Modern war films have a number hurdles to overcome. Firstly, gone of the days of the more fictional adaptions of infamous war time battles/moments. It would feel churlish in a modern world to play the film as a "jolly boys outing", a style that was (sometimes) employed right up to the early 80s. This film has a serious tone throughout, and rightly so, however this affects my second point. For some unknown reason Nolan has held on to the notion that we must employ every single "famous" actor of the current age, including a teenage heartthrob musician. This tends, I feel, to cause problems. Whilst Nolan perhaps may argue that the screen time for each star is justified by telling the story of Dunkirk from the land, sea and air, I feel it falls into the trap of blockbuster war films of the 70s in that every star has an equal slightly over dramatised part. Thirdly and lastly, by trying to do the story justice and or give screen time to the many stars involved we have a film that feels more like a docu-drama at times (which it is not) and it loses sight of connecting the audience with the characters, it ultimately spreads itself too thin. It's not a bad film, but it doesn't quite pull off what is an incredibly difficult task, especially with the gravity of the subject involved.