Christopher Nolan
Dunkirk

I've read around that this movie has no protagonists and the enemies are never seen. For me, it's exactly the opposite: Dunkirk is a movie of protagonists, because in a complicated situation like the one narrated, it's the individual choices that make the difference. War doesn't exist as a collective phenomenon, but as many individual pieces, many destinies intertwining in the most unpredictable and complicated ways.

But that's not what makes Nolan's work memorable. This is a film that makes form, style, its first prerogative. And the quality of choices and their execution is frankly impressive. It's not so much the words and dialogue but rather the images, the noises, and the music that make the story, creating an enormous suggestion in the viewer.

A work that is cinema in its purest form. More than that, it is a celebration of the possibilities of the cinematic medium, regardless of pure narration. Cinema is not necessarily an art that tells something in verbal form. Dunkirk makes little use of the verbal component. It has music, it has nerve-racking ticking, it has wonderful photography and an incredibly realistic reconstruction of the scenes, whether in the sky, at sea, or on the beach.

A film of one hour and three-quarters that is however a single shard of adrenaline, set up as a crescendo of constant tension. But tension should be confined to a limited period to work. Nolan refutes this rule and attempts something new. He succeeds thanks to the collaboration with Hans Zimmer and a masterful use of music and sounds: the effect is one of a constant increase in tension, but it's actually a cyclic repetition of specific musical patterns. An illusion, essentially, that leads to mulling over in nervousness, without major cathartic releases of adrenaline. It's a slow dying, like that of the soldiers on the beaches, a quiet desperation prompted primarily by the impossibility of being master of one's destiny.

It is not an explosive war that Nolan shows us; it is a war that slowly degrades and exhausts the spirits, a decline of the flame of life for each one. And beyond the actions of the characters, there is music to give the rhythm of their souls.

If notes and noises give the feeling, vision and images provide the reason, the tactical and logistical component. Here too, we are faced with a new state of the art from the visual perspective for what is treated. Never before seen aerial duels so realistic, tense yet never triumphal, shown sparingly, limited in vision as the pilots' gaze is limited.

Even the sea sequences are impressive for realism and breadth of view. This extreme beauty is the result of a dual choice, which combines cinema of past times and the most advanced technologies. On one hand, real planes and ships, some even vintage, and models were used instead of CGI effects. On the other, the handheld Imax camera was used for the first time and even mounted on the planes. In short, a technical masterpiece. A cinema that immerses in scenarios and almost allows us to touch objects and materials; it's a tactile cinema that minimizes the gap with the real world.

The preponderance of stylistic and technical components does not prevent Nolan from constructing meaning around the events portrayed. There is the spirit of survival, which can be called selfishness, and no one here dares to judge it harshly. It is there, period. But there is also selflessness, the willingness to risk one’s life to try to save others. Indeed, saving others always implies danger, a risk. This nobility of spirit is never brought to triumph in Dunkirk; it's all very practical and concrete, the only value that matters is human life, the salvation of as many people as possible. Therefore, even those who simply try to save themselves deserve respect and in the long run may show affection for other lives.

The enemy is there, unseen, but very much present. Indeed, the deadly and very loud German air attacks transform and go beyond the pure contingency of world war. There is man, desperate on the beach of life, and then there are accidents, the evils of life, "the thousand natural shocks that Flesh is heir to." Man can cooperate for his own salvation, can give himself to another, or may struggle for his own survival. Every path is legitimate, there remains the struggle of everyone for existence.

8.5/10

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