DUNKIRK 2017

FEW FILMMAKERS COULD convince a Hollywood studio to finance a World War II movie starring a cast of mostly unknowns and that bloke from One Direction. Then again, few filmmakers are Christopher Nolan. Following his trippy, time-bending space epic Interstellar, Nolan turned his attention to the 1940 evacuation of more than 300,000 Allied troops who, in the early days of the war, were stranded on the beaches of northern France with the enemy at their backs and safety (that is, Britain) a mere 39 nautical miles away. With his customary verve and the sound mix dialled up to “ear-splitting”, Nolan fractures the narrative into Land, Sea and Air, revealing the miraculous real-life event in three distinct timelines — a week, a day, and an hour — that, over a lean 106-minute running time, merge into a thunderous whole. Amongst the many, we focus on Mark Rylance’s plucky civilian sailor navigating the choppy waters of the Channel, a trio of squaddies trapped on the sand, and Tom Hardy’s stoical RAF pilot, battling the Luftwaffe alongside fellow flyer Jack Lowden to provide air support for the armada of pleasure boats and naval vessels below. Shooting on 65mm and his beloved IMAX format, in actual locations, with cumbersome cameras mounted on the decks of ships and strapped to the fuselage of restored Spitfires, Nolan immerses the viewer in the hellish rescue, presenting a visceral, unforgettable vision of war and a pulse-pounding testament to valour.