The first reaction of me when hearing that director Christopher Nolan is going to shoot a World War II film, was "How can he manage to use his multilayer plotlines to retell a history story?" However, every doubt is thrown out of the window once the film starts.
Director incorporates his multilayering of plotlines to tell the Dunkirk evacuation from three perspective - soliders on the beach (One Week), civilians on the boat (One Day) and air force pilots (One Hour). Just like his classic masterpiece Memento, the three plotlines converge into a single ending.
The pace and the soundtrack score (composed by long-time collaborator Hans Zimmer) set up the tense atmosphere once the soliders are entering the Dunkirk beach. This unease feeling has been long-lasting until when the soldiers survive and earn their temporary peace.
The air battle scene are shot beautifully in the vein of spacecraft flight scenes first seen in Interstellar. The ending train scene also recalls to Inception.
Nolan has minimised the background story of each characters, and put the focus of the story on their reaction and emotions, and putting the event of Dunkirk evacuation as the main character. The film, with no dramatic battle scenes, does not glorify war, but it glorifies the part where survival is of utmost importance.
Dunkirk is a masterpiece by Christopher Nolan with his refined craftsmanship, and after reinventing the superhero genre films, he again reinvents war films.