Dunkirk

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Saw the movie last week in Imax format (recommended).

I think it is a great movie - not a historic documentary - as I and my two boys thought it did capture the anxiety, disarray, sometimes even sheer terror, of what it must have been to be on that beach and out on the sea close to Dunkirk.

Ever since I read (in Wheels & Tracks magazine) the comment of a movie director that "if the public comments on vehicles being incorrect, I did not do a good job to make a good movie" (or something along those lines), I have stopped looking at the details and try to get into the flow of the story they are trying to tell. I would have liked to see a little more background/depth in the main characters, but other than that the movie was very much able to keep our attention and even led to some discussion afterwards.

Of course there are many spoilers if you look into the details. One guy I know is a specialist in uniforms and webbings, he had comments I myself did not see. I did note the container cranes in the background and wondered if they could not have edited them out? And then forgot about it and focussed on what happened in the foreground. It must have worked well as I dit not spot the CMP!

On the plus side, they did put a lot of effort in getting the details right where possible: real, flying Spitfires, but of course the ones crashing and burning on the ground are replicas.

Another big plus: this is a movie about the Commonwealth armies! So it might even drop a coin in Joe Public's mind that it weren't only the Americans fighting WW2.

As long as you put off your nitty-gritty-military-equipment-details-anorak, it is well worth viewing on the big screen, I'd say.

HTH,
Hanno

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

I think it is a great movie - not a historic documentary

I guess we all have different definitions of what a good movie is .. it's a subjective thing isn't it !

Me, I reckon the movie industry does a great job of perpetuating fantasy in its many forms. Primarily, at the end of the day, these blockbuster movies are made with the movie company shareholders in mind and the hopeful big profits involved.

I would rather watch a well researched documentary myself , but again , all of history is subjective to some degree and even doco's are open to many types of opinions and imperfections.

I noticed in the Dunkirk movie preview ( shown on tellie here ATM and repeated endlessly ) some of the smallish naval vessels seen off shore the Dunkirk beach look similar to the post war built RN Ton class minesweepers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton-class_minesweeper

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

I guess we all have different definitions of what a good movie is .. it's a subjective thing isn't it !

Me, I reckon the movie industry does a great job of perpetuating fantasy in its many forms. Primarily, at the end of the day, these blockbuster movies are made with the movie company shareholders in mind and the hopeful big profits involved.

Movies are entertaiment, for which as many people as possible want to pay. People go to the movies to be entertained and be distracted from their daily life. Maybe dreaming away being a princess, succesfull dancer , boxer or musician - or travelling through space battling species on planets they never heard of.
Come to think of it, one wonders why are people willing to look at movies like Dunkirk? It isn't all singing and dancing, is it? Maybe seeing the misery makes the viewers feel better, as compared to that, their life isn't too bad after all? Psychologists can surely tell, and I am sure they are employed by Hollywood movie producers. Meanwhile, we must count ourselves lucky with producers and directors being willing and able to make war movies!

H.

[Mike K]

I can highly recommend the 4 part BBC doco series, FINEST HOUR made in the 1990's , it details the 1940 battles very well with first hand interviews with veterans .

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Finest-Hour-DVD/dp/B000JLTE98

I recall they interviewed an ex-British armoured regiment recce officer. His comments were something like this.

Here is 21 year old me leading the whole regiment to where the German armoured columns were advancing. Within ten minutes our regiment ( equipped with Matilda 1 tanks ) was almost completely decimated . My tank managed to escape , at night we crept into a German column of transport, our black berets looked similar to the German tankers berets ! We actually rammed the truck in front of us accidently and a tirade of German swear words came on.

After abandoning the tank, he and his driver attempted to swim a river but the driver drowned . The doco makers go to an abandoned villa where the pair tried to rest , here is where the driver carved his name into a wall and its still there today.

They also interview a British corporal, who was in charge of a mortar platoon behind the Dunkirk beaches , this chap describes how a mixup in orders had his men send a a mortar barrage over onto their own chaps , which caused mortal casualties.

[chalky]

Afraid I didn't enjoy the movie , it really did need a back story to link it all together , soldiers don't fight in silence they have banter. Jumps around so much and is so loud I didn't know whether I was in a sinking ship or a crashing plane after an hour and wanted it to finish.
Best bit is the opening scene which really captures the fine line between life and death in war , but again just a bit of rubble and wreckage in the street would have made it so much better.

The Dunkirk scenes in the movie Atonement were much better done with real attention to detail even including building dozens of Morris CS8 replicas that were quite convincing. Not so sure about the casting tho!
Here's five minutes of the 20 min continuous Dunkirk shot-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QijbOCvunfU


Dunkirk a bit of a pet subject so rambling on-
All the theories about Hitler pausing to let Brits escape are hogwash IMHO.
Churchill and Admiral Ramsay in full possession of all the facts thought at best we would get no more than 30,000 away . No doubt the Germans thought they would be able to stop all but a handful by air bombardment ( and why would they continuously bomb the port if they wanted us to escape ? )
So there was no need to waste resources attacking trapped troops in a heavily defended town that would be needed to fight their way south across the rest of France .