German fighter planes drop simple but demoralizing propaganda onto the British Army as they wait for evacuation. This is only the first minute of Dunkirk but it tells you everything we need to know from the start: the situation is bad and it’s only going to get worse. Within the next minute the film takes off and never really lets up. I advise you not to drink anything before or during the viewing of this film because it grabs you and never let’s go. There will be no bathroom breaks (you’ve been warned).
I’ve enjoyed war films but they always follow a set of rules. Most of the deal with World War II, featuring an inspiring tale of ordinary men fighting the against the Axis powers (usually Nazis, sometime the Japanese), and seems to have some kind of clarity by the end of the film (even in the devastation of war). War films also tend to be no shorter than two and a half hours. Dunkirk throws all of the rules out the window. With Christopher Nolan’s steady directing, and Hans Zimmer’s music direction they have essentially reinvented the war film.
This film at its core is purely about survival. The British army is isolated and alone with their backs against the beaches of Dunkirk, waiting for evacuation while trying to survive the German onslaught. To tell this story we are given three intersecting points of view: one by land, one by sea, and one by air. Each respective points of view does have characters you can follow but I’m not going to mention their roles specifically. All of the actors, including Fionn Whitehead, Cillian Murphy, Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Aneurin Barnard, and Barry Keoghan, are fantastic. But because the story telling is non-linear and jumps between the three viewpoints, it would be difficult to explain thoroughly without spoiling or diminishing it.
In most war films the enemy armies are very visible. In this film we barely ever see the Germans in the flesh. We only see them through proxies: their bullets, bombs and torpedoes. This may seem like an odd choice but because this film puts you right into the perspective of the soldiers this only heightens the tension. Some will make the argument that not seeing the enemy often enough takes away the context of the conflict. I disagree with this because we as a society have been saturated with so much of World War II that at this juncture it isn’t needed. From a human standpoint it makes us feel more for the characters trying to survive. From a cinematic standpoint this makes the enemy German soldiers even more terrifying and harder to predict. It’s the scariness of Jaws in full effect.
Quiet or loud, tension is the gimmick. We as viewers often deal with three variations of this in Dunkirk. The first is the anticipation of coming events, whether it’s a sudden attack or prolonged event we know is coming but cannot predict when. These are played up well with music and camera direction to match. The second variation is tension in silence. This film has minimal dialogue as it is but some of the best scenes are when nobody says a word. It’s those moments we get a close up of one of the actors whose face and mannerisms tell us everything we need to know. The third variation is the increased paranoia of the characters as they face the hopeless situation they’re in. This is a gradual build up and even post-traumatic stress disorder gets representation.
Zimmer’s music adds to the constant tension of the film. Though Zimmer has always used a minimalist but effective style in his music the concept of time seems to have a dominant motif here. No, I’m not exaggerating either. Most of the music will resemble a ticking clock, at different tempos and volumes. In the quieter scenes it will barely linger in the background just to remind us it’s there. As the action draws closer the tempo will increase, and your ears will be at attention. The music will become more chaotic as the situation grows direr until the anticipation reaches its critical point. The music will then explode into a crescendo before suddenly returning to almost nothing again.
Just from the music alone you may feel you can anticipate that something, not always obvious but filled with pain and death, is coming. This is an easy assumption and maybe in most cases you might be right. But if you think for a second that by paying attention, anticipating music cues or being genre savvy will make this movie predictable, think again. Dunkirk may have already happened but you won’t see everything coming. Nolan’s camera work and editing will have your attention tethered while Zimmer’s music plays your expectations like a fiddle.
It seems odd for me to try and convince someone to see a film without explaining the characters or the actor’s performance in more detail. But let me give some context from my own experience. Usually when I’m interested in a film I usually watch every trailer, look up the actors, and try to gather as much information as I can. With Dunkirk I went in practically blind, with no expectations and only a vague recollection of that first trailer (I simply forgot about the film until it was finally out). This only enhanced my experience as I had no idea what expect.
Dunkirk might be shorter than most war films (running in at only 106 minutes) but has raised the bar on what we should expect from the genre. It’s tense, well shot, and it portrays events from World War II that have not been covered yet. I hope for future war films they start focusing on new and interesting historical events, including ones outside of World War II (because there were other conflicts too). Dunkirk is still worth seeing and if you have the chance to see it with little to no preparation, do so. It’s the best way to experience this film the first time.
