The end of the month is just a few days away, and Amazon Prime Video is about to lose several great movies on May 31.
With so little time left, you won’t be able to catch all of the departing titles. However, if you can watch just one great Amazon Prime Video movie this week, then Christopher Nolan‘s Dunkirk is the film you should watch.
Before making Oppenheimer in 2023, Nolan’s Dunkirk explored one of the darkest events in World War II, following the defeat of the British and French armies during the Battle of France. With most of the remaining troops trapped on Dunkirk’s beaches, it could have been a massacre. Instead, something miraculous happened.
The story behind the soldiers’ salvation is the reason why Nolan wanted to make this movie in the first place. And it’s one of the reasons why you need to watch Dunkirk before the end of May.
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‘Dunkirk’ Successfully Recreates the Horror of War
Dunkirk has been compared to Steven Spielberg‘s Saving Private Ryan, but it doesn’t quite match the unrelenting savagery of that film’s opening battle. Instead, Dunkirk finds its own way to build up a sense of dread and hopelessness while numerous soldiers die trying to escape the reach of the Nazis.
For the troops who are stranded on the beach, fear gives way to paranoia and anger towards each other. It feels like an inescapable prison for the characters and for the audience watching them go through their ordeal.
Harry Styles Impresses in His Acting Debut
Unless you’re a big One Direction fan, you may not have heard of Harry Styles before Dunkirk. He’s a very famous singer, but this film was not only Styles’ first movie, it was also his first leading role. Nolan placed a lot of trust in Styles by casting him as Alex, one of the soldiers trapped on the beach. Whenever the perspective shifts back to the beach, it largely stays with Alex, Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) and Gibson (Aneurin Barnard).
Because Gibson barely speaks, it usually falls on Styles to convey a lot of the big emotions in the story. To his credit, Styles did a very good job in a challenging role. He carries the movie during his sections, and shows he can do more than just sing a good pop tune.
The Film Doesn’t Flinch From the Tragic Side of the Story
When Alex and his comrades aren’t on screen, Nolan rotates between them and a group of fighter pilots led by Farrier (Tom Hardy) and a civilian ship captained by Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance), who is accompanied by his son, Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney), and their assistant, George (Barry Keoghan). Several civilian ships answer the call to help rescue the soldiers, while the fighter pilots provide cover for the ships and for the escaping troops.
That’s the miracle that the soldiers badly needed, but it doesn’t come without a cost. Countless soldiers are lost during the initial rescue attempts, and one unnamed soldier (Cillian Murphy) accidentally harms one of his would-be rescuers in a tragic turn. But the reality of war is that not everyone gets to come home, even among the civilians who aren’t part of the war effort. Dunkirk ultimately has a hopeful ending, but it doesn’t let the audience forget that there was a high price for deliverance.
Dunkirk is streaming on Prime Video until May 31.
