In God’s Good Time: A Review of ‘Dunkirk’
Brad Miner reviews Christopher Nolan’s war saga. It’s the best film of 2017 (and among the best war films ever made) because it understands that character is key.
I recall being stunned and impressed when I read, at some point after the fact, that the mobilization of rescue boats on the Hudson River on 9/11 evacuated nearly half-a-million people from Lower Manhattan to New Jersey – on Coast Guard vessels, of course, but also on private yachts, tugs. and barges – an operation larger than the exodus of British troops from Dunkirk in 1940.
I thought: the Can-Do Spirit lives! Many thought it dead, but, if so, it was resurrected on that sunny Tuesday: light briefly breaking through on one of our darkest days.
And that light and that spirit shine vividly in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, by far the best film of 2017.
The brief history: At the end of May 1940, more than 300,000 retreating British, Canadian, French, and Belgian forces had their backs against the English Channel with the German army driving in on them. Because of the maritime geography, getting most British Navy ships close to shore was impossible. Besides, the Admiralty had made the terrible, if necessary, decision to hold back the main naval force.
The situation in Dunkirk seemed so grim that those ships had to be held in reserve against a likely German invasion of Great Britain. . .if the soldiers awaiting evacuation were lost.
Notwithstanding that, as one character in Dunkirk says, “We have to get our Army back!”
So the decision was made to mount what seems in retrospect – thoughprospectively – a kind of reverse D-Day. But the only rescue flotilla that can be launched to the coast of Northern France this time is mostly comprised of private vessels.
Except for its structural conceits, Dunkirk is similar to many fine war films, such as Saving Private Ryan (1998), A Bridge Too Far (1977), and The Longest Day (1962) – epics, yes, but films that understand that no matter how grand the scope or electrifying the action, character is key – characters brought to life by fine actors.
The cast of Dunkirk is as good as in any film of its kind, with familiar stars (Kenneth Branagh, 56, and Tom Hardy, 39, are two) and newcomers (for instance, Fionn Whitehead, 20, and Barry Keoghan, 24), in an ensemble that suggests how the raw courage of youth must, in the successful prosecution of a war, be complemented by the steely determination of experience.
Click here to read the rest of Mr. Miner’s review . . .
Brad Miner
Brad Miner is senior editor of The Catholic Thing, senior fellow of the Faith & Reason Institute, and a board member of Aid to the Church In Need USA. He is a former Literary Editor of National Review. His new book, Sons of St. Patrick, written with George J. Marlin, is now on sale. The Compleat Gentleman, is available on audio and as an iPhone app.
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