At the beginning of the Second World War more than three hundred British and allied soldiers are being miraculously rescued during the Dunkirk operation. The story starts when thousands of soldiers find themselves trapped on the beach. As they get back on the sea they face an impossible situation, but the enemy's strength never stops to grow.
It's an extraordinary undertaking, and Nolan delivers a spellbinding ride. Out of the depths or man-made horror, he's created a gripping tale of human resolve.
Heroism is celebrated, Spitfires fly, Churchill is reverently quoted and we're offered scenes of plucky British pathos that could have been written in the 1940s.
It's a curious mix of old fashioned mawkishness, dewy eyed, if understated, patriotism, and contemporary art house narratological experimentation. It is, appropriately, very British (as we like to think of ourselves).
Technically awe-inspiring, narratively inventive and thematically complex, Dunkirk reinvigorates its genre with a war movie that is both harrowing and smart.
Ambitious, emotional, impressive, beautiful, terrifying and superbly cast, it's a fitting testimony to one of the most remarkable episodes in modern warfare.
Christopher Nolan's genius for treating movies like chess matches... is brilliantly employed in this account of the British (and French) attempt to retreat across the English Channel from the coastal city of Dunkirk in the early years of World War II.