Dunkirk's aggressive audio mix -- which can hop between silence to deafening gunshots and explosions at the drop of a hat -- complements the visuals. Nolan doesn't break new ground, but the sound design is still impressive, taking full advantage of the powerful subwoofers and speakers in IMAX cinemas. Hans Zimmer's score, as usual, drives home the tension and anxiety of every scene. At certain points, I had a hard time telling the difference between the explosions on the screen and the pounding music -- which is probably the point.

Nolan has described Dunkirk as a film that's meant to be immersive. There's little dialog, not much backstory and we see only glimpses of the German soldiers keeping the English and French under fire. So for this movie, more so than most, the experience of seeing it in a theater is particularly important. Sure, you can see Dunkirk on your laptop, TV, or, heaven forbid, your phone. But are you really seeing and hearing what it's trying to convey?

Of course, there are issues with Nolan's rosy view of the theatrical experience. For one, he's crafted a film that can only truly be enjoyed to its fullest in a handful of theaters around the world. There are more than 1,200 IMAX screens globally, but only a fraction of them support the format's original 70mm film. Instead, most are smaller retrofitted screens using digital projectors. Those theaters -- dubbed "lie-Max" by cinephiles -- still offer better picture and sound than a typical screen, but they lose out on the extra-tall framing you'd see in a full-fledged IMAX screen. (If you want a primer on the differences between IMAX formats, check out this guide.)

Nolan has also made it very clear he doesn't care much for Netflix, both as a service to watch films and as a platform for budding filmmakers. "Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films," he told Indiewire. "They have this mindless policy of everything having to be simultaneously streamed and released, which is obviously an untenable model for theatrical presentation. So they're not even getting in the game, and I think they're missing a huge opportunity." He goes on to praise Amazon, which releases its films theatrically before placing them online.

The director's comments might seem elitist and out of touch with the way we consume most media today. But, when watching a film like Dunkirk, it's hard not to see his point. There's something special about losing yourself to a film in a theater, where the screen is huge and you're not distracted by any gadgets. Cinema demands patience and attention. And with the rise of digital media, that's easy to forget.