Dunkirk - Film

[Totenhead]

My next France trip will include the Dunkirk beaches etc. IS there any monuments museums there? You Europe folk are lucky.

There is a good museum not far from the sea front

You need to walk the beaches and take it all in

[Darrell]

If word leaked out that Brad Pitt had a cameo and was standing way in the the back, everyone would instantly jump on the movie giving it 1/10.

[bobgee526]

I'm in agreement with Jeff V on this. The non-history viewer learned little about the real event, not even when or clearly why it was taking place. Spectacular cinematography. A good film but not a great one. Still, should not be missed by any WWII history buff..

[N.C. Wyeth]

Come on - you have to admit, He is rather "Dreamy" . . .

If word leaked out that Brad Pitt had a cameo and was standing way in the the back, everyone would instantly jump on the movie giving it 1/10.

Hey - so that was him, in the background?

I thought so . . . and made my day - and the film, for me!

[Kyle Harrington]

Dunkirk

Very powerful and moving account; a humanization of the trauma of these men. Dunkirk was a military catastrophe and the film concentrated on the men on the beaches. I have known several men who were captured on the Dunkirk perimeter
both TA's one, Trevor Smith, never ventured abroad again. Another Jim O Neil realising his hopeless situation found a wine cellar in a damaged house and got hopelessly sloshed. He told me when captured he thought the German soldier was the postman! I would like to pay tribute to my uncle Able Seaman Timothy Patrick Harrington who was there pulling semi naked men from this hell. Tim told me the state of these poor men was truly awful, deeply traumatized many were bitter about being sent into this mess without adequate training or weaponry and having to face a professional Army.

RIP AS Timothy Patrick Harrington 1921 -2007

[Killerbee]

Very powerful and moving account; a humanization of the trauma of these men. Dunkirk was a military catastrophe and the film concentrated on the men on the beaches. I have known several men who were captured on the Dunkirk perimeter
both TA's one, Trevor Smith, never ventured abroad again. Another Jim O Neil realising his hopeless situation found a wine cellar in a damaged house and got hopelessly sloshed. He told me when captured he thought the German soldier was the postman! I would like to pay tribute to my uncle Able Seaman Timothy Patrick Harrington who was there pulling semi naked men from this hell. Tim told me the state of these poor men was truly awful, deeply traumatized many were bitter about being sent into this mess without adequate training or weaponry and having to face a professional Army.

RIP AS Timothy Patrick Harrington 1921 -2007

Fascinating and quite interesting. Great to hear an actual historical account from a man that was actual there. Brings home to our imagination on how it really was... unfiltered. Wish we could hear more.

Thank you.

Jim

[Woolgar]

I thought is was resonably good. Here are my negative comments:

-the beach seemed much to orderly (men mostly fully equiped, all standing, little discarded material lying about), and the scale of the evacuation is not properly rendered.
-the LW aircraft were in numbers of three max if I remember, which does not correspond to the reality of the time. It would have been nice to see a full formation of stuckas, ME, etc, coming in.
-the final Spitfire scene once he is out of gas is completely lacking in realism, as well as being rather useless.

[bodes]

Very powerful and moving account; a humanization of the trauma of these men. Dunkirk was a military catastrophe and the film concentrated on the men on the beaches. I have known several men who were captured on the Dunkirk perimeter
both TA's one, Trevor Smith, never ventured abroad again. Another Jim O Neil realising his hopeless situation found a wine cellar in a damaged house and got hopelessly sloshed. He told me when captured he thought the German soldier was the postman! I would like to pay tribute to my uncle Able Seaman Timothy Patrick Harrington who was there pulling semi naked men from this hell. Tim told me the state of these poor men was truly awful, deeply traumatized many were bitter about being sent into this mess without adequate training or weaponry and having to face a professional Army.

RIP AS Timothy Patrick Harrington 1921 -2007

Dunkirk in many ways was a catasrophic event.....It was a retreat to the coast by the BEF, and nothing is more demoralizing to an army than retreat.....The French higher ups viewing the evacuation as desertion by the British.....The British thankful for the men they rescued, but many leaving large amounts of much needed war materials behind......England being left with only one fully equipped unit to defend the island, and that was Canadian....The English people not really hearing any good war news til about a year later........Dealing with the blitz, the fall of France, Greece and Crete, it wouldn't be until the sinking of the Bismark and routing of the Italian army in north Africa did the British have something to lift their spirits....That's one facet of the war I'm curious if the movie pointed out?.......Bodes

[Woolgar]

A masterpiece indeed

[Nische]

Dunkirk in many ways was a catasrophic event.....It was a retreat to the coast by the BEF, and nothing is more demoralizing to an army than retreat.....The French higher ups viewing the evacuation as desertion by the British.....The British thankful for the men they rescued, but many leaving large amounts of much needed war materials behind......England being left with only one fully equipped unit to defend the island, and that was Canadian....The English people not really hearing any good war news til about a year later........Dealing with the blitz, the fall of France, Greece and Crete, it wouldn't be until the sinking of the Bismark and routing of the Italian army in north Africa did the British have something to lift their spirits....That's one facet of the war I'm curious if the movie pointed out?.......Bodes

The Atlantic gives a pretty good synopsis regarding the focus of the film:

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertai...l-film/534252/

[Larry Davis]

Dunkirk and the rebirth of 70mm film

Dunkirk and the rebirth of 70mm film

http://newatlas.com/dunkirk-70mm-fil...8d0f2-91266673

[Jean-Loup]

Take a look at this blog by a digger in the Dunkirk area: http://prospecteur59.skyrock.com/18.html

I guess all this sort of stuff will be going way up in price now.

JL

[WWIIBuff]

If you have not seen it yet, and you want to go in to the theater with an open mind, do not read this.

In my opinion, for what it's worth, the movie industry once again missed an opportunity to make something great, and instead, left a lot to be desired. Unlike Fury, at least this one had good cinematography.

I did not feel that the dire urgency or desperation of the situation was conveyed, nor was the effort and patriotic spirit of the British people who came to their rescue shown on a grand enough scale, especially since this was a major part of the rescue miracle that happened there. The lack of available large rescue vessels was touched on slightly, but the big issue of the shallow waters was not.

The true condition of the soldiers who battled their way to that beach and were stranded there for days, was barely touched on. Where was the carnage, the wrecked vehicles and equipment, or the desperate shell-shocked soldiers? I have many period photos in my collection of the beach after the rescue, and it looked nothing like the one in the movie.

There were not enough men on the beach, and they stood in well organized lines as if they were waiting to get on a ride at an amusement park. I know extras are not cheap, but if I remember correctly, Spielberg figured out a way to fill Omaha beach in Saving Private Ryan.

Maybe my old brain is easily confused, but it took me a while to realize they were showing the same event in the film multiple times from different points of view. Perhaps that explains why one moment it is daylight, then another darkness, then back to daylight, then its dusk. I think this was just bad editing.

Based on the previews I already had my concerns about the beach scenes in this movie, but perhaps I still went in with my hopes set too high. The film-work was good, the music was intense, and the acting was ok, I just though they would be doing a lot more with the story and the visual experience.

I came away disappointed for sure, but I still recommend every WWII enthusiast see it.

[Darrell]

Well first up Tom Cruise NOR Brad Pitt were in this one so those Haters have nothing to say ... and likely won't

I was really looking forward to this one ... but came away still wondering how I really felt about it. The constant 2-3 minutes of switching between the 3-4 storylines was rather annoying. I get why they were doing it but this caused it to drag on more than helped IMO.

As some points already touched on ... the other thing that stood out was how quiet things were. Now maybe when they Germans were still far away from the beach ... but even during the evacuation you hardly heard any gunfire or explosions ... I guess budget considerations.

The movie had some cool scenes like the aerial combat ... but at times it didn't really appear to be very realistic. I would assume by the time the Battle of Britain came along the RAF could shoot straighter

They didn't spend a ton of money on Script Writers ... because there pretty much wasn't any to speak of. You could watch the Foreign Language versions and not really miss anything ...

For me, one scene summarizes it all. That was when those soldiers were in the hole of the boat being shot at. With 50 bullet holes and the ship starting to sink ... they start shouting "PLUG THE HOLES!!" .... so they try ... WITH THEIR HANDS ... OMG .... that scene sunk the ship for me.

[Totenhead]

I watched it last night, and I have to be honest I was disappointed, it just didn't do it for me

It could have been so much better

I found it confusing

The opening scenes for instance, when the main character was being shot at, I assume by German soldiers, I assumed it was rifle fire, he then ran towards a road block held by French soldiers.

I thought Dunkirk was not entered by and occupied by the Germans until the evacuations were finished ??

The scene in the stranded trawler, being shot at, who was shooting at the boat? Jerry or the stranded Tommie's ? If it were Jerry, he would not have been anywhere near the beach ??....

Just one of many questions I have about the movie, hmmm, not sure about it