Also, saw Dunkirk last night. Really good movie but I feel that many people won't like it. It's not much of a war movie. It kinda is but not a traditional war movie. There's very few actual battles in the movie. You almost never see the Germans other than their planes and there's no blood at all. There is a lot of death but I can't remember seeing blood once in the movie.
That said, it tells a very different side of the war. While there are a few heros, it's not about that. It's about a bunch of kids shitting themselves and doing anything they can to escape death. And it's about the sheer terror of being trapped on a beach with the enemy a stone's throw away, being constantly bombarded with no defence. There's very little character development, no back story, not much in the way of story telling.
What it does do well is realism. You watch things like Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan and you feel they captured the gritty realism of war. Then you see this and you look back on those other movies and shows as over the top works of fiction. That's not taking anything away from Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan. They were heartfelt depictions of troops fighting toward a goal. This doesn't give you heartfelt. This gives you a bunch of shit scared people in an impossible situation.
The movie is done in 3 parts and it jumps back and forth between the parts. The first part being the soldiers on the beach trying to evacuate. Their story is done over a week period. Apparently it is, it actually felt like it was done over 2 days. The next is the Sea setting which is based around a civilian boat. That story takes place over 1 day period. Then there's the fighter pilots who's story takes place over 1 hour. Toward the end of the movie all their stories intersect and it is done very well.
As I said, if you're expecting a full on war movie then you'll probably be disappointed. If you want to see an intense portrayal of the psychological stress in the face of certain death, this is definitely the movie for you.
As a side note though, even though it's not much of a traditional war movie and there's not many battles, when shit does hit the fan the sound is amazing, and this movie has some of the best aerial battles you'll ever see.
The one thing I didn't like about the movie was the lack of character development. I understand the reasoning behind it. Nolan was aiming for a bunch of scared people. But without any back stories to the characters and no real character development you never feel any emotional attachment to any of the characters. I guess that still works in the scheme of things as it makes them feel like just another soldier, but it makes it odd that in each story they focus so intently on a couple of characters but make no effort to emotionally develop the characters.
I'd give it a 9.5/10
