Dunkirk 2017

 

 A movie review.

The year is 1940 and the British are trying to evacuate their army from Dunkirk but the enemy keeps sinking their boats. Then the Royal Navy requisitions civilian vessels.

The main character is a young British soldier called Tommy who is unsuccessfully trying to escape  and is assisted in his attempts by a man called Gibson. On the other hand, we are following the progress of a civilian boat whose owner Dawson together with his son Peter and their hand George is sailing to France to help with the evacuation. We are also shown two RAF pilots fighting the Luftwaffe. 

Well, that's about it. The film has very little dialogue and practically no background story. If you don't know much about WWII history or what actually happened in France before Dunkirk you won't learn it, either. Tommy appears out of nowhere in the beginning (he is walking down the street with a group of soldiers and the enemy starts shooting. He is the only one who manages to survive) and his last action in the movie is to read a newspaper. We know nothing about his origin, his family , his friends or anything of the kind. We can presume he will go on fighting and that's about it.

Dawson is an older man and we do learn that his eldest son was a RAF pilot killed in action. We know nothing about any other character shown except that George didn't do well in school and wanted to be a hero. This is really a very modern film and it did remind me of Civil War, though despite it vulgar moments, it was much better made, imo. 

The movie's strength is that it does quite a good job recreating an atmosphere of fear and suspense, without politically correct tropes and with great attention to details. You certainly won't be bored watching it. Though it shows war quite realistically you won't see much in the way of blood and gore which is so popular nowadays. It is war drama, not war p0rn.

In general, I'd recommend it to everyone who is into period/WWII/war movies.