Visceral account of a triumphant defeat
BREVITY is the soul of writer-director Christopher Nolan’s harrowing wartime drama.
In his shortest feature since the acclaimed 1998 debut Following, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker crafts a stunning mosaic of personal stories of hard-fought triumph and agonising defeat against the sprawling backdrop of the largest evacuation of Allied forces during the Second World War.
Nolan adopts a stripped-back approach to storytelling that jettisons dialogue for long sequences.
He sets our nerves on edge in the hauntingly beautiful opening scene and steadily tightens the knot of tension in our stomachs until we are physically and emotionally spent. By keeping his script lean, Nolan allows us to remain whiteknuckle taut in our seats for the duration.
However, the strict rationing of screen time comes at a price. Characters’ fates intersect on sea, land and air largely without back-stories and when we do learn about these brave men’s pasts, it is predominantly through expository dialogue.
Young British soldier Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) escapes a hail of German bullets and races to the beaches of Dunkirk, where more than 300,000 exhausted men await rescue.
Tommy huddles alongside terrified recruits Gibson (Aneurin Barnard) and Alex (Harry Styles). Their fates rest in the hands of Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) and Captain Winnant (James D’Arcy), who must take tough decisions about the evacuation under enemy fire.
On the other side of the Channel, sailor Mr Dawson (Mark Rylance) answers Churchill’s plea for civilian boats to rescue the troops.
He is accompanied by his surviving teenage son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) and the lad’s friend George (Barry Keoghan).
At sea, the family rescue a shell-shocked soldier (Cillian Murphy) and witnesses a dogfight between German fighter planes and RAF Spitfires.
Dunkirk shines in fragments, which combine to form a compelling narrative that captures this page in recent history from multiple perspectives.
The ensemble cast is excellent, including One Direction dreamboat Styles, who confidently hefts the emotional weight of a tense standoff in a sinking boat.
Aerial sequences are breathtaking and sound design is also striking, notably when the score surrenders to the scream of dive-bombing Luftwaffe planes.
When the Oscar nominees are announced next year, you can be sure Nolan and his technical crew will lead the charge.