Dunkirk — A Bad Film They Won’t Call Bad

‘Everything’s about visuals nowadays,’ a senior art director often tells me. 'People care too less, too little about strong content. Gone is the era of details, mesmerize the audience with stunning visuals; not only will they give you their buck, but also bucketfuls of praises.’
Seems that’s what Mr. Christopher Nolan has accomplished with his recent release, Dunkirk — a rescue film with captivating cinematography and arresting background music. I decided to go for it after checking its rating on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB.
Rotten Tomatoes, I thought, gave movies a good rating when they looked ‘fresh’, not when the director repeated his cliched style of film-making.
Because that’s all you see when you see Dunkirk.
Nolan’s storytelling style, which was novel in The Prestige, intriguing in the Batman series, quite forced in Interstellar, lives on with Dunkirk; only to make it a painful watch.
What further adds to a forgettable movie is a slim characterization and lack of detailed plot. Teal and orange color grading and Hans Zimmer’s racy background score hit the nail pretty hard, but I couldn’t remember a single character’s name after walking out of cinema hall.
There are no cheers when a ‘heroic’ pilot lands safely. No claps when people welcome the survivors of war. No feelings for a father who lost his son and is pretty forgiving about it.
And honestly, I couldn’t have cared less if those events were completely opposite.
Full marks to ‘Dunkirk’ for delivering just action and no character development.
Dunkirk, honestly, is a bad film that won’t be called bad. Because you-know-who made it, and how could he misfire?
If Dunkirk was made by a newbie filmmaker obsessed with delivering action sequences based on historical events, it might have been okay.
But when it comes from Mr. Nolan’s hat, it’s nothing but a disappointment which doesn’t even come close to Batman Begins or Memento, let alone The Dark Knight or Inception.
It has an immersive background score, yes. It’s visually enticing, yes. But it’s a forgettable film in its genre. A genre dominated by epics like The Bridge On The River Kwai and Saving Private Ryan and Ivan’s Childhood.
If media continues to call it epic, either their definition of epic varies from the actual or times have really changed.
Because Dunkirk is same as Dunkirk’s waters for warships back then: shallow.

