quote:
Originally posted by Rothko:
Saw Dunkirk yesterday in an Imax theater. It was LOUD. I mean really really loud; I figured that I had hearing damage from the movie.
I thought it was OK. Not on the level of the greatest war movies. I did like the interplay between the three story lines.
A few thoughts (some SPOILERS):
What military commander has his men line up in rows on a beach for no purpose? The very first thing I'd have done was get the men off the beach and into foxholes and trenches. Good Lord, the enemy has dive bombers, strafing fighters and artillery. You might want to dig in. The infantry man's second favorite tool, after his rifle, is a shovel.
It seems like both the Germans and the English could only send one or two fighters and bombers over at a time. I think the dive bomber scenes would have been far more terrifying if squadrons of German planes had showed up, and not just the occasional Stuka. The guys on the beaches didn't seem to be too bent out shape when a single bomber was buzzing around. I haven't read a lot about Dunkirk, but I was under the impression that the Germans were bombing and shelling the heck out of the English on the beach, and not just sending over single bomber attacks.
Lastly, [BIG SPOILER HERE] I don't care how shell-shocked or sympathetic a soldier is, if he kills a member of your crew, you don't let him just walk off the boat with everyone else. I understand not doing anything when he's the only soldier on the boat and he might take over the ship, but when the other guys got on board, the boat captain should have asked a bunch of them to tie up Private ShellShock and turn him over to the Navy when they returned to England. Maybe it's because I was an Army JA years ago, but I wanted to scream "Court-martial!!" at the movie screen.
Visually stunning movie, but left me cold...zero character development, and frankly the war scenes were not harrowing/horrifying (like Hacksaw Ridge - a much better film, IMHO). Also, the total lack of gore (clearly intentional) was odd in this day and age...throwback to 40s war movies?
Still, at least it's not a comic book/cartoon sequel!
Definitely worth seeing on the big screen, and the shockingly short running time (especially for Nolan) is refreshing.
