WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT DUNKIRK | JULY 2017 | FILM REVIEW

DUNKIRK: WHAT I THOUGHT.

It's not often that I see a film and come out of the cinema still thinking about it hours and even days later. It's also not often that I want to go and watch it again. I'm a massive fan of the war genre of film and novels, so when this was released I definitely had to watch it. The only other Christopher Nolan film I've watched was Inception, so Dunkirk had a lot to live up to. Dunkirk, as a location will always be a part of British history, but to be honest I didn't know much about it before I saw the film. From the beginning you were shown the struggle of soldiers trying to survive, and desperately wanting to get home or just escape France. I didn't know what to expect when Harry Styles was announced as being cast in the film, and I expected more Harry Styles fans in the cinema, but there wasn't. As a first time actor, and being cast in such a massive film there's a lot of pressure understandably, but ALL the actors from Kenneth Brannagh to Fionn Whitehead ALL of them were amazing. 

We, as 21st century people living in a high consumerist lifestyle will never fully be able to understand the struggle that the soldiers went through, and the sacrifices they made in World War II. In the film there are three perspectives; The Mole, The Sea and The Air, all three a represented accurately. The frustration of the soldiers on The Mole and The Sea for the RAF that weren't seen to be defending the ships from the air from Dunkirk, but were definitely over the channel trying to defend them, whilst preparing for the Battle Of Britain.The cinematography was beautiful, the detail of everything was phenomenal. The non-linear structure of the film was different, and at times hard to adjust to, but that's what I think made it so special and a success. The film came across as universal in the sense the enemy was called the enemy with no specific name like Germans etc, so it can be interpreted in any way around the world, and from anyone's perspective of conflict and the struggle to survive. Even though it is part of British history for the reason of being a retreat from the conflict in France, the story is still a heroic one, and the film justified the story and emotions of that time remarkably well, as we can't fully understand what it was like in that time. 

The lack of dialogue, especially with the people on the beach at Dunkirk represents the emotion and frustration of the event. They just want to get home, and as home is in reach but they're going in a never ending cycle of getting bombed and then back to the beach again before the civilians come, there's no words that can really show that feeling of frustration and desperation.