Where was “The Nolan Factor” in Dunkirk?

We have seen enough number of movies about war/ relating to a war. I would bet that when I said “War“, you are already thinking about those massive introduction sequences, thrilling shooting scenes between the protagonist and the enemy ( like, Behind the enemy lines), bombs exploding all over and the protagonist running amidst them (Ex: Forrest Gump, Avatar, etc) scenes, the comebacks, the political twists behind the war and emotional conversations between a dying soldier and a lead character.

But Dunkirk has no such scenes and Nolan was crystal clear with his approach towards what he wanted the audience to experience. When we’re talking about a real story which was documented in history, the information available is in abundance and a usual movie writer would’ve made his imagination run amok and create something out of the available. This is exactly where Nolan stood out.

Purely for understanding purposes, if we take Hey Ram, Kamal haasan was clear with where his imagination should take over and where the actual facts should be highlighted. He knew what to show in it and had a clear timeline fixed to the script which circled around a particular incident and a time period in History.

When we are talking about War Heroes, Commanders and Officers, one would create some spin chilling conversations between the characters ( like in Inglorious Basterds, a masterpiece of Tarantino), but Dunkirk has very minimal, yet very effective and strong dialogues.

If all the above mentioned is unavailable in Dunkirk then where did the movie succeed? And the answer to that is the magic of Christopher Nolan. Without any of the above, he has managed to teleport us into the war zone, so much so that it suffocates to us when the soldiers in the movie struggle and it gives us a smile when something positive happens to them. Brilliant cinematography is another key aspect which gave a supporting hand to this magnificent writing. It was a sheer joy to see how the characters, which had no proper introduction or shared screen space, fleshed out eventually to the level that was perfectly required for the setting, only through their activities during the proceedings and the performance of the actors

If Christopher Nolan is the magician to this Act called “Dunkirk”, then Hans Zimmer is the Prestige. It is safe to say that without Hans Zimmer’s scores, this movie would’ve lacked any impact and without the visuals and the writing, the background scores would’ve felt just like some alternative tunes to The Dark Knight Joker theme. It was a dual act which was executed to it’s very best.

Handling stories which have morality as the base concept seems to be too easy for Nolan and we’re already ready to travel in this honest, painful wave filled of hope, a few more times. Let’s travel together into this emotional, intense, knee jerking portal and live as British/French soldiers for a solid 2 hours. Let’s experience a historical moment from the World War 2 from the eyes of a soldier