movie review dunkirk

Supported by

Review: ‘Dunkirk’ Is a Tour de Force War Movie, Both Sweeping and Intimate

Share full article

By Manohla Dargis

July 20, 2017

One of the most indelible images in “Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan’s brilliant new film, is of a British plane in flames. The movie recounts an early, harrowing campaign in World War II that took place months after Germany invaded Poland and weeks after Hitler’s forces started rolling into the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. The plane, having glided to a stop, has been defiantly set ablaze by the pilot to avoid its being captured. It’s an image of unambiguous defeat but also an emblem of resistance and a portent of the ghastly conflagrations still to come.

It’s a characteristically complex and condensed vision of war in a movie that is insistently humanizing despite its monumentality, a balance that is as much a political choice as an aesthetic one. And “Dunkirk” is big — in subject, reach, emotion and image. Mr. Nolan shot and mostly finished it on large-format film (unusual in our digital era), which allows details to emerge in great scale. Overhead shots of soldiers scattered across a beach convey an unnerving isolation — as if these were the last souls on earth, terminally alone, deserted. (Seen on a television, they would look like ants.) Film also enriches the texture of the image; it draws you to it, which is crucial given the minimalist dialogue.

The movie is based on a campaign that began in late May 1940 in the French port city of Dunkirk, where some 400,000 Allied soldiers — including more than 200,000 members of the British Expeditionary Force, the British army in Western Europe — were penned in by the Germans. The British, faced with the capture or possible annihilation of their troops, initiated a seemingly impossible rescue. Named Operation Dynamo , this mission has assumed near-mythic status in British history and been revisited in books and onscreen; it shows up in “Mrs. Miniver,” a 1942 Hollywood weepie about British pain and perseverance in the war meant to encourage American support for the Allies.

War movies tend to play out along familiar lines, including lump-in-the throat home-front tales like “Mrs. Miniver.” “Dunkirk” takes place in battle, but it, too, is a story of suffering and survival. Mr. Nolan largely avoids the bigger historical picture (among other things, the reason these men are fighting is a given) as well as the strategizing on the front and in London, where the new prime minister, Winston Churchill, was facing the horrifying possibility of diminished military muscle. Churchill is heard from, in a fashion, but never seen. Mr. Nolan instead narrows in on a handful of men who are scrambling and white-knuckling their way into history on the sea, in the air and on the ground.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

Want all of The Times? Subscribe .

Entertainment
Ambitious and Harrowing, Christopher Nolan’s <em>Dunkirk</em> Is a Masterpiece

Ambitious and Harrowing, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk Is a Masterpiece

M ost days we appear to live in a world gone mad, a time and place in which ignorance of history is treated as a kind of virtuous purity. But sometimes, cosmically, the right movie arrives at just the right time: right now Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk feels like a salve. Its visual and sound effects are elaborate and impressive. This is a grand spectacle, not an empty one, a rare example of the Hollywood blockbuster dollar well spent. Dunkirk is extraordinary not just because it’s ambitious and beautifully executed, but because Nolan , who both wrote and directed it, has put so much care into its emotional details—and has asked so much of, and trusted, his actors. As great filmmakers before him—Lewis Milestone, Sam Fuller, Brian De Palma—knew, you can’t tell a story of war without faces. Faces carry history. They’re genetic maps, but they’re vessels of spiritual memory too. Dunkirk , set against events that happened more than 75 years ago, is like a message from a lost world. If the setting feels unfamiliar to you, don’t worry, trust the faces.

Dunkirk, in theaters July 21, is a fictional story set amid real events of late May and early June 1940. The capitulation of Belgium left Allied troops trapped between German forces and the French coast. America, still in the grip of isolationism, would not enter the Second World War until the following year. Driven back by the enemy, Allied soldiers became stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk. And, against all odds, some 338,000 were rescued. The backbone of Operation Dynamo , as the mission was called, was a flotilla of around 700 small fishing and pleasure boats, many of them captained by their owners, private British citizens who made the treacherous English Channel crossing to assist military vessels in bringing the troops home. That rescue came to be known as the Miracle of Dunkirk .

Any historical event can take on a sheen of nostalgic sentimentality with the passage of time, particularly when it’s dramatized on the big screen. History demands a degree of shaping to make sense on film. But if the Dunkirk evacuation is a sturdy, made-for-the-movies heroic narrative, it’s also one that’s both humble and humbling. This is a story of regular people who took action without hesitation, joining forces, at great personal risk, to form an invincible whole. These were big men in little boats.

Dunkirk is also the story of the soldiers they rescued, young men who weren’t prepared for the war they’d just entered, and not just because of their youth. Their training had been constructed around the lessons Great Britain learned in World War I, when bayonets and trenches dominated. Meanwhile, the German enemy had been aggressively and effectively trained. The men Nolan shows us in Dunkirk have already been forced to retreat—they’re exhausted from a battle we never even see—and in the early minutes of the film, they’re lined up on the beach in impossibly large numbers. A screen title tells us that they’re “hoping for deliverance.” Another title amends that with “for a miracle.”

One of those men is Tommy, an English soldier who, in the movie’s opening, narrowly escapes being killed by his own countrymen, men so desperate they’ll shoot at anything that moves. (Tommy is played by Fionn Whitehead , a new young actor who gives a superb, nearly wordless performance.) He makes his way to the beach, where he sees those throngs of exhausted, forsaken soldiers. Though the French have been fighting side by side with the English, there are far too few transports for so many men. Only the English soldiers will be evacuated; the French will be left behind. On that beach, Tommy sees another soldier crouched in the sand near a half-buried body. The exchange between them is a kind of mindreading, a language of quizzical glances and shrugs. The other soldier ( Aneurin Barnard ) will come to be called Gibson.

MORE: Director Christopher Nolan on Why He Made Dunkirk Now

Later, the two men run across the beach together, each clinging to the handles of a stretcher bearing a wounded man. At this point the music, by Hans Zimmer, is a virtual cricket field of violins, the most anxious of all instruments. Nolan and his cinematographer, Hoyte van Hoytema, shoot the men and their stretcher from the back, from the side, from the front on the diagonal—the sequence is jangly and kinetic, almost like an experimental minifilm about teamwork and animal survival.

Tommy, Gibson and their stretcher will eventually make their way to, and across, the Mole, a long jetty stretching out into the water. In real life, as in the movie, it was the somewhat fragile-looking concrete and wood finger from which most of the Dunkirk men were rescued. But if the soldiers’ story, at this point, represents what’s happening on land, there are other stories unfolding in the air and on the water, and Nolan connects them all with nearly invisible stitches. Mr. Dawson ( Mark Rylance , in one of the finest performances we’re likely to see this year) sets out on his small, fine beauty of a boat, the Moonstone, the minute he hears help is needed. His son Peter ( Tom Glynn-Carney , looking, with his blond forelock, like an English Troy Donahue) is with him, and a neighbor, George ( Barry Keoghan , whose eager, earnest face practically tears a gash in the movie), hops aboard at the last minute, uninvited but welcome enough.

Rylance has the demeanor, the carriage and even the wardrobe of a man who stands by what’s right. When he boards his boat, he’s wearing a full tweed suit, complete with waistcoat. But his sense of what’s right has nothing to do with propriety. It comes, simply, from the heart. In one of the film’s quietest, most astonishing moments, he confirms to his son, with nothing more than a glance, that telling a lie can sometimes be the right thing to do.

Of course, Dunkirk is an action movie. Nolan calls it a “ride,” the kind of cringe-inducing language encouraged by marketing departments. But he clearly knows it’s more than that. The picture is intense and harrowing in places. Those with fears of claustrophobia and drowning should steel themselves. The movie is also at times assaultively loud, a feature that meshes with eyewitness accounts. Yet it’s so carefully paced and shaped that it never feels like punishment. It is also only 106 min. long—its very economy is an act of boldness. Instead of shrinking from this world, you reach toward it. This is a picture that needs to be seen big, in Imax if you can. (That recommendation comes from a person who normally prefers dentistry to Imax.)

It also comes, by the way, from a person who has gotten little enjoyment from most of Nolan’s movies, with the exception of the observant and deeply affectionate 2015 documentary short Quay , about experimental animators Stephen and Timothy Quay . Nolan is perhaps best known for his trilogy of Batman films, particularly The Dark Knight (2008), which characterizes the Gotham superhero as a reclusive, reluctant loner with a bruised soul. But the movie’s alleged darkness is of the calculated sort. Like most of Nolan’s pictures—especially the elaborate puzzle movie Inception (2010), a densely plotted dazzler that adds up to nothing—it’s heavy on flashy technique that strives to persuade us it’s great filmmaking.

Dunkirk , grand and ambitious as it is, is different from any other Nolan movie. It’s different from any other war movie, period. Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) is often hailed as a great war picture, and its Normandy-invasion sequence is brutally effective. But its intensity practically burns the rest of the story away. Nolan sustains Dunkirk ’s dramatic tension from start to finish. This is a supreme achievement made from small strokes, a kind of Seurat painting constructed with dark, glittering bits of history. Nolan filmed largely on location, at Dunkirk Beach. (In certain scenes, a calm lake in the Netherlands stood in for the bulldoggishly choppy English Channel.) The flying scenes, taut and thrilling, feature real vintage Spitfires. When the small boats arrive, many of them are the actual Dunkirk Little Ships, venerable, elderly, lovingly preserved boats that were part of the rescue in 1940. They have names like Elvin and Caronia, Endeavour and Mary Jane. In a terrifying scene, soldiers traveling safely and happily on a large transport ship, eating jam on bread and drinking mugs of tea as they look forward to reaching home shores, suddenly and brutally face death by drowning. One man struggles underwater, and the moment would be like any other terror-at-sea image except for a staggering, barely glimpsed detail: he does not let go of his tin mug.

Dunkirk is about both suffering and bravery, about individuals who care less about themselves than about a greater good. To them, isolationism would be an affront. One of the movie’s most heroic faces is one we barely see: Tom Hardy plays RAF pilot Farrier. He spends most of the movie with an aviator helmet clamped on his head and a mask drawn across his mouth. The intensity of his performance is built almost completely with gestures. He waves or nods to his colleagues as they skim by in their Spitfires, and even when they seem too far away to possibly read his meaning, you’re sure that they do. He casts an apprehensive glance at his busted fuel gauge. (He makes chalk marks on the dashboard to keep track of how much juice he has left.) Somehow his eyes, even though we can’t always see them clearly, betray worry for his colleagues but little for himself. We can read his mind, even though it’s protected by layers of leather and shearling. And his ultimate act is a doozy—no less than we expect from this man we hardly know.

The casting of Dunkirk is near perfect. From Hardy to Keoghan, from Rylance to Harry Styles , the pop star who plays one of the young soldiers, the picture is filled with great English faces. But to call them characteristically English faces is wrong. Remember, they’re supposed to be the faces of men who lived more than 75 years ago. Today, the face of England—like that of France or any other European country—is much more racially mixed. Love of country comes with no color or birthplace attached. Nolan doesn’t address that idea directly—the story of Dunkirk is almost exclusively about white men, something that can’t be changed after the fact. But his approach opens out to it implicitly. Late in the film, a British commander played by a stalwart Kenneth Branagh , knowing that nearly all of his own men have been rescued, makes an executive pronouncement: He will not leave stranded French soldiers behind. His England, even then, was part of a greater whole, and that made him no less English.

If you see Dunkirk for no other reason, see it for its vision of the faces of men who took action, without having any idea what the world would become. All they knew was that they wanted the best for it.

More Must-Reads from TIME

Heman Bekele Is TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year
The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris
The 7 States That Will Decide the Election
Why China Won’t Allow Single Women to Freeze Their Eggs
Is the U.S. Ready for Psychedelics?
The Rise of a New Kind of Parenting Guru
The 50 Best Romance Novels to Read Right Now
Can Food Really Change Your Hormones?

Dunkirk Review

Shock and awe..

Thousands of extras huddled together on a narrow strip of beach. Reconditioned fighter planes screaming across the sky in perfect formation. Three different perspective and timespans, unfolding and intersecting. Dunkirk is ambitious, monumental filmmaking, to say the least, but director Christopher Nolan handles it all masterfully, delivering an unconventional and stunning war movie.

It tells of the evacuation of Allied soldiers stranded on the beaches of France during World War II. Close to 400,000 soldiers were cut off with the German army surrounding them, with only days to escape. Unconventionally for a war movie, it isn’t really about facing nor fighting the enemy but the desperate act of survival.

Unlike other WW2 movies, such as Saving Private Ryan or the more recent Hacksaw Ridge, Dunkirk never lingers on gruesome shots of mangled corpses to convey the horror of war. In fact, “horror” isn’t the right word – Dunkirk evokes the sheer terror of it all; the huge, abstract forces surrounding and threatening to swallow the lives of ordinary people.

Moments of eerie silence are violently broken by thunderous walls of sound – piercing gunfire and screeching Spitfires. The sound design is incredible, and I spent entire scenes forcibly pressed into my comfy IMAX seat. This is only heightened by Han Zimmer’s colossal score, which plays a crucial role in making Dunkirk feel so intense and suspenseful. (I even laughed a couple of times, unintentionally, because I didn’t quite know how else to cope with the mounting tension.)

But amidst the sound and fury, Dunkirk possesses a meditative quietness. There can’t be more than a handful of pages of dialogue scattered within its 106-minute runtime. It’s a bold decision, creating a starkness at the level of plot and character, but it never bothered me in the slightest such is the quality of filmmaking and acting on show.

In fact, the smattering of exposition results in the movie’s clumsiest scene, in which two soldiers overhear officers outlining their dire predicament. But compared to most movies, there’s almost nothing – Nolan instead focuses on the immediacy of their plight. Similarly, characters never regale their peers with tales of back home or rouse them with perfectly measured speeches; they’re terrified young men, not much older than boys, trying to survive. That’s all you get, and all I really needed to know. The lack of individual character detail and development never hindered how much I feared for their safety. There’s one scene involving a fighter pilot that literally had me on the edge of my seat, and the only detail I could latch onto was a Scottish accent. Without knowing much about these men, you still fear for their lives.

The actors do brilliantly with relatively little in the way of dialogue. The cast of unknowns are compelling, with Harry Styles handed some of the more dramatic scenes which he handles with skill beyond his experience. He can definitely act. The young cast is shored up with assured performances by Kenneth Branagh’s Navy commander and Tom Hardy’s ace RAF pilot. But the standout performance is undoubtedly Mark Rylance as the quietly heroic Mr. Dawson, who answers the call and sails his pleasure yacht towards Dunkirk and into war.

Dunkirk deftly moves between the big and small, thunderous spectacle and incidental detail – bread smeared with strawberry jam, scuffed and bloodied knuckles, and the restorative power of a good cup of tea. (This is a British war story, after all.)

The metaphor isn’t thickly smeared on but soon becomes clear: Dunkirk turns into a purgatory for the stranded men. Home is within sight, but Hell isn’t far away, either. Men leave by boat only to be thrown back upon the sand. The point is underscored by some stunning visuals, with the beach – slate-grey, fog-bound – seemingly becoming disconnected from time and space.

The whole movie is breathtaking to look at, in fact, with every frame artfully constructed. Seeing it on IMAX is unquestionably the best way to watch it, with approximately 75% of footage filmed to suit the format; it creates a towering and overwhelming experience.

As with many of Nolan’s movies, time is hugely significant. With the German forces marching ever closer, the stranded soldiers are running out of it. Events are seen from three perspectives – land, sea, and air – each one unfolding at a different rate – one week, one day, and one hour, respectively. As the film progresses, the events of the young infantrymen, the civilian sailors coming to their rescue, and the RAF pilots guarding them up above begin to dovetail in surprising and satisfying ways. Occasionally, this unusual structure creates moments of passing confusion. A couple of times I wasn’t sure if I was witnessing a new event or a familiar one from a different angle. It’s not a huge problem, more of a slight stumble, and forgivable for the larger effect it creates: pressure and anxiety mount as you see these distinct timelines grow closer and eventually collide. The whole movie feels like watching a ticking bomb.

Dunkirk doesn’t dwell on the horror of war but instead successfully conveys the sheer terror of it all through both small, human acts and deafening scenes of conflict. This isn’t a war story that leads to victory – that’s not what the story of Dunkirk is about – it was a retreat, an inglorious defeat. The war would continue for five more years. But through its miraculous events, Nolan and an outstanding cast of both young unknowns and veterans are able to depict not only the overwhelming, inhuman forces in play but the power of small acts of decency and bravery.

Where to Watch

More Reviews by Daniel Krupa

Ign recommends.

Alien: Romulus - Is There a Post-Credits Scene?

Cast & crew
User reviews

Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II. Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II. Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.

Christopher Nolan
Fionn Whitehead
Barry Keoghan
Mark Rylance
2.7K User reviews
577 Critic reviews
94 Metascore
67 wins & 236 nominations total

Top cast 86

French Soldier

Irate Soldier

Warrant Officer

French Soldier 2
French Soldier 3

Petty Officer

Stretcher Bearer

Soldier at the Gap

Able Seaman
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia According to Sir Kenneth Branagh , roughly thirty Dunkirk survivors, who were in their mid-90s, attended the premiere in London, England. When asked about the movie, they felt that it accurately captured the event, but that the soundtrack was louder than the actual bombardment, a comment that greatly amused writer, producer, and director Sir Christopher Nolan .
Goofs The Luftwaffe did not start painting fighter aircraft nose cones yellow until later in 1940. However Christopher Nolan has admitted this was done deliberately to make the German aircraft easier to identify by the audience.

Blind Man : Well done, lads. Well done.

Alex : All we did is survive.

Blind Man : That's enough.

Crazy credits "The following Dunkirk little ships recreated their courageous and historic journey for this film: Caronia, Elvin, Endeavour, Hilfranor, Mary Jane, Mimosa, MTB 102, New Britannic, Nyula, Papillon, Princess Elizabeth, RIIS I"
Alternate versions In Spain, the film was projected on 2.35:1 screens in the 2.20:1 aspect ratio. But the film was finally projected with black bars on the four sides of the screen. This same situation happened with Jurassic World (2015) and just before the film started a text appeared on the screen explaining the 2.00:1 aspect ratio fitting on the 2.35:1 screen adding black bars up an down. Dunkirk (2017) didn't show any explanation before the film.
Connections Featured in Film '72: Episode #46.1 (2017)
Soundtracks Variation 15 (Dunkirk) by Benjamin Wallfisch Produced by Hans Zimmer Based on a theme by Edward Elgar

User reviews 2.7K

May 6, 2018
How long is Dunkirk? Powered by Alexa
If there were literally 1000's of armed soldiers on the beach, why wasn't it possible to all shoot at one plane at a time as it approached? Out of a few thousand bullets surely the chances of hitting the plane would be high?
What does "The Mole: One Week, The Sea: One Day and The Air: One Hour" mean?
Is the story line based on the real-life experiences of Commander Charles Lightoller at Dunkirk?
July 21, 2017 (United States)
United Kingdom
Netherlands
United States
Official Facebook
Official Instagram
Urk, Flevoland, Netherlands
Warner Bros.
Dombey Street Productions
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$100,000,000 (estimated)
$189,740,665
$50,513,488
Jul 23, 2017
$530,432,122

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 46 minutes
Dolby Digital

More to explore

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

81% Alien: Romulus Link to Alien: Romulus
100% Daughters Link to Daughters
78% Cuckoo Link to Cuckoo

New TV Tonight

100% Pachinko: Season 2
-- OceanXplorers: Season 1
89% Chimp Crazy: Season 1
-- Classified: Season 1
-- Reasonable Doubt: Season 2
-- The Anonymous: Season 1
-- Face to Face With Scott Peterson: Season 1

Dunkirk Reviews

Dunkirk is a the best directed film of the year and perhaps Christopher Nolan’s best film yet. The way he plays with space and time, alongside his technical prowess of sensory storytelling, makes the film so immersive in supplanting you into these events.

Full Review | Aug 8, 2024

Nolan chooses to put more weight in opening a door to save someone, or helping to bury a dead companion, than he is with saving a life. This makes Dunkirk surprisingly rewatchable, even on the small screen at home...

Full Review | Jul 2, 2024

As technically proficient and respectful to history as Dunkirk is, no substantial human anchors of emotion emerge in this film that wants to be seen as an inspiring rescue saga before a war film or historical epic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 7, 2024

Dunkirk, like Interstellar before it, fails not because it errs too far in one direction, but because of the same fundamental flaw — Nolan is not a gifted enough filmmaker to justify these films' more demanding conceits.

Full Review | Dec 6, 2023

With Dunkirk, we finally have a magnum opus from Nolan that's set in a real, identifiable world; and it raises questions about the worst side of humankind – war.

Full Review | Oct 23, 2023

Immerses you in war because it’s so stripped down, with Nolan wanting you to feel what the British soldiers are going through.

Full Review | Oct 17, 2023

Perhaps Nolan’s most precise effort, Dunkirk is all at once a rousing testament to heroism and an unforgiving reminder of how the horrors of war unfold on the innocent.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2023

I contend that not only has Nolan grown as an auteur, but that he has perfectly captured a universal truth to which all may relate and celebrate.

Full Review | Jun 22, 2023

Dunkirk was a well-made film that really made me understand just how dire the entire situation was. It opened my eyes to the horrors of what those troops went through.

Full Review | Apr 26, 2023

Dunkirk was a pivotal early moment in World War 2 and the Dunkirk spirit is something that has lived on through those most closely affected by it. Christopher Nolan brings it to the screen through an incredibly immersive and propulsive experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

Audiences are quite understandably going to consider Dunkirk a war film, quite possibly one of the great war films of our age. Christopher Nolan's tenth picture is possibly an even better survival horror movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 23, 2022

Nolan has crafted an impressive tribute to the survivors and the grand-scale efforts of the British people, resulting in the essential film about Dunkirk yet made.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 23, 2022

Director Christopher Nolan moves us from the epic to the intimate, giving us a sense of the scope of this event and then diving into the sensory experience of our dramatic representatives.

Full Review | Mar 19, 2022

At 106 minutes, Dunkirk is one of the shortest films of Nolans career but on par with The Dark Knight as his best.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 18, 2022

Pausing the cacophony for thirty seconds to let the strings swell while Kenneth Branagh's eyes moisten does not an emotional experience make

Full Review | Jan 10, 2022

A film that vindicates the struggle of the anonymous heroes, solidarity, and highlights the importance of not giving up in the most adverse moments, where everything seems to be lost. A very necessary message for the times we live [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 2, 2022

Nolan's strength here is his ability to place audiences right into the thick of the various struggles taking place by air, land and sea.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 10, 2021

One of the best films of the decade... leaves no doubt about Nolan's genius and his position within the pantheon of legendary directors. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Apr 28, 2021

Packing heart, visual flair and the acting debut of a certain Harry Styles, war movies don't get more gripping than this Christopher Nolan epic.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 27, 2021

Previous Christopher Nolan films have been marred by overexplaining the premise. This film breaks free of such cumbersomeness, with many moments being sparse of dialogue.

Full Review | Apr 13, 2021

an image, when javascript is unavailable

‘Dunkirk’ Review: Christopher Nolan’s WWII Epic May Be the Greatest War Film Ever

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

From first frame to last, Christopher Nolan ‘s Dunkirk is a monumental achievement, a World War II epic of staggering visual spectacle (see it in IMAX if you can) that hits you like a shot in the heart. Leave it to a filmmaking virtuoso at the peak of his powers to break both new ground and all the rules – who else would make a triumphant war film about a crushing Allied defeat? And who but Nolan, born in London to a British father and an American mother, would tackle WWII without America in it?

The time is 1940, and the Yanks haven’t yet entered the hostilities. There are 400,000 British, French, Canadian and Belgian soldiers trapped on the beaches of a small French town called Dunkirk, all waiting to be evacuated before they’re wiped out by the might of Hitler on land, sea and air. The Allied troops are sitting ducks, caught in a vise of tension that the director makes throat-catchingly palpable on screen. It’s a brutal irony that the English Channel, a 26-mile stretch of water, is so close the British soldiers can squint and see home. But the water is too shallow for large rescue ships; only small boats and private yachts can get in. A miracle is needed in the form of a mini-armada manned by civilians. A miracle is what they get.

Aside from Nolan’s 1998 feature debut Following, Dunkirk – at a tight, transfixing 106 minutes – is the shortest entry in the filmmaker’s back catalog. What the writer-director has done here, besides keeping dialogue to a minimum, is remove the backstory and cut to the chase. We’re right there in the battle and on the beaches, feeling what these young soldiers feel as they cope with the buzz of looming death and sudden blasts of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror. The ticking-clock urgency and immediacy takes your breath away. And if you thought Nolan screwed around with space and time in Memento and Inception, wait till you see the linear leaps he makes in this film so that audiences can see the same event from interlocking perspectives over an hour, a day, a week.

Editor’s picks

Every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term, the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history.

Newcomer Fionn Whitehead excels as Tommy, the movie’s universal soldier and the represention of all the raw recruits trapped on the beach. He joins up two other soldiers – Gibson (Aneurin Barnard) and Alex ( Harry Styles , playing a small role with subtle grace and zero pop-star showboating). They want to make it to “the mole,” a pier where vessels await orders from naval Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) and army Col. Winnant (James D’Arcy). It’s Tommy’s plan to gain access to a hospital ship. Naturally, what can go wrong does. Nolan never shows us the enemy; he makes the Nazis as abstract and suddenly lethal as they are to the men on the beach.

Meanwhile, in the air, Spitfire fighter planes are assigned to provide cover on the beach and shoot down Luftwaffe bombers. Dunkirk focuses most on Farrier, a Royal Air Force Spitfire pilot played by Tom Hardy , his face mostly hidden behind a mask (shades of Bane) but whose demeanor tells a complete story. The aerial sequences are like nothing you’ve ever seen, as Nolan hoists his cameras up through the cockpit and into the wild blue yonder, without the use of green screens or phony digital effects. You are right there in the middle of these dizzying dogfights, and the experience is both frightening and thrilling.

On the sea, we watch Dawson, played by Oscar winner Mark Rylance, maneuver his own yacht, the Moonstone, across the Channel, with the help of his son (Tom Glynn-Carney) and a local kid (Barry Keoghan) eager to join the fray. The boat crew picks up a shivering soldier (the excellent Cillian Murphy) whose ship has been torpedoed and whose eyes reflect a horror he can’t articulate. The cast is reliably superb, but this is not a film that needs or encourages star turns – it’s as fine and unselfish a display of ensemble acting as you’ll see anywhere.

Which is exactly as it should be. Nolan’s film is, above all, a celebration of communal heroism – the “Dunkirk spirit” that enabled these soldiers, despite heavy casualties, to fight another day. As the new British Prime Minister Winston Churchill would later say, “Wars are not won on evacuations.” Had Hitler pursued the fight on the beaches and forced a surrender, we’d all be living a real version of The Man in the High Castle.

Trump Spends Rally Whining About Biden’s Exit, Harris’ Magazine Cover

Mark robinson, who often calls abortion murder: ‘we had an abortion’, vfw condemns donald trump's 'asinine' comments about medal of honor, taylor swift performs ‘i did something bad’ for first time during eras tour.

So it’s impossible to overstate the importance of this battle, especially to the people of Great Britain. To outsiders, especially here in Trump’s America, the significance might be lost – or even be counted as a spoiler. Nolan has changed all that with a film that speaks to soldiers and noncombatants working together to forge a bond out of suffering. Though the film is alive with action and Hitchcock-level suspense, the intimate moments are just as shattering. In contrast to the R-rated savagery of the Normandy invasion in Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, the filmmaker takes a PG-13 approach that writes its story of the faces of those in the thick of it.

The 100 Greatest Movies of the Nineties

And in his attempt to record history realistically onscreen, Nolan rejects computer tricks in favor of practical effects, using thousands of extras and whatever boats and planes he could find from the era. The impact is incalculable and indelible. Cheers to camera wiz Hoyte van Hoytema, editor Lee Smith, composer Hans Zimmer (listen for the tick-tock in his score) and a next-level soundscape for sustaining a breakneck pace without losing the personal toll taken on its characters. This is not a film about politics or the major figures of the era (a Churchill speech is heard, but only as read by a soldier on the ground). In fact, Nolan argues that he hasn’t made a war film at all, but a story of survival. Point taken. But there’s little doubt that he has, without sentimentality or sanctimony, raised that genre to the level of art. Dunkirk is a landmark with the resonant force of an enduring screen classic. The Oscar race for Best Picture is officially on.

Indiana Jones' 'Temple of Doom' Fedora Sells for $630,000 at Auction

By Daniel Kreps

Alain Delon, French Actor Who Starred in 'Le Samourai,' Dead at 88

Hillary clinton, nancy pelosi to guest on stephen colbert's live dnc episodes.

By Ethan Millman

'Deadpool & Wolverine' Beats 'Joker' as Highest-Grossing R-Rated Film

$UPERHEROE$
By Tomás Mier

Matthew Perry Was Receiving Multiple Ketamine Injections a Day Before Death

Courts and Crime
By Jon Blistein

Most Popular

Halle berry says blake lively asked if she'd reprise storm in 'deadpool & wolverine.' she answered 'yes' as long as ryan reynolds called: 'but he never asked me', joaquin phoenix’s last-minute exit sparks “huge amount of outrage” among hollywood producers, ‘caitlin clark effect’ hits bottom line in indiana fever finance report, george & amal clooney’s twins’ ultra-rare appearance shows their love for all kind of animals, you might also like, brian cox says state of cinema is in ‘a very bad way,’ blames ‘deadpool & wolverine’ and comic book movies: ‘it’s beginning to implode’, zoë kravitz embraces lace in saint laurent set and channing tatum suits up in the row for ‘blink twice’ london photocall, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, jenna ortega thought she was ‘disassociating’ seeing michael keaton as beetlejuice: ‘i had to stare at my hands’, nfl to meet again on private equity on aug. 27 in minneapolis.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘dunkirk’: film review.

Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk' follows soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire, Canada and France as they're surrounded by the German army and evacuated during the eponymous World War II battle.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Send an Email
Show additional share options
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest
Share on Reddit
Share on Tumblr
Share on Whats App
Print the Article
Post a Comment

Dunkirk is an impressionist masterpiece. These are not the first words you expect to see applied to a giant-budgeted summer entertainment made by one of the industry’s most dependably commercial big-name directors. But this is a war film like few others, one that may employ a large and expensive canvas but that conveys the whole through isolated, brilliantly realized, often private moments more than via sheer spectacle, although that is here, too. Somber, grim and as resolute in its creative confidence as the British are in this ultimate historical narrative of having one’s back to the wall, this is the film that Christopher Nolan earned the right to make thanks to his abundant contributions to Warner Bros. with his Dark Knight trilogy. He’s made the most of it.

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Alex garland talks “stupid” ‘civil war’ takes and ’28 days later’ trilogy, reveals favorite film he’s done, john aprea, actor in ‘the godfather part ii’ and ‘full house,’ dies at 83, ‘alien: romulus’ wins busy box office weekend with $41.5m opening, $108m globally, alain delon, seductive star of european cinema, dies at 88, halle berry has one response to ‘catwoman’ critics who say 2004 movie “sucked balls”, jamie lee curtis is “grateful” for lindsay lohan as ‘freakier friday’ filming nears end: “my ultimate movie daughter”.

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

For Parents
For Educators
Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

Movie Reviews
Best Movie Lists
Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best TV Lists
Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
Common Sense Selections for TV
Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

Book Reviews
Best Book Lists
Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Game Reviews
Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Podcast Reviews
Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

App Reviews
Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

YouTube Channel Reviews
YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

How to Prepare Your Kids for School After a Summer of Screen Time

Family Tech Planners
Digital Skills
All Articles
Latino Culture
Black Voices
Asian Stories
Native Narratives
LGBTQ+ Pride
Best of Diverse Representation List

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 57 Reviews
Kids Say 154 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Intense, challenging story shows the horrors of war.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Takes place during an intense, terrible WWII battle. Tons of realistic bombing a

At least two uses of "f--k." Plus "hell," "damn,"

Returning soldiers are rewarded with bottles of cold beer.

Any Positive Content?

Even though the battle at Dunkirk resulted in many deaths, it also represents a

Mr. Dawson is perhaps the most recognizable character -- and the one most noted

Violence & Scariness

Takes place during an intense, terrible WWII battle. Tons of realistic bombing and shooting. Not much blood shown, but countless soldiers die, often drowning or being swept into the sea. Soldiers burn in an oil fire on the water's surface. A teen has a fatal fall and dies. In the distance, a man walks into the ocean, presumably to commit suicide. Frequent peril/tension; many characters put themselves in danger to help others.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

At least two uses of "f--k." Plus "hell," "damn," a use of "Christ" (as an exclamation), and a possible use of "s--t" (hard to hear).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Even though the battle at Dunkirk resulted in many deaths, it also represents a triumph in heroism and courage: countless people worked together, risking their lives to help strangers.

Positive Role Models

Mr. Dawson is perhaps the most recognizable character -- and the one most noted for his bravery and his sacrifices. While most other characters are deliberately stripped down (and, as a result, are somewhat thin), there's no question that many of them exhibit strengths like courage and teamwork.

Parents need to know that Dunkirk is director Christopher Nolan 's World War II movie about the real-life incident in which Allied forces were surrounded and trapped on Dunkirk beach -- and everyday heroes helped rescue them, despite the risk of danger and death. The movie's war violence is realistic and intense, with heavy bombing and shooting and many deaths (though very little blood). Planes crash in the ocean, ships fill with water and sink, and an oil slick catches fire, burning many soldiers. A teen civilian is injured, and a man walks into the ocean, presumably to commit suicide. Language includes two uses of "f--k" and one "Christ" (as an exclamation), and there's one scene with beer. Kenneth Branagh , Tom Hardy , and Cillian Murphy co-star, but there are many characters, some of whom aren't clearly distinguished from others. That, plus Nolan's time-twisting technique, can make the story challenging to follow. But it has messages of bravery, teamwork, and sacrifice, and persistent teens and adults will be rewarded with a powerful, visceral experience. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (57)
Kids say (154)

Based on 57 parent reviews

You People Dont Understand This Movie

What's the story.

In DUNKIRK, it's 1940, and Allied soldiers in France are surrounded and forced onto the beach at Dunkirk. Amid the chaos, several English soldiers await some kind of transport back to England; at one point, they discover an abandoned, beached boat and hide inside to await high tide. Meanwhile, private English citizens who own boats have volunteered to cross the channel and pick up as many soldiers as they can carry. Mr. Dawson ( Mark Rylance ) is one of them; along with two boys, he rescues a downed fighter pilot ( Cillian Murphy ). But tragedy awaits. Then another fighter pilot ( Tom Hardy ) crosses the channel, carefully conserving his fuel, when an enemy plane attacks. Back at the beach, Commander Bolton ( Kenneth Branagh ) waits on the dock for help to arrive.

Is It Any Good?

Christopher Nolan 's first history movie is bold, visceral, and powerful, with many moving sequences -- though some of his filmmaking choices can be challenging. As with some of Nolan's other movies (especially his great Memento ), Dunkirk experiments with time. The story's three sections are told at different rates; the beach sequences take place over one week, the boat sequence takes one day, and the plane sequences take one hour. But unlike in Memento , here, this technique lacks clarity, mainly because Nolan doesn't visually distinguish between many of the aircrafts or ships, nor does he make it easy to tell many of the young soldiers apart.

Dunkirk wants us to follow two of the soldiers in particular, but that becomes increasingly difficult, especially as they get covered in dirt and grime. Many characters also have thick English accents (to a U.S. ear, anyway), and the sound mixing and Hans Zimmer's heavy score often drown out the dialogue. All this can make the movie tricky to follow, especially if you don't have the option of subtitles. Sometimes it seems that Nolan is deliberately trying to strip his story of traditional character arcs and dialogue, perhaps to find its essence. This doesn't always work, but Dunkirk is such an immediate horrors-of-war experience, throwing the viewer so vividly into the picture, that it's difficult to dismiss.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Dunkirk 's violence . How does this kind of violence compare to what you might see in a superhero movie? Which feels more intense/has a bigger impact ? Why? Does the fact that it's not especially bloody/gory affect your reaction?

Does the movie make war look heroic? Horrifying? How? Which of the characters are role models ? Why? How do they demonstrate courage and teamwork ? Why are those important character strengths ?

How does Dunkirk compare to other war movies you've seen? Is it more realistic? If so, how does it achieve that?

Were you able to tell all the characters and their sea crafts apart? Do you think the fact that many were similar was a specific choice? If so, what do you think the purpose of that choice was? (Some say that it parallels the chaos of actual war.)

Movie Details

In theaters : July 21, 2017
On DVD or streaming : December 19, 2017
Cast : Tom Hardy , Cillian Murphy , Kenneth Branagh , Mark Rylance
Director : Christopher Nolan
Studio : Warner Bros.
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : History
Character Strengths : Courage , Teamwork
Run time : 106 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : intense war experience and some language
Award : Academy Award
Last updated : August 8, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Saving Private Ryan

Want personalized picks for your kids' age and interests?

Band of Brothers

Their Finest

Best Epic Movies

World war ii books for kids, related topics.

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Screen Rant

Dunkirk review.

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Why Star Wars Is Bringing Back The Mandalorian's Razor Crest, 4 Years After Its Destruction

Alien: romulus officially unites the entire alien movie franchise after 45 years, the union review: mark wahlberg & halle berry's netflix movie is a far better rom-com than actioner, dunkirk makes for christopher nolan's most intense and nerve-wracking thriller yet, delivering a strikingly terse viewing experience in the process..

Between May 26 and June 4, 1940, Allied soldiers fighting in WWII (including, the British and French armies) are surrounded on all sides by the German Army forces and must be evacuated on the beaches of Dunkirk, by way of an operation known as Operation Dynamo. On the ground at Dunkirk, British Army privates Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) and Alex (Harry Styles) are among those desperately fighting to stay alive and get off the beach, by whatever means available. Elsewhere, across the ocean, local mariners such as Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) and his son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) are recruited by the Navy to help with the Dunkirk evacuation. Meanwhile, literally above everyone else, members of the Royal Air Force like Farrier (Tom Hardy) do battle with the German bombers, in order to help the Allied soldiers in their evacuation efforts.

With some 400,000 men on the beaches on Dunkirk and the clock ticking, time is of the essence for everyone - be they retreating on the land, sailing across the sea or fighting in the air. In the face of their defeat though, it starts to become clear: simply making it out of Operation Dynamo alive will truly be a miraculous victory in and of itself, for all concerned parties.

The latest directorial effort from Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk sees The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception filmmaker working in the non-fiction historical genre for the first time in his career. Nevertheless, the story of Operation Dynamo and the Dunkirk evacuation plays to Nolan's strengths as a storyteller, allowing him to both further refine his sense of grand-scale spectacle and further explore some of the same themes (in particular, those of the moral and ethical variety) that he has touched on before, in his previous films. At the same time, however, Dunkirk is a more tightly-paced and intimate affair than some of the director's more recent big-budget offerings in particular. Dunkirk makes for Christopher Nolan's most intense and nerve-wracking thriller yet, delivering a strikingly terse viewing experience in the process.

Drawing from his own script here, Dunkirk once again sees Nolan exploring the concept of time through a narrative composed of three distinct threads, each of which unfolds both over a different amount of time (a week, a day and an hour, respectively) and at different points in the film's timeline of events. While this plot structure does play to Nolan's knack for both generating narrative tension and forward momentum through cross-cutting/editing, it further serves an important thematic purpose - allowing Dunkirk 's central story threads to collide and overlap in ways that highlight the film's themes of self-sacrifice, simple heroism and how sometimes survival is victory enough in times of war. Dunkirk works as a visceral, dig-your-nails-into-your-seat, cinematic thrill ride alone, but like all Nolan blockbusters there is an intelligent text to the proceedings here and a more ambitious storytelling goal in mind.

Behind the camera, Dunkirk reunites Nolan with his Interstellar cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema for the pair's most impressive work of IMAX filmmaking yet. From dynamic aerial dogfights to explosion-fueled naval warfare sequences, Dunkirk paints its action on a broad canvas (having been shot entirely with IMAX cameras) - one that very much benefits from being viewed in the largest format available, be it an IMAX theater or the rare 70 mm screening. However, perhaps even more than the visuals, Dunkirk is enhanced by the heightened sound system afforded by IMAX theaters. Dunkirk 's tense mood is fueled by its sharp, rattling sound effects and Hans Zimmer's ominous ambient score (itself, driven by the sound of a literal ticking clock), making the sound effects as important as the grand imagery on display here. While it does have some issues smoothly blending its dialogue with other audio effects (similar to Interstellar before it), Dunkirk marks an overall improvement in the sound department for Nolan's big-budget offerings.

Dialogue is one element that sets Dunkirk apart from Nolan's previous efforts as a director - namely, there is much less talking in general here and few conversations of the overtly philosophical nature, like those found in Nolan movies past. Since Dunkirk is essentially a non-stop race against time for the vast majority of its runtime, there simply isn't much room to spare for character development either. That being said, some of the main players here are provided with more depth than others and the ensemble cast is uniformly strong across the board, allowing Dunkirk 's humans to feel like real people (even if we only know so much about them). Standout performances includes those from not only seasoned vets in Oscar-winner Mark Rylance and frequent Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphy, but also newcomers like Fionn Whitehead and One Direction member Harry Styles - who yes, delivers both a compelling and naturalistic performance here. And much like he did in The Dark Knight Rises , Tom Hardy further demonstrates in Dunkirk that he can still deliver an expressive performance, even with his face largely obstructed for most of the film.

Dunkirk - James D'Arcy and Kenneth Branagh

Although Dunkirk doesn't have a clearly-defined protagonist the way that Nolan's previous movies have, it does manage to provide satisfying arcs for the characters played by Whitehead and Hardy, as well as Tom Glynn-Carney in his smaller, supporting role. Similarly, acclaimed character actor James D'Arcy ( Cloud Atlas , Agent Carter ) and Sir Kenneth Branagh - playing high-ranking Allied army officials Colonel Winnant and Commander Bolton, respectively - make the most of their limited screentime, delivering noteworthy performances and making their characters memorable in their own right. Lastly, although he doesn't appear in the flesh here, movie buffs who are curious as to where Nolan's "good-luck charm" Michael Caine is to be found in Dunkirk , are advised to listen closely in the first act of the film.

Dunkirk is not only a step up for Nolan in terms of his craftsmanship, it also succeeds at being less narratively bloated than his most recent blockbuster offerings, without sacrificing their thematic ambition or intelligence at the same time. While Dunkirk is mostly a bloodless affair (hence its PG-13 rating), filmgoers should be advised: it is genuinely intense and an unsettlingly immersive experience that will leave you feeling like you've actually been in a WWII battle. That said, those who are game to watch a summer movie that combines the bone-rattling spectacle of a Transformers film with the clever narrative tricks and cohesive storytelling of, well, a lower-budgeted Nolan project, Dunkirk is definitely something that you shouldn't miss in theaters.

Dunkirk is now playing in U.S. theaters (including, IMAX and 70 mm screenings) nationwide. It is 107 minutes long and is Rated PG-13 for intense war experience and some language.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

This epic tale of World War II tells the story of soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who are surrounded by the German army, and the dangerous operation that evacuated and saved the lives of thousands.

Key Release Dates

Movie Reviews
4.5 star movies

Review: Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk' examines WWII heroism up close

Hollywood is soon going to run out of genres for Christopher Nolan to redefine.

After tackling superheroes with his Dark Knight trilogy and blowing the minds of sci-fi fans with Interstellar , the British writer/director puts his audience in the thick of war with the intense and excellently crafted thriller Dunkirk (***½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Thursday night).

Harry Styles felt real underwater panic shooting terrifying 'Dunkirk' scenes

It’s less a movie and more a close encounter of the combative kind: You feel every bolt rattle in the cockpit of a dogfighting Spitfire, every stressful moment with the choice of drowning or surfacing in an oil fire, and every thought of certain doom for the infantrymen trapped on a beach when a bomb comes whizzing out of the sky.

The movie captures the real-life heroism of the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, when nearly 400,000 Allied soldiers were pulled out after the Germans trapped them on a beach in Nazi-occupied France. Nolan’s ambitious story revolves around three tales unfolding at different times over land, sea and air, only coming together at the end.

Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) is a British soldier who makes it out alive only to find masses along the beach, waiting for a ship home. He and Gibson (Aneurin Barnard) grab the stretcher of a wounded man to get to safety quicker. Their scheme doesn’t work so well, and they meet Alex (Harry Styles) and others who will go to extremes to leave the beach.

The 5 best war movies to binge-watch this weekend

In another subplot, Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) is one of many civilian sailors whose boats are commissioned to cross the English Channel to retrieve soldiers. On the way with his son (Tom Glynn-Carney) and the kid's friend (Barry Keoghan), Dawson picks up a survivor (Cillian Murphy) from a torpedoed vessel and they run into rough emotional waters before even reaching the troops.

And above the fray, Tom Hardy stars as Farrier, a pilot sent in as air support. He strafes and battles with yellow-nosed German planes in the movie's best scenes, despite a rapidly depleting fuel tank.

There’s exquisite beauty but also utter desolation in Hoyte Van Hoytema’s cinematography, and Nolan’s cast is a top-notch crew of English thespians. In Dawson, Rylance brings a load of heart and a superhuman understanding of what can happen in war. One Direction singer Styles, who makes his acting debut here, offers a surprising amount of grit and pathos, and Hardy is simply magnetic, even when his face masked.

Christopher Nolan says he didn't know how famous Harry Styles was before 'Dunkirk'

Dunkirk is also one of the best-scored films in recent memory, and Hans Zimmer’s music plays as important a role as any character. With shades of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations , the melodies are glorious, yet Zimmer also creates an instrumental ticking-clock soundtrack that’s a propulsive force in the action scenes.

The trio of timelines can be jarring as you figure out how they all fit, and the fact that there are only a couple of women and no lead actors of color may rub some the wrong way. Still, Nolan’s feat is undeniable: He’s made an immersive war movie that celebrates the good of mankind while also making it clear that no victory is without sacrifice.

Games & Puzzles
₹ 10 Lakh,1" data-value="Loan ₹ 10 Lakh">Loan ₹ 10 Lakh

Entertainment
Latest News
Kolkata doctor rape case
Raksha Bandhan 2024 wishes
The Interview
Web Stories
Mumbai News
Bengaluru News
Daily Digest

Dunkirk movie review: Christopher Nolan’s epic one of the best war films ever made. 5 stars

Dunkirk movie review: christopher nolan’s war movie is an unrelenting, unstoppable force of nature, an existential masterpiece powered by a terrific hans zimmer score. rating: 5/5..

Dunkirk Director - Christopher Nolan Cast - Tom Hardy, Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Harry Styles, Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh Rating - 5/5

Dunkirk is an unstoppable, existential masterpiece.

The moments spent in anticipation immediately before a new Christopher Nolan movie are often just as nerve-wracking as those spent watching the film.

An irresistible energy buzzes through your body as you collapse into your grimy seat – a hypnotic mix of nervousness, fear, paranoia, and careful optimism.

This is a pilgrimage, after all. To some, Nolan is a god, and his temple’s walls, dark and foreboding, seem to push in as the lights go down. Your senses, usually dulled by a mundane existence, are heightened. You’ve never experienced anything like it.

The crowd’s hushed tones hit you in waves, and even the most distant whisper is deafening – but it reassures as much as it startles. There are others like you. And like you, they’ve waited years for this moment. You are not alone. And the electricity you’ve created – together – in the cavernous place of worship, could power a small town.

I have experienced this sensation on four occasions, before four Christopher Nolan films, and each of those experiences were, and remain to this day, some of the most special I’ve had inside a movie theatre.

And yesterday, it happened again.

Dunkirk, a film about men, created by men, is a force of nature – an elemental beast of a movie about finding the meaning of life surrounded by the meaninglessness of war. It is an existential masterpiece set across three parallel plots destined to collide, which in turn are set on three planes of existence – earth, air, and water. To us, these elements symbolise life, but in Dunkirk, they might as well be harbingers of death, having suspended our characters in their purgatory as they await judgment.

On the land, in the seaside French town of Dunkirk, 400,000 soldiers have been pushed by ‘the enemy’ – curiously, not once are the Nazis mentioned – towards the sea. They wait, bombarded from behind, and up above, for deliverance. Before them lies a seemingly endless expanse of blue – and home, England, is practically within sight, across the choppy waters of the Channel. They go from boat to boat – some even conning their way onto the rickety barges – desperate to get off the cursed beach, as torpedoes attack them from below, and missiles rain like hellfire from the sky.

They’re in need of a miracle.

But help is on its way. Tom Hardy protects them from above, acting, like he did in The Dark Knight Rises, through a mask, and only with his eyes. And his eyes are all he needs to convey the (sometimes scarily suicidal) determination to save his countrymen, as he picks off one Luftwaffe fighter after another – even as his wingmen perish, and his fuel gauge begs him to stop.

Below him, on the water, a civilian Mark Rylance has commandeered a boat, one of the many deployed by the Navy in an effort to aid the evacuation process. With his teenage son, and his son’s eager friend in tow – but without a firm plan – he sails into war.

And with the precision of a watchmaker – time is an oft-repeated motif in the film – Nolan, a master working at the peak of his powers, puts the pieces of this jigsaw together with some of his most effortless editing since Inception. And like Inception, as layer after layer of Dunkirk’s nesting doll structure is uncovered, and when the three stories finally converge after almost two hours of merciless tension, the emotional release is pure ecstasy.

Often, in order to build this tension, the experimental work of genius that it is, Dunkirk spends long stretches in silence. DP Hoyte van Hoytema’s IMAX camera, taking a break from soaring across the skies, wrestling for space among thousands of men, and gazing placidly at the sheer beauty of it all, brings the actors’ faces inches from its own. And these fine performers – mostly young stars (Harry Styles included) – convey wordlessly the torment raging in their characters’ minds.

But because of these periods of silence, and because of Nolan’s refusal to rely on words (or, for that matter, a traditional structure) to tell his story, Hans Zimmer’s terrific score becomes crucial, and slowly, emerges as a character in its own right. Like the film, it is unrelentingly intense, stretched to breaking point as it conjures tension seemingly from nothing.

And such is Nolan’s power at commanding the attention of his audience, that you find yourself overlooking basic flaws. There isn’t a single character in this film that is properly fleshed out, and it fails miserably at the Bechdel Test. But never have these glaring missteps mattered less.

Do you remember what Bruce Wayne said at the end of The Dark Knight Rises? Moments before flying into certain death, he looked at Commissioner Gordon, and growled, “A hero can be anyone.”

And this is the sentiment that Nolan has carried into Dunkirk. These characters aren’t meant to have elaborate backstories or complicated motivations. They’re meant to represent an ideal. They’re meant to embody our bravery and our empathy and our kindness.

A hero can be anyone, from a middle-aged sailor who just wants to teach his son to do the right thing, to a decorated commander who refuses to leave until every last man who serves under him – or even if he doesn’t – has been saved.

Dunkirk is one of the greatest war movies ever made – it’s certainly the tightest, most unwaveringly propulsive film of Christopher Nolan’s career. But it’s also as meditative as The Thin Red Line, as brutal as Saving Private Ryan, and sometimes, even as surreal as Apocalypse Now.

It deserves to be seen big and loud.

Watch the Dunkirk trailer here

Follow @htshowbiz for more The author tweets @RohanNaahar

Terms of use
Privacy policy
Weather Today
HT Newsletters
Subscription
Print Ad Rates
Code of Ethics

India vs Sri Lanka
Live Cricket Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket Players
ICC Rankings
Cricket Schedule
Shreyas Iyer
Harshit Rana
Kusal Mendis
Ravi Bishnoi
Rinku Singh
Riyan Parag
Washington Sundar
Avishka Fernando
Charith Asalanka
Dasun Shanaka
Khaleel Ahmed
Pathum Nissanka
Other Cities
Income Tax Calculator
Petrol Prices
Diesel Prices
Silver Rate
Relationships
Art and Culture
Taylor Swift: A Primer
Telugu Cinema
Tamil Cinema
UGC NET Admit Card 2024 Live
Board Exams
Exam Results
Admission News
Employment News
Competitive Exams
BBA Colleges
Engineering Colleges
Medical Colleges
BCA Colleges
Medical Exams
Engineering Exams
Love Horoscope
Annual Horoscope
Festival Calendar
Compatibility Calculator
Career Horoscope
Manifestation
The Economist Articles
Lok Sabha States
Lok Sabha Parties
Lok Sabha Candidates
Explainer Video
On The Record
Vikram Chandra Daily Wrap
Entertainment Photos
Lifestyle Photos
News Photos
Vinesh Phogat Verdict Live
Olympics 2024
Olympics Medal Tally
Other Sports
EPL 2023-24
ISL 2023-24
Asian Games 2023
Public Health
Economic Policy
International Affairs
Climate Change
Gender Equality
future tech
HT Friday Finance
Explore Hindustan Times
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Subscription - Terms of Use

Things you buy through our links may earn Vox Media a commission.

Dunkirk Is a Great War Movie Marred by Christopher Nolan’s Usual Tricks

In Dunkirk , Christopher Nolan has made a stark and harrowing war movie muddled by his signature “Nolan Time,” that arty temporal scramble that he thinks is more illuminating than it is. Briefly, Nolan Time consists of several (in this case three) parallel temporal lines that appear to be out of sync but prove, in the end, to conform to a Higher Synchronization — not the work of God or Fate but of steadfast individuals bravely exercising free will. My own free will is exercised by not falling in line with the many and vocal Nolanoids, but I’ll credit him in Dunkirk with getting many of the externals dead right.

His springboard is an event that is cherished by Brits and less familiar to Americans, who tend to think of World War II as beginning with Pearl Harbor and the belated entry of the United States. It happens to be one of the most triumphant military retreats in the history of the world. By mid-1940, the Nazis had swept across Europe and pushed at least a quarter-million Brits (at minimum) to the beaches of northern France, the edge of the continent — almost close enough, as the characters in Dunkirk wishfully insist, to see the Mother Country across the channel. What was nowhere near in sight was help. By then, the Royal Navy had lost nearly 30 big ships, the Luftwaffe dominated the skies, and the waters teemed with U-boats. Churchill and company couldn’t afford to lose many more warships with the looming German invasion of the homeland — Operation Sea Lion.

I saw Dunkirk in IMAX, where the combination of size and a fat, square frame made even the panoramas seem like close-ups. Nolan and director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema (my new favorite name) contrive one of the most vivid opening shots I’ve seen. A group of soldiers moves warily along a street, away from the camera, surrounded by falling leaflets — warnings dropped from German planes to surrender or die. A moment later, all but one of them is, in fact, dead. The survivor, Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), is identified in one of Nolan’s ambiguous titles as “the Mole,” which is easy to remember since he has a big one where his cheek meets his chin. Identifying himself as English, he moves past French defenses and onto the beach, where the Brits are queued up with characteristic patience. He wastes no time in picking up a stretcher and trying to get onto a medical boat carrying the wounded.

Here, Nolan and his editor Lee Smith begin their crosscutting song and dance. In the skies above, Spitfire pilots Tom Hardy and Jack Lowden take off to protect the fleet by shooting down Luftwaffe planes — ever mindful in the ticking-clock way of most thrillers of their limited fuel supplies. (Hardy wears an oxygen mask for at least 90 percent of his screen time — it seems to be a running joke that directors insist on covering his great face.) Across the (small) pond in England, Mark Rylance loads his small pleasure boat with life vests, aided by two teenage boys, his son (Tom Glynn-Carney, a handsome blond lad who looks as if he’s on leave from Slytherin) and his son’s mate (Barry Keoghan) — steps ahead of soldiers attempting to requisition the craft. Rylance isn’t heading out on holiday. He wants to make the rescue run to Dunkirk himself. He will later say, “Men my age dictate this war, why should we not fight it?” And he has one other, more predictable reason.

Over his many films, Nolan has shown little talent for staging and editing action, but he’s marvelous at designing single shots, in this case the vertiginous plunges of planes and a series of terrifying beach bombardments. The explosions come in a line, moving toward a protagonist (and the camera) at near-precise intervals, all but vaporizing the next man over. (The soldiers rise from the ground, briefly survey the damage, and get back in their queues, as Brits are wont to do.)

Nolan has pointedly omitted the showers of gore and viscera that have become so common (in many cases thanks to CGI) in recent war films. There are a few dried, brick-red stains on the wounded, but I don’t recall a drop of flowing blood. It turns out that Nolan doesn’t need explicit carnage to make you sick over the loss of life. The horror is reflected in the face of Kenneth Branagh as the naval commander who stations himself on a pier at the water’s edge and watches some of his men die, the rest perhaps on the verge of death. If Dunkirk has a fulcrum, it’s Branagh, to whom all narrative threads lead.

What we don’t know at first about the crossing threads is that the cutting is not just among different locations but different time periods. That hits us forcefully when Cillian Murphy, whom we’ve met as a shivering, shell-shocked soldier helped from a mid-channel wreck by Rylance, appears in a subsequent scene as a forceful boat commander — so forceful that he’s capable of telling desperate survivors of another sunken boat that there’s no more room and they have to keep swimming.

There’s a great deal to hold in our heads: connections to make, holes to fill, people to keep straight. ( One Direction’s Harry Styles is in there somewhere , another smudged face with good cheekbones.) Tying the disparate scenes together is Hans Zimmer’s score, which keeps a steady 4/4 beat while never resolving a chord. The brass is muffled, the strings saw but don’t cut. The churning soundscape serves as a reminder that time is running out but that the soldiers (and the audience) is stuck in a kind of void. As the gray waves become even more unruly (Branagh’s commander says he’d rather face them than the dive bombers), the vision of a cruel and implacable nature approaches real tragedy.

The problem is when Nolan turns upbeat, when narrative threads begin to merge and cold fear is replaced by warm sap. The appearance of England’s small boats is appropriately heart-swelling, testament to the bravery and resourcefulness of “the common man” that makes Dunkirk one of the few bright spots in a war whose barbarity still eats into the mind. But Rylance’s firm but moist determination at the helm and Hardy’s stoic Spitfire maneuvers are another matter. For all Nolan’s modernist techniques, his cavalry-is-coming cliff-hangers are eye-rollers — overlong, corny, and clunkily edited. When the structure of Dunkirk becomes visible, when it stands as a mathematical demonstration of brave individual choices lining up in a tidy row, you might realize that you’ve been had.

Or maybe not. Although I find most of Nolan’s work to be pulp bloated by pomposity, a good many intelligent people love his films. Apart from its philosophical heft, Nolan Time has the benefit of psyching audiences out, keeping them so busy trying to make linear sense of what they’re watching that they miss the obviousness of the plotting. Nolanoids I know talk about needing to go back and see the movies again as if to demonstrate how challenging he is. But needing to rewatch something because you can’t make sense of it the first time isn’t exactly a testament to a director’s skills as a storyteller.

What Nolan plus IMAX can do is go big . Spitfire swerving, boat tippings, men dropping to the sand as planes scream by — it doesn’t get any better. That first shot of men on a street in a shower of paper on which their deaths are foretold — brilliant. Somewhere inside the mess that is Dunkirk is a terrific linear movie.

vulture homepage lede
movie review
christopher nolan

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

Lower case letters (a-z)
Upper case letters (A-Z)
Numbers (0-9)
Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

6 Reasons Why “Dunkirk” Is One of the Greatest War Movies Ever Made

There is a moment late in “Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan’s ferociously vivid account of the evacuation of over 300,000 cornered British soldiers from France during World War II, when a man accepts that he is going to die.

He’s a naval commander named Bolton and since he’s played by Kenneth Branagh, every word he speaks carries a calm dignity that would have made Alan Rickman crack a sly smile. Yet as a German plane swoops overhead, the formidable Bolton realizes that these are his last moments and closes his eyes, surrendering to his fate.

It’s odd that one of the most memorable parts of a film about stratospheric triumph (it has been speculated that if the evacuation had failed, the war would have tilted in Hitler’s favor) is a moment of defeat.

Then again, Nolan (who also wrote the film) has never been one to let expectations ruffle his impeccable blonde coiffure. He is, after all, the filmmaker who made sweet narrative music out of a backwards murder mystery in “Memento” and bizarrely and beautifully turned a bookcase into a cosmic conduit between an estranged father and daughter in “Interstellar.”

“Dunkirk” (which uses composite characters) shares some time-bending DNA with Nolan’s previous films (more on that later), although it’s certainly an earthier affair. Superheroes may fascinate Nolan (note his three dates with the Dark Knight), but the daredevilry in “Dunkirk” isn’t like anything from the average comic book. Here, there are no skyscrapers to leap off of—there’s just soldiers struggling to survive, whether they’re trying to escape a torrent of saltwater pouring through bullet holes in a boat, or swimming to safety after a torpedo strike.

“Dunkirk” is also, like all of Nolan’s films, great fun (along with “Gravity” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” it’s one of the zestiest suspense thrillers of the decade). Yet it succeeds because rather than simply entertain, Nolan immerses you in the terror, sacrifices, and betrayals that his characters endure.

Along with the following six reasons, that’s what makes “Dunkirk” (which takes its title from the French town that British forces were stranded in and around) one of the greatest war films ever made—and why it makes you care so deeply about moments like Bolton accepting defeat as his world crumbles around him.

1. It reveals character through action

The characters of “Dunkirk” don’t talk much, which makes them rarities in Nolan land. All of his previous films feature multiple scenes where men (and, unfortunately, only the occasional woman) pause to ruminate on an thorny topic (like, in the case of “Batman Begins,” how to respond when your hometown is beset with a serious ninja infestation). But the heroes of “Dunkirk” don’t have time for delicate verbal tête-à-têtes; that kind of thing is a luxury when you’re stranded on a beach in northern France, vulnerable to bombings while you wait to be picked up.

You might think that without his famously baroque dialogue (one of the delights of Nolan’s films is that’s he’s unafraid of grandiose, heartfelt declarations like, “Once you’re a parent, you’re the ghost of your children’s future”), Nolan would about as useful as Batman without a grappling hook. Yet in “Dunkirk,” he proves himself so shrewd an observer of human behavior that the idea of a wordier version of the film seems superfluous and pointless.

That’s because when it comes to the soldiers, Nolan is attentive to every flicker of feeling, every decision. When Tommy (Fionn Whitehead)—the British private who is the film’s protagonist—and a silent soldier named Gibson (Aneurin Barnard) hoist a stretcher bearing a wounded comrade in the hopes that he’ll be their ticket aboard a boat bound for England, Nolan makes you feel their hunger for escape; when a shell-shocked victim of a U-boat attack (Cillian Murphy, playing a character identified in the credits only as “shivering soldier”) abruptly bats away a cup of tea, you feel the panic simmering inside him; and when the steadfast Spitfire pilot Farrier (Tom Hardy) wordlessly makes a momentous decision in his cockpit, it’s easy to make out the moment when he commits to his choice (even though his face is covered by a smothering pilot’s mask).

These harrowing scenes are shuffled together in a multi-tiered time frame (the land-based action lasts a week, the sea-based action lasts a day, and the air-based action lasts an hour). But unlike “Memento” and “Interstellar”—which approached time as a Rubik’s cube to be wrestled with and unlocked—“Dunkirk” unfolds smoothly and clearly, allowing the actions of the soldiers wash over us.

That’s a feat that the Nolan of years past might not have managed, but in “Dunkirk,” he proves that he understands the power of letting an audience lean back and absorb his creation, rather than spinning a web of puzzles that he has to talk them through (not that there’s anything wrong with a wordy Nolan puzzle, as this critic and any Nolanite will tell you).

2. It’s an exhilarating and profound suspense thriller

While the ghosts of myriad films loom over “Dunkirk” (the fragmented scope of D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance” is referenced by Nolan’s suave time jumps), Nolan made clear in an “Access Hollywood” interview that there was a particular film that he wanted it to be different from: “Saving Private Ryan.” While he praised Steven Spielberg’s “amazing film,” he added that “it has the language of horror and you take your eyes off the screen…we realized what we want is suspense, we want a film that you can’t take your eyes off and just pull you in, keep you there the whole time.”

Mission accomplished. “Dunkirk” successfully sucks you into a whirlpool of tension because Nolan uses suspense not only to create an addictively entertaining experience, but to draw us close to Tommy and his comrades. Suspense, after all, is the language of feeling, and by forcing us to feel the desperation of the characters, Nolan offers us a deep appreciation not only of noble men like Farrier, but compromised souls like Alex (who is improbably and skillfully played by One Direction’s Harry Styles), a soldier so terrified that his self-interest rises to toxic, destructive levels.

Like all suspense thrillers, “Dunkirk” is powered by a question (will the soldiers survive?) and generates its extraordinary passages of armrest-clenching unease by complicating that question with obstacles.

In the air, the challenge is Farrier’s broken fuel gage (which forces him to write notes in white ink on his dashboard to remind him how much fuel remains); at sea, Murphy’s nameless man threatens a civilian named Dawson (Mark Rylance), who has taken his boat to aid in the rescue effort with help from his son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his pal George (Barry Keoghan); and on the beach, Tommy’s turbulent search for a boat bound for England is foiled by seemingly ceaseless crises (the first of his potential rides home sinks).

There’s no time to rest, in other words, which marks yet another way in which “Dunkirk” diverges from Nolan’s past work (some of the best parts of the “Dark Knight” trilogy were the quiet moments shared by Christian Bale and Michael Caine—who makes a garbled vocal cameo in “Dunkirk”—in the shadows of the Batcave). But it’s a necessary departure because it was arguably the only way to create the illusion that you’re on the beach with Tommy and company, waiting for a rescue that at times seems as if it will never come.

3. It uses sounds and images to transport you to another time and place

While the war for the best sound editing Oscar promises to be brutal next year (the deliciously bug-filled soundscape of James Gray’s “The Lost City of Z” is just one of an army of contenders), “Dunkirk” arguably has the year’s single best sound effect: the sharp but soft noise of a soldier setting his helmet down on the ground so he can take a drink from a hose—a tangible, unmistakably real detail that makes you feel as if you could step through the frame and onto a real street in France, circa 1940.

It’s just one of many ways that Nolan, who shot the movie on large-format film, uses his discerning eyes and ears to immerse us in a bygone era. Sometimes, that means going for an obvious but effective flourish (the rough, pummeling clang of the film’s first barrage of gunfire is unforgettable), but “Dunkirk” also deploys subtler transportive tricks, like when cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (effectively recycling a technique he and Nolan used to film the battered spaceships of “Interstellar”) brings the camera so close to an airplane that you feel as if you can make every detail of its outer shell.

That precision calls to mind Nolan’s summation of his approach to his Batman movies in Film Comment: “You want to really understand what things would smell like in this world, what things would taste like, when bones start being crunched or cars start pancaking.” Well, no cars get pancaked in “Dunkirk,” but Nolan’s attention to detail (which is enhanced immeasurably by the gorgeously grainy look of Hoytema’s cinematography) has the same effect: It temporarily overrides the fact that you’re watching a series of artificial images flit across a screen.

Or, to put it another way, the difference between watching most 2017 Hollywood films and watching “Dunkirk” is akin to the difference between spooning down a bowl of frozen yogurt and gobbling up a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream in a waffle cone.

Dunkirk Review

21 Jul 2017

106 minutes

Dunkirk (2017)

Christopher Nolan’s new film may be his The Longest Day , but it’s very close to being his shortest film. In fact, at a mere 106 minutes, Dunkirk is the first Nolan movie to dip beneath two hours since Insomnia , and is only undercut by his micro-budget 1998 debut Following . But discard any suspicions that may prompt about scaling down of ambition. Effectively one enormous, stunningly rendered and thunderously intense set-piece stretched to feature-length, Dunkirk thrusts you into a pressure cooker and slams the lid on. It doesn’t have anything like the gore of Saving Private Ryan , but that doesn’t lessen its power. In fact, there’s a very good reason it doesn’t have a more fulsome runtime: audiences would likely have staggered out with PTSD.

Watch the trailer below

The scenario is simple — hellishly so. Eight months into World War II, following a series of setbacks, roughly 400,000 British troops find themselves stranded on the shores of Northern France. Behind them, Nazis are closing in. Bombs fall from Stukas in the sky, torpedoes whizz in from U-boats in the sea. And ahead lie 39 nautical miles of grey, churning water separating the soldiers from home, with nary a boat to come to their rescue. In glib movie-pitch terms, it’s reverse D-Day, or Helm’s Deep with seashells.

While there is a high-ranking naval officer on hand (Kenneth Branagh) to play Admiral Exposition, filling in the big picture while surveying the nightmare from a pier, Nolan doesn’t bombard us with information. He knows it’s more powerful to sell the hopelessness of the wind-blasted beach with a stark, simple image, such as the moment in which a Tommy simply gives up and wades into the water. Dunkirk is first and foremost a mood-piece, and a hugely effective one. It doesn’t hurt that Hans Zimmer is on ferocious form, his score by turns throbbing like a heart and ticking like an angry stopwatch, so nerve-wracking that at times it feels like an additional enemy front.

But if the movie’s set-up is basic, its structure is anything but. No filmmaker is as fascinated by time as Nolan, or as deft at playing with it, and here he applies the temporal tricksiness he pioneered with Inception , intercutting three timelines that move at different speeds. So we follow wan young soldier Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) on the land for a week, plucky Ramsgate yachter Dawson (Mark Rylance) on the sea for a day, and stoic RAF pilot Farrier (Tom Hardy) in the sky for an hour. The result, as the crisis hurtles towards its climax and the trio of perspectives converge (and overtake each other), is meticulous and mesmerising. And, in the case of a sequence which cuts between two characters trying not to drown, almost unbearably stressful. There have been many World War II epics — there’s even been one called Dunkirk before, made in 1958 and starring John Mills as Corporal ‘Tubby’ Binns — but there’s never been one like this.

There have been many World War II epics — but there’s never been one like this.

Another point of differentiation: there’s little emphasis on derring-do. Rather than heroics, Nolan is concerned with what men can endure. Dunkirk is a study of people under immense pressure, from Rylance’s civilian-on-a-rescue-mission (call him the FBG — Friendly Boat Guy) to Cillian Murphy’s traumatised wreck-survivor (credited only as ‘Shivering Soldier’) to Harry Styles’ bolshy infantry grunt (an impressive debut performance, and definitely not the Rihanna-in- Battleship debacle you may have feared). At this darkest of hours, some of them crack; others hold firm. But all of the arcs are effectively underplayed, with muted performances, no big speeches and, in the case of Tommy, the terrified audience surrogate, almost no talking at all. It could be argued the characters are too thin, but at least there’s none of the melodrama of, say, Titanic or Pearl Harbor , two other epics based on real-life disasters. If anything, Dunkirk hews towards the arthouse, with the melancholy, spume-flecked tableaux it lingers on beautifully photographed by Interstellar DP Hoyte Van Hoytema.

Where it does deliver on action is in the sky. Today’s audiences have spent decades watching digital dogfights in Star Wars movies, themselves originally inspired by World War II movies such as Twelve O'Clock High . Nolan gets the wow factor back by stripping away the pixels, shooting real Spitfires on real sorties above the real English Channel. The results are incredible, particularly on the vast expanse of an IMAX screen, with the wobbly crates veering and soaring above a mass of blue. As with the men below, the pilots are outnumbered and outgunned, heading into a hopeless situation, but not letting it affect their trajectory. The phrase “Dunkirk spirit” was coined following the events of May 1940, and Dunkirk captures it in spades.

Movies | 23 05 2024

Movies | 14 05 2024

Movies | 21 07 2022

Movies | 14 09 2021

Movies | 13 09 2020

Movies | 21 08 2020

Dunkirk Early Buzz: What Do The Critics Think About Christopher Nolan's War Movie?

The press junket for Christopher Nolan 's new film Dunkirk happened over the weekend, and the social media reactions have begun to be revealed on Twitter. What did the first critics to see Nolan's war movie think? Hit the jump to read the first Dunkirk reviews/reactions.

The First Dunkirk Reviews On Social Media

Seems like quite a few of the junket press are praising the suspense and the 70mm IMAX presentation (as we can only expect from a Christopher Nolan film), while others are saying the film looks beautiful and is unlike any other film from the director. Here are the first Dunkirk reactions from twitter:

Frosty at Collider : Dunkirk is edge of your seat filmmaking that's fully realized in @IMAX . Can honestly say I've never seen anything like it. See this in IMAX! A lot of people were wondering about @harry_styles & unknown cast. They're all great but Dunkirk is not about any one solider. Also 'Dunkirk' is another brilliant collaboration between Nolan & @HansZimmer. The way he mixes in a ticking clock with score is nail biting. Let me say this one more time: if you're going to see 'Dunkirk' go to an @IMAX theater. Look for IMAX 70mm. It's absolutely worth the $ Anna Klassen? : DUNKIRK is fantastic. Truly thrilling from first to last second. A heartbreaking, heart-pounding, nail-biting offering. Nolan fans, rejoice. DUNKIRK relies on v little dialogue, but is entirely impactful. We all know what happened on that beach, but Nolan's take is worth visiting. Yes, DUNKIRK relies heavily on sound of an increasingly fast ticking clock to build suspense. It may be a cheap trick, but it's effective AF. And for those asking: Harry Styles does well in DUNKIRK, was pleasantly surprised. Erik Davis : #Dunkirk is chaotic, relentless, thrilling & one of the most captivating movies you will see this year. A master class in craft. What a ride. 30 seconds in, Nolan once again delivers a spectacular edge-of-your-seat opening sequence. And then it just keeps upping the tension. From direction to editing to cinematography to score, w/ #Dunkirk Christopher Nolan proves he is one of the great filmmakers of our time. Jason Guerrasio? : #Dunkirk packs a wallop but VERY different Nolan movie. Def see on IMAX. Tom Hardy has 10 lines & is amazing. Harry Styles can act people!!! Kara Warner : #DunkirkMovie is great. Beautiful, heart-pounding action sequences, a killer score, solid acting talent & handsome. A great history lesson. And my Tom Hardy bias is strong but hot damn, Mr. Nolan knows how to light our man in the best, that-is-a-goddam-hero, fashion. Eric Eisenberg : Dunkirk is thrilling, beautiful & a must in 70mm IMAX – but it's also hard to ignore that it has zero distinctive personalities/characters. Brandon Norwood : DUNKIRK is very suspenseful. My palms were sweaty almost the entire film. Not my favorite from Nolan, but still a home run. Stephen Whitty ?: Can't wait to review "Dunkirk,' a mix of modern storytelling (interwoven timeframes), classic filmmaking (real Spitfire dogfights) #Dunkirk Alicia Malone ?: DUNKIRK: intense! 3 intercutting stories on 3 time frames. Almost a silent film, w/ incredible score. May be divisive. I LOVED. See 70mm! Kevin McCarthy : DUNKIRK is 1 of the most immersive cinematic experiences I've ever had. Around 75% of DUNKIRK was shot on IMAX film. Other scenes shot on glorious 65mm film. Zimmer's score is the leading character of the film. Mind-blowing non-linear storytelling. See 70mm IMAX film if u can.

There's a lot of praise here but I feel like some of these reactions are dancing around... something. I asked McCarthy where he would rank it in Nolan's filmography, and here is the conversation it spawned:

Not ready to rank it. non-linear storytelling didn't click w/ me until middle of 2nd act. I want to go again with that understanding. ❤️ — Kevin McCarthy (@KevinMcCarthyTV) July 10, 2017

I love the film. No question there. I can't really explain what I mean without spoiling elements. The story-telling is insanely unique. ❤️ — Kevin McCarthy (@KevinMcCarthyTV) July 10, 2017

AGREED. It's great. And in typical Nolan fashion, he doesn't spoon-feed audiences storylines, which I LOVE. You get to THINK thru this one! — Kara Warner (@karawarner) July 10, 2017

Right. He makes u work. But in best way possible. I look forward to 2nd viewing more than I did first. And it's my most anticipated of 2017z — Kevin McCarthy (@KevinMcCarthyTV) July 10, 2017

Looks like another brain teasing & mind numbling story is on our way 😍 — Rohan (@rohan4u25) July 10, 2017

Exactly that. I loved my 1st viewing but my 2nd was AWESOME because you go in knowing where to pay extra attn — Kara Warner (@karawarner) July 10, 2017

The official synopsis for Dunkirk follows:

When 400,000 men couldn't get home... home came for them. From filmmaker Christopher Nolan ("Interstellar," "Inception," "The Dark Knight" Trilogy) comes the epic action thriller "Dunkirk." Nolan directed "Dunkirk" from his own original screenplay, utilizing a mixture of IMAX® and 65mm film to bring the story to the screen. "Dunkirk" opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in. The film's ensemble cast includes Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Harry Styles, Aneurin Barnard, James D'Arcy and Barry Keoghan, with Kenneth Branagh ("My Week with Marilyn," "Hamlet," "Henry V"), Cillian Murphy ("Inception," "The Dark Knight" Trilogy), Mark Rylance ("Bridge of Spies," "Wolf Hall") and Tom Hardy ("The Revenant," "Mad Max: Fury Road," "Inception").

Dunkirk hits theaters on July 20, 2017.

Rent or buy
Categories Categories
Getting Started

The Bikeriders

Cast and Crew

Other formats

601 global ratings

How are ratings calculated? Toggle Expand Toggle Expand

About Amazon
Investor Relations
Amazon Devices
Amazon Science
Sell products on Amazon
Sell on Amazon Business
Sell apps on Amazon
Become an Affiliate
Advertise Your Products
Self-Publish with Us
Host an Amazon Hub
› See More Make Money with Us
Amazon Business Card
Shop with Points
Reload Your Balance
Amazon Currency Converter
Amazon and COVID-19
Your Account
Your Orders
Shipping Rates & Policies
Returns & Replacements
Manage Your Content and Devices

Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
Your Ads Privacy Choices

Today's news
Reviews and deals
Climate change
2024 election
Newsletters
Fall allergies
Health news
Mental health
Sexual health
Family health
So mini ways
Unapologetically
Buying guides

Entertainment

How to Watch
My watchlist
Stock market
Biden economy
Personal finance
Stocks: most active
Stocks: gainers
Stocks: losers
Trending tickers
World indices
US Treasury bonds
Top mutual funds
Highest open interest
Highest implied volatility
Currency converter
Basic materials
Communication services
Consumer cyclical
Consumer defensive
Financial services
Industrials
Real estate
Mutual funds
Credit cards
Balance transfer cards
Cash back cards
Rewards cards
Travel cards
Online checking
High-yield savings
Money market
Home equity loan
Personal loans
Student loans
Options pit
Fantasy football
Pro Pick 'Em
College Pick 'Em
Fantasy baseball
Fantasy hockey
Fantasy basketball
Download the app
Daily fantasy
Scores and schedules
GameChannel
World Baseball Classic
Premier League
CONCACAF League
Champions League
Motorsports
Horse racing

New on Yahoo

Privacy Dashboard

Top-prize Take 5 ticket worth $37K sold in Dunkirk

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A top-prize Take 5 ticket was sold in Dunkirk from Friday evening’s drawing, the New York Lottery announced.

The ticket, worth $37,366, was sold at Matt’s News on East 3rd Street in Dunkirk.

The Take 5 drawing is done twice daily, once at 2:30 p.m. and again at 10:30 p.m. To see the winning numbers, click here .

Latest Local News

Top take 5 ticket worth over $17k sold in cheektowaga, woman killed in crash on creek road in batavia, $120k in damages estimated from fire on riley street, bills fans ready for regular season as opener approaches, power restored across wny after thousands of outages caused by severe weather.

Katie Skoog joined the News 4 team in April 2024. She is a graduate from the University at Buffalo. You can view more of her work here .

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors.

Now streaming on:

In the wake of Quentin Tarantino ’s ascendance to his pop culture throne in the ‘90s, dozens of imitators tried to mimic his approach to filmmaking, only to fall flat on their faces. It turns out that what he does is much harder than it looks. As all of those Tarantino wannabes were to “ Pulp Fiction ,” Neil Marshall ’s “Duchess” is to the work of Guy Ritchie , particularly “Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels,” the filmmaker's international breakthrough. Incongruent needle drops, freeze frames with character names, overheated narration, and tough tales of interconnected criminals – “Duchess” wants SO badly to be a Ritchie film that he almost deserves co-writing credit on the project. Although he probably wouldn’t want that. “Atrocious” might have been a better title.

The remarkably boring Charlotte Kirk plays Scarlett Monaghan, a woman approached by a suave gentleman named Robert McNaughton ( Philip Winchester ) while out with her deadly dull boyfriend at the club one night. Robert and Scarlett have instant chemistry, so they pretty quickly dispatch with Mr. Wrong and begin a steamy affair before Scarlett discovers how Robert makes his money. He’s a dealer in massive diamonds, which means he travels in an underworld of shady characters that requires that he have a couple of criminal allies of his own in the loyal Danny ( Sean Pertwee ) and Baraka ( Hoji Fortuna ). Colin Egglesfield plays an antagonist of Robert/Scarlett, while Stephanie Beacham is forced to deliver some of the film’s worst dialogue as a crime lord of the jewelry scene.

Without spoiling, Scarlett ends up forced into more action than she could have expected when she responded to the flirtatious, snappy dresser that fateful night. Marshall, Kirk, and Simon Farr’s script wants to be a Guy Ritchie variation on “Kill Bill,” a story of a woman pushed to vengeance by people who underestimated her. Still, they don’t come close to closing that sale in any notable capacity. Kirk just isn’t charismatic enough or believable when it comes to action (or character or dialogue or anything), which could explain why Marshall resorts to extreme violence to try to make a truly dull film more interesting. At one point, a hot iron is pressed to a torture victim’s penis. At another, oil is poured on a man’s face and lit aflame. It’s like the torture porn version of “ Snatch .” Yeah, not fun.

It doesn’t help that the plotting and tone of “Duchess” are so exaggeratedly stupid that the whole thing plays almost like a parody of Ritchie instead of an homage, one that goes on for what feels like forever – it’s overlong at nearly two hours, and I swear to you it feels twice as long. And when it all ends with a door wide open for a sequel? It’s more of a threat than a promise.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Now playing

Not Not Jazz

Matt zoller seitz.

Dance First

Glenn kenny.

The Way We Speak

Alien: Romulus

Family Portrait

Film credits.

Duchess (2024)

113 minutes

Charlotte Kirk as Scarlett Monaghan / Duchess

Philip Winchester as Robert McNaughton

Colm Meaney as Frank Monaghan

Hoji Fortuna as Billy Baraka

Stephanie Beacham as Charlie

Sean Pertwee as Danny Oswald

Neil Marshall
Charlotte Kirk

Latest blog posts

A Woman Without Peers: Gena Rowlands (1930-2024)

The Needle Drop Sessions: Pump Up the Volume & Untamed Heart

Locarno Film Festival 2024: Youth (Hard Times), Transamazonia, Moon

Thumbnails 8/15/24: Six Must-Reads You Don’t Want To Miss This Week

Duchess Review: Charlotte Kirk & Neil Marshall Bring Back the British Gangster Movie

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The following contains major spoilers for Duchess , available digitally on August 9. It also contains discussion of violence.

Duchess will be immediately recognized -- and loved -- by fans of British gangster movies or 1970s action films. It is best described as a cross between the movie adaptation of J.J. Connolly's crime novel Layer Cake and the Gina Carano-led action pic Haywire . While it's a star-making vehicle for Charlotte Kirk, who is not only the lead actor but co-writer and producer, it's enjoyable for anyone who likes a bloody good time.

The picture settles on the title character, who graduates from small-time thief to something much bigger after a chance encounter in a nightclub. What follows does not reinvent the crime movie wheel. The film knows exactly what it needs to give the audience, who can largely guess what's coming. But thanks to an interesting cast and complete commitment to its larger-than-life vibe, Duchess winds up being a great popcorn movie.

Duchess Makes Charlotte Kirk an Action Hero

Kirk does her part to carry the film.

A split image of Naru in Prey, The Bride in Kill Bill, and Elien Ripley in Alien

10 Best Female Leads In Action Movies

Action flicks like Prey, Kill Bill, and Alien have strong, intelligent, and captivating female heroes.

When a character's name is the title of a movie, that character had better be worth watching. Duchess gets its name from the moniker given to Kirk's protagonist Scarlett Monaghan, who is unquestionably at the center of every scene in which she appears. That's not surprising, since Kirk co-wrote and produced the film alongside The Descent director Neil Marshall ; it'd be stranger if the two didn't play to her strengths. The film is told from Scarlett / Duchess' point of view, including her providing narration, and tracks her progression from petty criminal to becoming a one-woman revenge machine.

In that sense, there are echoes of Gina Carano's performance in the 2011 film Haywire . Both pictures are centered around strong female characters who spend the bulk of the movie literally fighting to get revenge after being betrayed, and both movies emphasize how tough their heroines are. Yet while Carano's character Mallory Kane was a professional assassin -- and Carano herself was a professional MMA fighter -- Duchess is a relatively ordinary person. The post-credits scenes establish that she's an incredibly talented criminal, but her fighting skills are limited to boxing sessions at a gym run by Aunt Nellie. Duchess spends what little time it can on how its title character isn't prepared for what she's going to do; she just knows she's going to do it.

Aunt Nellie: The choices you make stay with you forever.

Likewise, Kirk commits to everything that's asked of her, from the cocky and self-assured presence that the movie needs for the audience to root for her, to the few beats in which she's required to be emotional. The story truly rests on whether not the viewer cares about Scarlett's whirlwind romance with Rob (played by Law & Order: SVU alum Philip Winchester ), because that provides the motivation for all the fights and gunfire. Kirk doesn't reach the same heights as Daniel Craig in Layer Cake or go through as compelling a transformation as Martin Compston in Gangster , but she never loses that relatability so that the audience is interested in Duchess and not just how many bad guys she defeats. And of course, she takes out several.

Duchess' Cast Is What Makes the Movie Fun

An unexpected combination of actors provides big appeal.

Rob (actor Philip Winchester) protects Duchess (Charlotte Kirk) in an elevator in the movie Duchess

10 Best Action Movie Actors From the Past 10 Years

The past decade has been huge for action movies, and actors like Tom Cruise and Chris Hemsworth have solidified themselves as action stars.

There's no shortage of female action-adventure heroes , so Duchess needs more than Kirk to make it stand out. What becomes a big hook for the movie is the rest of its cast, because they're not names that would immediately come to mind for an audience. The Layer Cake comparison becomes even more valid because of the presence of Colm Meaney, who starred as Gene in the 2004 movie. Meaney has a brief but important role in Duchess as "Mad" Frank Monaghan, Scarlett's incarcerated and completely remorseless father, providing necessary context for the title character's hard-luck backstory.

Mad Frank: You can choose where you're going, but you can't change where you came from.

The movie is a welcome return to kicking butt and taking names for Philip Winchester, who starred in the superlative action series Strike Back before he got into network TV procedurals. One of the weaknesses of the script is how quickly it asks the audience to believe that Scarlett and Rob are madly in love with one another ; they're flirting within minutes of meeting, and certain portions of their relationship are skipped over in montages. Scarlett calls Rob "the love of my life," but there's just not that much screen time devoted to that dynamic to make it fully believable -- because there must be time for the action sequences. Instead, what sells the romance is Winchester making an ex-Marine turned diamond-dealing mercenary utterly charming so that the audience likewise falls for him, and understands that he's a good guy regardless of his questionable choice of occupation. And once the bullets start flying, Winchester is back in his element as an action hero.

The biggest surprise comes out of Colin Egglesfield, who plays Rob's longtime friend and business associate Tom. His character undergoes a drastic change that separates Tom from almost any character Egglesfield has portrayed before. The actor is mostly known for likable guys in projects like Rizzoli & Isles or the romantic comedy Something Borrowed ; this movie will make audiences see him very differently. It may be the first time he's actively loathed on screen. For soap opera fans, Dynasty and The Colbys star Stephanie Beacham sinks her teeth into the role of Charlie. All of the characters around Scarlett are pretty much what the audience expects them to be; it's how the actors play them that makes them unique.

Duchess Provides Enough Action to Hold Viewer Interest

Neil marshall shoots a fast-paced, busy film.

A bloodied Osborne and Duchess (actor Charlotte Kirk) stand outside a hotel in the movie Duchess

11 Best British Movies That Don't Take Place in London

London is the go-to location for filmmakers wanting to set a story in Britain, but there are many great British films not set there.

Though Duchess doesn't spend enough time fleshing out its characters, that happens because the film wants to get to the double-dealing and action that gangster movie fans are coming for. Marshall's use of montages speeds through the middle period between Scarlett meeting Rob and becoming an integral part of his business. The director also keeps things moving at a fast clip once the inciting incident turns Duchess on to her mission of revenge; the only downbeats happen when characters are discussing their next moves in between battles. While the movie clocks in at just under two hours -- 117 minutes -- it feels much shorter.

Duchess: Rob once told me that real power can never be given. It has to be taken.

Marshall leans fully into the larger-than-life, pulpy feel of the gangster genre, as well as a certain 1970s movie aesthetic. The throwback titles and the decision to put every key character's name on screen when they're introduced (which is very helpful) make Duchess feel like a classic rather than something released in 2024. The director is also able to adapt his style multiple times throughout. A pre-credits scene feels very film noir , but street scenes have plenty of dark shadows and grit, while visuals from the Canary Islands look incredible. There are just a few cringe-worthy moments (one involving the violent use of a vise), but generally Marshall keeps the action from being too gory or too stylized.

Duchess wholeheartedly ticks off every box that gangster movie fans will want: there's tough characters, plenty of action, shamelessly pithy one-liners, sex and swagger. Marshall and Kirk also leave the door open for a potential sequel. Audiences looking for deeper themes or more complex character exploration will want to check out the 1970s-set crime show Hotel Cocaine . But those who just want to have fun, who want a throwback to when films weren't so complicated, or who are fans of Guy Ritchie will get a big kick out of Duchess . It brings the British gangster movie back in style.

Duchess is available digitally and on demand August 9, 2024.

Action Movie

‘Skincare’ Review: Elizabeth Banks Stars in Fictionalized True Story That Only Goes Skin Deep

An aesthetician desperately clings to her crumbling sanity and business empire after a rival moves in next door in a true-crime thriller that isn’t nearly as juicy as its salacious, real-life inspiration.

By Courtney Howard

Courtney Howard

‘My Penguin Friend’ Review: Jean Reno and an Adorable Penguin Overcome Strife in Family-Friendly Charmer 2 days ago
‘Skincare’ Review: Elizabeth Banks Stars in Fictionalized True Story That Only Goes Skin Deep 3 days ago
‘The Girl in the Pool’ Review: Freddie Prinze Jr. Tries to Hide His Mistress’ Corpse in a Schlocky Thriller With More Laughs Than Suspense 3 weeks ago

Reviewed online, Aug. 7, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 96 MIN.

Production: An IFC Films release of a Jalapeño Goat, Iervolino & Lady Bacadi Entertainment, WWPS.TV production, in collaboration with Evolution & Development Technology S.A. Producers: Logan Lerman, Jonathan Schwartz. Executive producers: Elizabeth Banks, Scott Shooman, Adam Koehler, Sam Freilich, Deering Regan, Luca Matrundola, Richard Salvatore, Danielle Maloni, Andrea Iervolino, Monika Bacardi.
Crew: Director: Austin Peters. Screenplay: Sam Freilich, Deering Regan, Austin Peters. Camera: Christopher Ripley. Editor: Laura Zempel. Music: Fatima Al Qadiri.
With: Elizabeth Banks, Lewis Pullman, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Michaela Jaé (MJ) Rodriguez, Erik Palladino, John Billingsley, Wendie Malick.

More from Variety

Glossy thai series ‘master of the house’ takes netflix global chart lead as it portrays ‘privilege’ and ‘oppression’, reality tv survived the ’07 writers strike. why is it hurting in 2024, ‘bridgerton’ season 4 casts yerin ha as benedict’s love interest sophie beckett (exclusive), netflix top 10: ‘cobra kai’ debuts at no. 1 with 14.1 million views, followed by ‘vikings: valhalla’ season 3 and ‘simone biles rising’, how media companies medal in a different olympics: european video market share, ‘supacell’ renewed for season 2 at netflix, more from our brands, how ‘scandal’ and ‘watchmen’ prepared us for kamala harris’ candidacy, introducing, frédéric panaiotis – champagne’s renaissance man, nfl to meet again on private equity on aug. 27 in minneapolis, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, john aprea, another world and full house vet, dead at 83.

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

‘Duchess’ Review: Neil Marshall and Charlotte Kirk Shoot and Miss with This Guy-Ritchie-Wannabe Crime Thriller

Harrison richlin.

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Share on LinkedIn
Show more sharing options
Submit to Reddit
Post to Tumblr
Print This Page
Share on WhatsApp

Right from the get-go, “ Duchess ” unveils itself as paint-by-numbers contrivance with an in media res sequence that drops us into the middle of a scene between main character, Scarlett ( Charlotte Kirk ), and an unseemly goon trying to get his rocks off. A fight ensues, blood is spurt, the goon goes out the window, Scarlett goes downstairs with a shotgun to finish the job, then BOOM, we flash back to the ACTUAL beginning of the story. And by flash, I literally mean a full rewind that features shots from the entire story leading up to that point. Subtlety has never been a feature of Marshall’s oeuvre, but at this point, it just feels like he doesn’t even care. Related Stories Jenna Ortega Thought She Was ‘Disassociating’ Seeing Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice: ‘I Had to Stare at My Hands’ Justin Kurzel on ‘The Order’ and Making His ‘Life-Changing’ Doc ‘Ellis Park’: ‘I Didn’t Come Out the Same Person’

Every character receives a freeze-frame as they’re introduced, followed by their name being superimposed beside them. Are their names or who they are important? Not necessarily. Does it factor into the narrative at all? Nope. But Marshall has committed to the bit and clearly feels some way about acknowledging everyone’s presence, so freeze-frames and superimposed titles it is. Every choice in the film seems to follow this logic, whether it’s the comically bad cutaways of henchmen beating people up or staging and lighting every romantic scene in the style of either a Lifetime movie or a soft-core porn.

While he faces some challenges, namely the threats of a rich socialite named Charlie (Stephanie Beacham), who also happens to enjoy pulling people’s tongues through a hole cut in their throats, Rob eventually finds a way back to his diamond-cutting business on the Spanish Island of Tenerife. But he’s not only carrying a big rock, he’s also got his new lover Scarlett, now referred to as Duchess by those who pledge their fealty to Rob. And Scarlett truly does feel like she’s living the royal life. Beautiful home, stunning beaches, her very own Spanish servant she can make into her best friend. What more could a girl want? It’s at this moment, over halfway through the movie, that the story chooses to spin in a new direction. It’s not that wide of a spin, but jarring enough to make one wonder why the shift occurs at the point it does.

Shooting action is by no means an easy feat, but Marshall’s staging offers little-to-no excitement, often framing scenarios from a mix of centralized points, then cutting them together, neglecting the fact that every shot looks exactly the same. In terms of dialogue, every line, whether it be shared between characters or through voiceover, feels indistinct, like it could come from the mouth of any badass chick or nondescript gangster. What’s worse is that everytime you start to build an interest in the story, the narrative pivots, seemingly bored with what it was covering before and forcefully creating new beats to lead us in a new, overly-manufactured direction.

Additionally, performances from Beacham as Charlie and Meaney as Scarlett’s prison-bound father do provide “Duchess” with enough bona fide talent to subdue questions over whether this is an actual feature film and not some student project thrown together after watching “Snatch” or “Kill Bill” too many times. It may not meet the standards of these films, let alone make a mark of its own, but you can’t fault “Duchess” for at least trying.

“Duchess” will be available on VOD on Friday, August 9 from Saban Films.

Want to stay up to date on IndieWire’s film reviews and critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best reviews, streaming picks, and offers some new musings, all only available to subscribers.

Most Popular

COMMENTS

Dunkirk movie review & film summary (2017)
The best win out and the worst recede in memory when you think back on the experience—provided that you want to remember "Dunkirk," a movie that's supposed to be grueling and succeeds. Less of a war film and more of a disaster (or survival) picture, it's an ensemble work that chronicles the evacuation of British soldiers who got trapped in ...
Dunkirk (2017)
Steven M. Dunkirk is Christopher Nolan's second best film! Excellent movie! Rated 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/29/21 Full Review Katie D Very intense acting, captivating score, a bit ...
Review: 'Dunkirk' Is a Tour de Force War Movie, Both Sweeping and
Review: 'Dunkirk' Is a Tour de Force War Movie, Both Sweeping and Intimate. A scene from Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk," which focuses on a harrowing rescue effort during World War II ...
Dunkirk Review: An Emotional and Ambitious Masterpiece
Dunkirk, in theaters July 21, is a fictional story set amid real events of late May and early June 1940. The capitulation of Belgium left Allied troops trapped between German forces and the French ...
Film review: Dunkirk is a five-star triumph
Film review: Dunkirk is a five-star triumph. Christopher Nolan 'comes close to perfecting' the immersive approach of Saving Private Ryan, writes critic Caryn James. Mark Rylance is the very ...
Dunkirk Review
Dunkirk is ambitious, monumental filmmaking, to say the least, but director Christopher Nolan handles it all masterfully, delivering an unconventional and stunning war movie. It tells of the ...
Dunkirk (2017)
Dunkirk: Directed by Christopher Nolan. With Fionn Whitehead, Damien Bonnard, Aneurin Barnard, Lee Armstrong. Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Commonwealth and Empire, and France are surrounded by the German Army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.
'Dunkirk' Review: The 'Dark Knight' Director's World War II Epic
Film Review: 'Dunkirk'. Christopher Nolan recreates the World War II evacuation from land, sea and air, interweaving events in a bravura virtual-eyewitness account. Steven Spielberg laid claim ...
Dunkirk
Dunkirk was a well-made film that really made me understand just how dire the entire situation was. It opened my eyes to the horrors of what those troops went through. Full Review | Apr 26, 2023
'Dunkirk' review: Christopher Nolan war epic triumphs
'Dunkirk' review: Christopher Nolan goes to war in triumphant, visceral World War II epic featuring Tom Hardy, Harry Styles.
Dunkirk review: Intensely dramatic and moving, it's already an Oscar
Nolan, who wrote and produced as well as directed Dunkirk, has made an intensely dramatic and moving film about what Winston Churchill called "a colossal military disaster." He has managed to ...
Dunkirk
Aug 23, 2023. "Dunkirk" (2017) is an awe-inspiring masterpiece directed by the brilliant Christopher Nolan. Set against the backdrop of World War II, the film is a triumph of storytelling and cinematography. Nolan's ingenious narrative technique intertwines land, sea, and air perspectives seamlessly, immersing the audience in the heart of the ...
'Dunkirk' Review: Christopher Nolan Has Made Another Great Film
Despite its grounded story, Dunkirk feels more transcendent than even Interstellar, jumping through time to go from the past to the present, reminding us of the importance of empathy and ...
Peter Travers: 'Dunkirk' May Be Greatest War Film Ever
July 18, 2017. 'Dunkirk,' Christopher Nolan's epic recreation of WWII battle, is stunning, stirring and a stone-cold masterpiece - read our four-star review. Melinda Sue Gordon. From first frame ...
'Dunkirk': Film Review
Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk' follows soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire, Canada and France as they're surrounded by the German army and evacuated during the eponymous World War II battle.
Dunkirk Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 57 ): Kids say ( 155 ): Christopher Nolan 's first history movie is bold, visceral, and powerful, with many moving sequences -- though some of his filmmaking choices can be challenging. As with some of Nolan's other movies (especially his great Memento ), Dunkirk experiments with time.
Dunkirk Review
Dunkirk makes for Christopher Nolan's most intense and nerve-wracking thriller yet, delivering a strikingly terse viewing experience in the process.. Between May 26 and June 4, 1940, Allied soldiers fighting in WWII (including, the British and French armies) are surrounded on all sides by the German Army forces and must be evacuated on the beaches of Dunkirk, by way of an operation known as ...
Review: Excellent 'Dunkirk' explores heroism in innovative fashion
The movie captures the real-life heroism of the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, when nearly 400,000 Allied soldiers were pulled out after the Germans trapped them on a beach in Nazi-occupied France ...
Dunkirk movie review: Christopher Nolan's epic one of the best war
Dunkirk movie review: Christopher Nolan's war movie is an unrelenting, unstoppable force of nature, an existential masterpiece powered by a terrific Hans Zimmer score. Rating: 5/5.
'Dunkirk' Movie Review: A Great War Movie, Except
In Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan has made a stark and harrowing war movie muddled by his signature "Nolan Time," that arty temporal scramble that he thinks is more illuminating than it is.Briefly ...
6 Reasons Why "Dunkirk" Is One of the Greatest War Movies Ever Made
Sometimes, that means going for an obvious but effective flourish (the rough, pummeling clang of the film's first barrage of gunfire is unforgettable), but "Dunkirk" also deploys subtler transportive tricks, like when cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (effectively recycling a technique he and Nolan used to film the battered spaceships of ...
Dunkirk Review
Running Time: 106 minutes. Certificate: 12A. Original Title: Dunkirk (2017) Christopher Nolan's new film may be his The Longest Day, but it's very close to being his shortest film. In fact, at ...
Dunkirk Early Buzz: What Do The Critics Think About Christopher ...
Read the first Dunkirk reviews and reactions from social media to learn if Christopher Nolan's war film is merely good or really great. ... Around 75% of DUNKIRK was shot on IMAX film. Other ...
Watch The Bikeriders
Dunkirk. Rent or buy. Black Hawk down. Rent or buy. Stuart: A Life Backwards. Subscribe. Details. More info. Content advisory Violence, ... Find Movie Box Office Data: Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations : IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities: IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need: Kindle Direct Publishing
Best Movies To Watch Before They Leave Hulu in March 2024
Taking place in the tumultuous spring of 1940, Dunkirk is a harrowing tale of the war looming over Dunkirk as British and French soldiers, along with a crew of civilians, find themselves cornered ...
Top Take 5 ticket worth $37K sold in Dunkirk
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A top Take 5 ticket ticket was sold in Dunkirk from Friday evening's drawing, the New York Lottery announced. The ticket, worth $37,366, was sold at Matt's News on East 3rd Street in Dunkirk. The Take 5 drawing is done twice daily, once at 2:30 p.m. and again at 10:30 p.m. […]
Duchess movie review & film summary (2024)
The remarkably boring Charlotte Kirk plays Scarlett Monaghan, a woman approached by a suave gentleman named Robert McNaughton (Philip Winchester) while out with her deadly dull boyfriend at the club one night.Robert and Scarlett have instant chemistry, so they pretty quickly dispatch with Mr. Wrong and begin a steamy affair before Scarlett discovers how Robert makes his money.
Duchess Review: Charlotte Kirk Revives the British Gangster Movie
Duchess will be immediately recognized -- and loved -- by fans of British gangster movies or 1970s action films. It is best described as a cross between the movie adaptation of J.J. Connolly's crime novel Layer Cake and the Gina Carano-led action pic Haywire.While it's a star-making vehicle for Charlotte Kirk, who is not only the lead actor but co-writer and producer, it's enjoyable for anyone ...
'Skincare' Review: Elizabeth Banks' Flick Only Goes Skin Deep
'Skincare' Review: Elizabeth Banks Stars in Fictionalized True Story That Only Goes Skin Deep An aesthetician desperately clings to her crumbling sanity and business empire after a rival moves ...
'Duchess' Review: Neil Marshall and Charlotte Kirk Shoot and Miss
All the shootouts and fist-fights in the world couldn't save this slog of a film. Right from the get-go, "Duchess" unveils itself as paint-by-numbers contrivance with an in media res sequence ...

Review: ‘Dunkirk’ Is a Tour de Force War Movie, Both Sweeping and Intimate

Ambitious and Harrowing, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk Is a Masterpiece

More Must-Reads from TIME

Dunkirk Review

In This Article

Where to Watch

More Reviews by Daniel Krupa

Top cast 86

More like this

Did you know

User reviews 2.7K

Technical specs

Related news

More to explore

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Dunkirk Reviews

‘Dunkirk’ Review: Christopher Nolan’s WWII Epic May Be the Greatest War Film Ever

Peter Travers

Editor’s picks

Trump Spends Rally Whining About Biden’s Exit, Harris’ Magazine Cover

The 100 Greatest Movies of the Nineties

Indiana Jones' 'Temple of Doom' Fedora Sells for $630,000 at Auction

Alain Delon, French Actor Who Starred in 'Le Samourai,' Dead at 88

'Deadpool & Wolverine' Beats 'Joker' as Highest-Grossing R-Rated Film

Matthew Perry Was Receiving Multiple Ketamine Injections a Day Before Death

Most Popular

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

site categories

Todd McCarthy

Related Stories

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Or browse by category:

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Common Sense Selections for Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

How to Prepare Your Kids for School After a Summer of Screen Time

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

Common Sense Media Review

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 14+?

Any Positive Content?

Violence & Scariness

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Positive Messages

Positive Role Models

Where to Watch

Parent and Kid Reviews

You People Dont Understand This Movie

Is It Any Good?

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Movie Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Suggest an Update

Saving Private Ryan

Band of Brothers

Their Finest

Best Epic Movies

Screen Rant

Why Star Wars Is Bringing Back The Mandalorian's Razor Crest, 4 Years After Its Destruction

Key Release Dates

Review: Christopher Nolan's 'Dunkirk' examines WWII heroism up close

Dunkirk movie review: Christopher Nolan’s epic one of the best war films ever made. 5 stars

Dunkirk Is a Great War Movie Marred by Christopher Nolan’s Usual Tricks