trying to give both large and small vessels protection — interweave a week, a day, an hour as Nolan bends time to his storytelling purpose with the precision of a surgeon and a “Rashomon” approach.

With little to say, Nolan’s excellent cast must act with their bodies, faces and eyes. (The movie’s opening lasts almost 15 terror-filled minutes without a word spoken; we are simply plunged into a situation where there is no victory, just survival.) We are introduced to Tommy (newcomer Fionn Whitehead), with a slight body, open boyish face and will to live. He is joined by Alex (pop singer Harry Styles, who can act too). We follow them both as they lead us to the end of the film.

The incomparable Mark Rylance plays a civilian who, along with his son and another teenager, sails his small boat across the Channel to save whomever they can. Along the way they rescue an unnamed, shellshocked character played by Cillian Murphy from the hull of a sinking submarine. 

In the air, Tom Hardy is an RAF Spitfire pilot, acting with his expressive eyes through his helmet’s visor. Kenneth Branagh and James D’Arcy lend stoicism and empathy as senior army and naval officers overseeing the evacuation.

Some may say “Dunkirk” is a cold movie that relies on craft and technique and keeps its distance from its characters. Yet what could be more human, more dramatic than men huddled and emotionally bound together for survival? By the time Hardy defies the enemy one last time, on the beach instead of in the air, you will be both exhausted and exhilarated. This is moviemaking of the highest order.

“Dunkirk” is rated PG-13 for intense war experience and some language. It is playing widely.