“Wings” won
the first Best Picture Oscar in 1929 and since then 16 other war movies have
been honored with that award. I have never been a fan of the genre, in fact
missed seeing “Braveheart” and the 3 war themed movies that Clint Eastward made
plus skipping the Oscar winning “The Hurt Locker” so I approached “Dunkirk’
skeptically hearing excellent word of month.

Christopher
Nolan is a better director than screenplay writer. There are a lot of intense
war scenes including some that will have you on the edge of your seat but
emotionally you don’t become involved with the few characters he does
concentrate on. In most cases very few have names, no or very little
background. As an example in one scene a young man you get to know briefly dies
and you sort of shrug your soldiers.

The
cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema offers many haunting, striking images while
the music by Hans Zimmer sometimes adds to the horror of war while at other
times distracts from the sounds of war that have a rhythm of its own.

Nolan
intertwines 3 story lines at first dividing them calling the first part “The
Mole” representing the war on land as we follow Fion Whitehead and takes place
over a week, part two is a day at sea as we join civilian Mark Rylance, his
teenage son Tom Glynn-Carney and the latter’s friend Barry Keoghan along with a
soldier they rescue from the sea Cillian Murphy while the third is an hour in
the air seen through the eyes of pilot Tom Hardy. The director/screenwriter goes
back and forth between the different parts and times and though it may add to
the film it really isn’t necessary to give the time most thought.

Many people
under 50 may not know the story of what happened at Dunkirk and they might not
quite follow what it is all about but no matter what age you have seen the
horrors of war before.

In 106
minutes “Dunkirk” moves quickly and while it doesn’t get boring, neither does
it get you involved to feel what victory or defeat meant in the case of this
particular epic part of World War 2.

I will
probably be proven wrong but I don’t believe it is Oscar worthy!

 

 

 

 

Dunkirk
trailer

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cmgiys2n1o