a little kink on the triptych execution - ***1/2

Director Christopher Nolan came up with the idea to tell the story about the Dunkirk evacuation 25 years prior to making the film while he was sailing along the English channel with his wife.  He wrote the story with very little dialogue, waited some more until he gained much experience in making large scale films, co produced it with 3 other countries and started filming in May of 2016.

World War II France,  the German army had successfully trapped the Allied forces on the North part of France, barricaded by a small perimeter around the beach of Dunkirk.  At the danger of losing the entire British army to the Germans, Great Britain decided to execute operation Dynamo which affected the evacuation of 400, 000 soldiers.  This movie is an impression of what happened in Dunkirk in 1940 during the days between May and June.

This film has Christopher Nolan written all over it.  He took complete control from script to directing, post and pre-prod.  The film triumphs in telling the story with very little dialogue, thus paying much attention to details.  Along with historical consultant he interviewed the surviving veterans and came up with a factual picture surrounding the events about the rescue.  But he also took it upon himself not to make the film political nor character-based.  It became more about telling what generally happened in Dunkirk according to how he sees it.

The story is told as a triptych, meaning it is told through three perspectives.  In this case there is the perspective from land, the air and the sea. At the onset there is a title when a perspective starts to be told then you realize you are watching three stories and then when all three stories are rolling the story starts to get confusing, but generally you just needed to know if they will all survive.  Generally to me it is a good film but felt like I was disregarded as the audience and so I find myself disconnected.