From direction to production, director Christopher Nolan has managed to give his attention to detail in every aspect of the film.
Set during the Second World War, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk chronicles the evacuation of British soldiers who were left stranded in one corner of the beach in France, after German soldiers had pushed nearly 400,000 soldiers to the edge. It is a story of survival.
The land, the sea and the air play important roles in the film. These three distinct perspectives inter cut throughout the movie, thereby giving us the whole picture of the sheer brutality of war. One moment you love the sea, for its scenic beauty, the next moment you are scared of it when its heavy tides bring back bodies of soldiers.
Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk is being hailed as one of the best works of the director, suggesting a possible Oscar win. But what makes Dunkirk stand out?
Horror, horror, horror.
The line comes from the famous play of William Shakespeare, Macbeth, when Macduff comes and alarms everyone about King Duncan’s death. There is no doubt that Dunkirk remains a film that leaves you with a gruelling experience. Like a regular film, it isn’t focused on one protagonist and his experience. The constant gun fire, death and injuries add to the sense of harrowed frustration. The intensity of some scenes is just too impossibly barbaric to imagine.
Performances
Like I mentioned earlier, the film hardly boasts of a single protagonist taking you to places. There’s less dialogue and more delivery of performance. Almost all soldiers have one crisp line of dialogue suggesting a method of escape. Harry Styles, the former One Direction band member, convinced us of about his trauma, however, we still can’t raise our hopes and declare him as one of the future A-listers of Hollywood.
Why the hopes for winning an Oscar?
Unlike a usual war film, Christopher Nolan majorly focuses on the mere survival of the individuals in Dunkirk. You manage to form a connection with each of them hoping that they don’t die. Although there is brutality, Nolan cleverly hides the enemy. The background score adds to the dread and fear as the soldiers try to escape from danger. All things considered, why should we not expect nominations and possibly Nolan’s first Oscar win next year.
