Movie Review: ‘Dunkirk’ could easily be a modern war classic

The story of Dunkirk, the defeat of the British and French forces at the hands of Hitler's Blitzkrieg in 1940, has now been turned into a legend of heroism and British national pride exemplified by the pulling together of ordinary people to answer the call for help in evacuating their hapless soldiers from the beaches.

Just in case you thought that the legend of Dunkirk was fading, director Christopher Nolan has stepped in to create a taut, economical and effective war film that brings home the many desperate aspects of the events from three different perspectives.

We begin with Fionn Whitehead's young soldier arriving on the beach and quickly sizing up the situation before he attempts, with help of French soldier Damien Bonnard, to get onto a ship by posing as a medic and we get a cameo from One Direction's Harry Styles.

Many miles away Mark Rylance's boat captain, with his son and a friend, head off to help with the evacuation, stopping only to offer assistance to Cillian Murphy's shell-shocked soldier, who's adamant he's not going back.

Up in the air Tom Hardy's Spitfire pilot silently and valiantly tries to provide what assistance he can to the overexposed ships and soldiers being bombed by German planes.

WATCH the trailer for Dunkirk

Nolan being Nolan he can't resist getting a little finicky with the timelines and creating three stories that occasionally intersect - it's effective enough as a device but I'm not sure how much it adds to the story.

In the end it's more the director's refusal to get bogged down in back story that succeeds in providing an immersive portrait of the realities that throws the audience in and keeps them there for the film's gripping 107 minutes.

It may not offer too much in the way of a revision of the multitude of pages already written on the battle, but it's undeniably a master class in filmmaking that will quickly be elevated to the canon of the great war films on at least a technical, if not always emotional, level.

It's also an effective if not very subtle reminder of everyday British heroism in the face of seemingly insurmountable tragedy that will resonate with audiences living in the age of the Manchester and Westminster attacks.

As far as Nolan's own career is concerned it's probably his most tightly realised film since Memento and its overall lack of gimmickry provides a welcome reminder of his ability to do what great directors do best - tell a compelling story audiences can relate to no matter where and when its action takes place.

WHAT OTHERS SAY

• Somewhere inside the mess is a terrific linear movie. - David Edelstein, Vulture

• A bold, visceral and powerful film, with many moving sequences - though some of the filmmaking choices are challenging. - Jeffrey M. Anderson, Common Sense Media

• The action swells and dips, like a wave, then delivers a salty slap in the face. - Anthony Lane, New Yorker

• This article was originally published in The Times.