So went to watch Dunkirk.
Found it really boring. It's almost plotless. Feels like the last third of 3 different movies mashed together and ultimately there isn't an interesting narrative thread to latch onto or to grab the viewer. Lots of shit happens but nothing actually happens, if you know what I mean.
I feel like the movie is banking too much on the viewer either eating up patriotism and or jingoism or being history buffs.
The fact that is a PG13 War movie also makes it feel really defanged, at points I thought some soldiers where actually napping rather than lying dead on the ground until the characters point out they are dead.
I know the score is by Han Zimmer but I feel like it was trying too hard to make you feel something during every scene because not only was it loud (along with the super loud SFX which is a Stylistic "grity" choice that clashes with the pristineness of everything else) and it almost felt like it was trying too hard to compensate for any actual emotion the scenes could communicate.
It was well shot I'll give it that, but that doesn't make up for all the other things I found disengaged me from t he experience. It was a dull watch for me.
Edit: Another issue I had was that the movie did a very VERY poor job at communicating the passage of time. Apparently the battle of Dunkirk was a week long endeavor, from this movie I thought it happened in just an afternoon and a morning.
The passage of time thing was intentional, because it varies. For the pilot, the whole thing last for an hour or so. For the sailor and his son it's a day. For the young soldier it's several days of ordeal.
The narrative is very non-linear and seems condensed, but its actual length is over several days.
As for the rest of what you've written, I can't really agree with most of the stuff. The film tried to portray the chaos, fear and hopelessness of soldiers who were in Dunkirk. It's anxiety-inducing and downright claustrophobic during some scenes. At the same time it got the whole "art" vibe to it, so it's an atypical war film.
I'd go as far and say that it isn't an actual war film, at least in the general sense of what war films are. There's very little combat except for the dogfights, there's no clear focus of why and how is this all happening. You don't even get to see the Germans in the film - well, you get, but it's very little.
The whole experience is so far away from the modern idea of war film and simply focuses on POV of three relatively ordinary characters in desperate situations. Who they are matters very little, the only thing that matters is what they're going through.
I liked the film. It was interesting to see Nolan direct a historical film, and an art war film at that. Quite unconventional. Far from perfect tho.
