Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire, and France are surrounded by the German army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II. The biggest name in this film is its director Christopher Nolan so it was refreshing to see a cast of new faces and smaller names onscreen.
Dunkirk is very suspenseful. It’s based on a specific engagement during WWII so unless you’re unfamiliar with how the war went, nothing should surprise you. The suspense comes when the enemy attacks and how the soldiers escaped. When their warships were falling left and right due to bombs (from the air) and torpedos (from underwater), the English pulled a bold move and sent civilian boats to Dunkirk to retrieve the soldiers and bring them to safety.
The youngest of the lot was Gibson (Aneurin Barnard) who barely escaped with his life to the evacuation point (the beach). Once he made it to the beach he was less tense and decided to walk along where the sand met the grass. Behind a dune, he saw a French soldier (Damien Bonnard) burying a man who he killed (he assumed). The two shared no vocal exchange but immediately became friends and looked out for each other the rest of the way.
An incident took place where a portion of the beach was ambushed. A few English soldiers were hiding inside a Dutch boat when they tried to figure out how anyone knew they were hiding? That was when we found out that French soldier didn’t bury a German soldier that we presumed he killed. He actually stumbled upon a dead British soldier and swapped uniforms. He did this because the heads of the military at the time, even though they were allies, were evacuating English only. One soldier even noted, “The only one who hasn’t said a word since we came on this boat is him!” And that was to hide the fact that he was French.
The film is pretty good, nothing spectacular. It’s full of suspense and the bravery of the civilians to go to a war zone to rescue soldiers was remarkable. Dunkirk gets an 8 out of 10.
-Jon J.