I had read about the gallant evacuation of around 330,000 British and French troops from Dunkirk during WWII and was quite keen to see it. When my retired soldier friend also expressed a desire, off we went earlier this afternoon to watch this great production.
Frankly, this film disappointed me as I expected more human drama. The story line and the direction would appear to skip that and concentrate on the drama of the event. I am not technically savvy about the filming involve, but I doubt very much that this film could have been made around the time when other great movies like D Day, The Great Escape and The Bridge On The River Kwai. We simply did not have the technology I think. Perhaps remakes will come not before too long.
It was nostalgia all the way for both of us, me for being a WWII history buff and my friend for his own war experiences.
The greatest plus point in the film is that it is just of an hour and forty minutes running time!
If you are interested in a bit of WWII history and modern grand scale movie making technology, this is a picture worth spending some time on.
An interesting story to come out of a screening in Calgary: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/blog/calgary-war-veteran-s-review-of-dunkirk-it-was-just-like-i-was-there-again-1.4218838
Thank you for the link. What a great review!
Cheerful Monk recently posted..Rain!
Wow!
I’m a WWII history buff too, but I prefer the real-life footage from the time rather than modern reenactments. Thanks for the review, though.
Cheerful Monk recently posted..Rain!
I have seen some real life black and white photographs of Dunkirk in the British Museum. Yes, with the clouds hanging over the skies, they were far maore menacing than the, what I suspect, computer generated skies.
This is a better link, Ramana: http://globalnews.ca/news/3617564/calgary-veteran-who-survived-dunkirk-causes-a-stir-at-movie-premiere/
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Yes, it is indeed a better report and what a time it must have been for the veteran!
Best film I’ve seen for a long time. I felt it was a very emotional film
Yes you’re right there was very little ‘acting’ and little dialogue- it wasn’t a hand to hand blood and gore war movie so I didn’t miss it.
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Well put Cathy. I didn’t miss the blood and gore either.
From what I have read this film seems to rate as .. “Good entertainment, but it’s not history” .. due to a number of errors, such as the RAF’s Fighter Command role in the evacuation. I thought the 1958 film “Dunkirk” with John Mills was a pretty good depiction of events, and there were plenty of veterans around at the time to ensure that it was. I worked with one of those ‘veterans’ at around that time. He had been one of the ‘rear guards’ who were captured. His life had been saved by a German General who emerged from his staff car, just in time to stop a group of British POWs being
executed. I wonder if the movie shows this kind of incident ?
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No, no Germans are shown. Only a few German planes.
Hi Rummy,
A WWII movie without human drama? So, what is the purpose of the whole movie? I read some critiques and they say it is not loyal to history, but when a film is void of history at least it has to have some human drama, right?
Thank you for your review, my friend; and as you can see: I am back :D.
Cheers
It defies description. I suspect that the director wanted to depict the difficult terrain, the problems that almost overwhelmed the retreating forces as well as the rescue civilian fleet from across the channel.
Friends reviewed film with me just today making an observation you did about expecting more human drama. They found the composition of the film a bit disjointed and were somewhat disappointed overall. For anyone not already familiar with the real events the impact might well be somewhat different.
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The film has received some serious flack in India and I am contemplating a sequel to the post. The flack is for the film not showing the Indian soldiers who were also very much part of the retreat and whose evacuation was cause for a British officer’s subsequent court martial.