Chris Nolan's epic World War II movie Dunkirk opened this weekend to rave reviews --- from both critics and audiences. The film recounts the 1940 Battle of Dunkirk in which nearly 400,000 British and Allied forces, surrounded by Germans, were evacuated in a miraculous --- and now legendary --- campaign named Operation Dynamo.
The film boasts an enviably 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, and the reviews have mostly been glowing:
[Chris Nolan's] extraordinary Dunkirk, a true cinematic achievement, backs off conventional notions of narrative and chronology as much as possible, while leaning headfirst into everything else that makes a movie a visceral work of art aimed at the senses: the images, the sounds, the scale, the swelling vibrations of it all. You can’t smell the sea spray, but your brain may trick you into thinking you can.
--- Alissa Wilkinson, Vox
Gorgeous, gripping Dunkirk is this summer’s most surprising movie. Nolan, a technician with luxe taste and a seriousness in his heart, has made his most artful, impressionistic film to date.
--- Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
‘Dunkirk’ is a tour de force war movie, both sweeping and intimate
--- Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
What do you think? Should Dunkirk be listed among the best war movies ever made? Take the poll: