Movies. The art form that is able to communicate with it’s audience through visual imagery. An art form that has been taken on by many, and only a select group of directors stand atop the mountain of the medium’s finest talents. Christopher Nolan, director of The Dark Knight Trilogy, Interstellar, and Inception, is one of modern day cinema’s finest visionaries behind the camera. A director who cherishes the theater going experience and impacts audiences far and wide like no other. Whether you love, hate, or even feel indifferent about him, his movies make a stamp, his movies leave a mark, his movies leave audiences feeling like they’ve gone on experiences that are sure to leave them pondering each frame they’ve just witnessed. In Nolan’s approach to Dunkirk, we are whisked away on a harrowing, epic, and heroic tale unlike anything this genre has seen in the 21st century. From Dunkirk’s frightening first scene, to it’s uplifting conclusion, our heart never stops beating, our palms never stop sweating, and your eyes never lose focus of what has been placed in front of you. Dunkirk was a huge landmark in World War II and Nolan is able to capture every inch of the scale required to be able to tell this story properly. Through non-linear storytelling Nolan is able to craft a unique and pulse pounding thrill ride that never loses sights of where it wants to get. Home. What is done as soon as the film begins is ultimately what makes Dunkirk such a riveting experience, and that’s taking the audience and firmly planting them in this world. Dunkirk is viewed from the first person point-of-view angle every step of the way, and that is why we leave the theater battered, broken, and short of breath. We are another faceless soldier amongst thousands. We’re just another life that is in harm’s way. We are a character in this film. We are trying to survive. Now, Dunkirk isn’t told through the first person POV of a character in the film, no, it is told through the audience’s eyes. We are experiencing every bullet whizz past our ears, we are trying to keep our head above water, we are fighting for our life, we are experiencing these events. There isn’t quite another experience like it. In other war films like Saving Private Ryan or Fury we are witnessing those events instead of experiencing them, and that is why Dunkirk stands apart from the others. There is a difference from witnessing a stabbing, than experiencing being stabbed. We can see how other people feel, but we can’t feel what they have until we experience it ourselves, and THAT is why Dunkirk is such a horrifying experience. On numerous occasions I found myself ducking for cover and flinching at a surprise bullet headed in my direction. Which may be due to the sound design penetrating my ears in glorious IMAX, but it only added to the experience. From a plotting standpoint Dunkirk is plotted in a very simple way. Especially considering that I find Nolan’s direction to take the training wheels off entirely in terms of direction. The biggest criticism towards Nolan is how he holds his audience’s hand in every film, and it makes them feel like lesser of a viewer because it conveys that Nolan doesn’t trust his audience. Here, he puts all of his trust in his audience members to put this story together themselves through the visual imagery he puts on screen. Dunkirk contains very minimal dialogue, and it’s through the visuals we see the story be put together instead of character’s putting the story together for us. It’s unconventional, ambitious, and may throw viewers off, but when the movie comes to a close you feel rewarded as an audience member. The biggest criticism that Dunkirk has faced is the lack of multi-layered characters, and Dunkirk made it pretty clear that the characters weren’t a priority in this story. Unlike a movie like Rogue One where the movie tries to make us connect with these characters, in Dunkirk it has no intention of making us relate and feel for them. Why? Because the movie is focused on showcasing how horrifying war truly is, and not through blood, guts, gore, and drama, but through visual imagery. Many times I found the film doing a great job of conveying who a character is through the way they approach scenarios and react to the events that are occurring around them. I can’t relate to any characters in the film but I feel for them, cheer for them, and hope they survive because I am experiencing those events with them. I too see another ash ridden and greasy soldier I know nothing about because I’m not a soldier to make friends or learn about people, I’m a soldier because I fight and because I want to survive. Shifting my focus to my minor criticisms of Dunkirk, I have to say that the lack of blood frustrated me more than I thought it would heading in. I understand Nolan’s reasoning for excluding blood and gore, but when you look at some of the things that happen in this film it feels jarring to not see blood. Now, maybe not go the extent of a Saving Private Ryan or Hacksaw Ridge, but I still think that having blood adds to the experience in a war film. It makes every sequence feel more palpable, and while I won’t knock the movie hard for excluding it, it certainly would have elevated the experience in including it. My other criticism lies with the dialogue being drowned out by the sound a few times too many. Luckily, Nolan does a good enough job of tackling such a simple story that it makes the dialogue feel almost irrelevant to what we see on screen because we still understand what’s happening. But I don’t enjoy straining my ears to hear what Kenneth Branagh is saying everytime he speaks. To wrap things up, Dunkirk honestly exceed my expectations and impacted me in a powerful way that I never anticipated. The trailers didn’t intrigue me and despite my love for the director behind the camera I’m not going to get excited about a movie just because of him. There are other factors in play. I always used the term “fake excited” for Dunkirk in the months leading up to release and I think that may be why I fell in love with this movie. I heard the strong word of mouth plastered all over multiple social media outlets, but I have to see it to believe it, and I saw it, I believed it, and I loved it. Dunkirk is an outstanding achievement in technical filmmaking, and the trio of composer Hans Zimmer, director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema, and director Christopher Nolan lead the charge. It’s an exhilarating, harrowing, fierce film that is sure to electrify any audience member looking for a great time at the movies. Christopher Nolan smacked the cover off the ball and has delivered 2017’s first Academy Awards contender come next year’s awards ceremony. Dunkirk gets a 97/100