One of the most beautiful war movies ever done, Nolan’s
Dunkirk is also one of the strangest ones. Dialogues are scarce and the characters
and stories we follow seem kind of generic, as if telling an abstract tale
about British survival and heroism. The real story took place before the
entrance of the US to WWII when nearly 350 thousand English and French soldiers were rescued from an
almost sure death and abuse at the hands of the German troops. The real drama was
impressive and thousands of soldiers could not make it alive. You can just
imagine the grittiness of war must have been at its fullest. But there is no
gritty here, the hundreds of soldiers onscreen look impeccably dressed and mostly clean – you can
just gasp at what the costume budget must have been – as if coming directly from
wardrobe room, perfectly armed and geared but scared to death from invisible
Germans that besides a blind gunfight at the beginning only have a presence via
the German Luftwaffe planes bombing ships and soldiers perfectly lined up as sitting ducks at the beach and
attacking British Spitfire planes. I guess, Nolan’s goal was to show the war
from the British side, the hopelessness, the fear and finally the relief of
being rescued. I am not sure if he succeeds creating an emotional denunciation of
the ravages of war though, given the austere view we get from the few
characters we follow, but he certainly creates beautiful scenes on air and sea,
with open landscapes and harrowing air battles that will become the reason why
Dunkirk will be remembered. The large views of open skies and pristine seas
make us involuntarily think of the catastrophic effects of war on the environment,
and the resilience of humans and nature alike to its own efforts of self destruction
–abstract thoughts of an almost abstract, impressionist film that will soar the
spirits of artsy moviegoers but that probably will baffle all others.
