But does it escape the warmongering trappings of such films? In keeping with his penchant for enormity, Christopher Nolan’s new film Dunkirk arrives at the intersection of two large and complicated questions: “Do movies about combat ever end up coming across as anything but pro-war?” and “When should issues of form precede those of content in film criticism?” A big-budget dramatization of the harrowing, real-life evacuation of over 300,000 Allied troops from the beaches of the eponymous French village, the director’s latest fits squarely within the World War II combat genre. Daniel Clarkson Fisher reviews Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, and discusses the moral obligations of the artist, the WW2 combat genre, and the potential for a 'truly radical flowering' of progressive film culture.
