Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Boring

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Less than two decades after the real event, this film is a realistic portrayal of the Allied retreat and rescue at Dunkirk in the early months of World War II. The operation is known officially as the Battle of Dunkirk. Its name comes from the French town, Dunquerque, located near the beach on the English Channel between Calais and the Belgian border. Dunkirk was a defensive and withdrawal operation, part of the Battle of France on the Western Front. It lasted from May 26 to June 4, and marked the end of Allied forces on the European Continent for four years. While a huge defeat in battle, it also was considered a miracle, as noted in this film. British civilians volunteered to help with the rescue of troops when the admiralty conscripted hundreds of private small boats for such use. The German Luftwaffe strafed and bombed troops on the beaches, and bombed British and French ships sent to withdraw the Allied troops. More than 800 ships and boats took part in the evacuation. And these civilians and their small craft made a huge difference in the rescue of more than 338,000 men. Just under 200,000 British soldiers and 140,000 French, Polish and Belgian soldiers were rescued. About 35,000 French who fought the rear guard for the evacuation could not be evacuated and were captured by the Germans. The film is based on two novels written by British veterans of the war. The first book is Elleston Trevor's "The Big Pick-Up." It's set in France and is the source of the fleeing squad in this film, headed by Corporal Tubby Binns (John Mills). The second book, "Keep the Memory Green," is about the fighting retreat, the bombardment and strafing on the beaches, and the evacuation by the boats and ships. It was co-authored by British officers, Lt. Col. Ewan Butler and Maj. J. Selby Bradford. With its closeness in time to the war, the film exudes authenticity in all aspects. The settings appear real. The uniforms, weapons and equipment are the genuine articles. And, the talk and cultural portrayals of the men seem natural and genuine. The method of telling the story from two sides is particularly good - the military in combat and the civilians on the home front who will wind up in the rescue effort. Again, the genuineness of the people on the home front is apparent. And, one especially appreciates the integrity of this film. It clearly portrays the confusion, uncertainty and uneasiness of the time and place. It was that way among the troops in withdrawal. It was that way with the military leaders. It was that way among the British public at home. And it was that way in the government's communications with the press and public. For that, the authors and producers of this film are to be congratulated. Later films and articles about the war and Dunkirk gloss over this or ignore it entirely. The cast all are very good in their roles. The three main leads were superb in the portrayals of their characters. Besides Mills as Corporal Binns, Bernard Lee and Richard Attenborough played the major civilian roles as Charles Foreman and John Holden, respectively. Bernard Lee's character, Charles Foreman, seems to be a member of the press. He and Corporal Binns are having a drink in a bar while others are working on a boat engine. Binns asks him, "What about all of this?" Foreman's monolog captures the time, place and event well. He says, "Stupidity. Everybody saying that war was so terrible it couldn't happen again. And shoving our heads in the sand, like a lot of ostriches. Well, the Germans didn't think that way. To them, war meant guns or butter. They chose guns. We chose butter. No, you can't blame the Army. They had what we gave them - last war weapons, last war methods. This is the result."Here are some more lines from the film. Corporal Tubby Binns, "They're stupid. They don't even understand their own bloody language." Wounded Soldier (unknown), "Hey, Corp, seen this?" Corporal Tubby Binns looks at a German propaganda map showing the Allies trapped and urging them to surrender, then hands it back to the soldier. "Well, you know what you can do with that, don't you?" he says.Barlow, after Luftwaffe planes have strafed a road with fleeing civilians, says, "That's murder. Sheer murder. I hope somebody knows what they're doing."The narrator at the end says, "Dunkirk was a great defeat, and a great miracle. It proved, if it proved anything, that we were alone but undivided. No longer were there fighting men and civilians. There were only people. A nation had been made whole. "This is an important and historical film that should be in any serious WW II film library.

Traditional armchair generals should know Christopher Nolan's World War II epic "Dunkirk" has little to do with the battle of Dunkirk. You won't see German Panzer Corps careening through Belgium and plowing into France. In fact, the only Germans in "Dunkirk" are either flying aircraft (so cannot see them) or show up as infantry from unknown units. Instead, "Dunkirk" confines itself strictly to the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Forces (B.E.F.) in three segments: one on land covering one week, one on sea covering one day, and one in the air covering one hour. Of course, much, much more occurred at Dunkirk than just the wholesale evacuation. Presumably, the "Dark Knight" filmmaker didn't want to overwhelm himself with an ambitious battle extravaganza. "Dunkirk" was produced for $100-million, and likely millions went to publicity. So, if you're looking for something like "The Longest Day" (1962), "Battle of the Bulge" (1965), "Anzio" (1968), "A Bridge Too Far" (1977), "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), and "Hacksaw Ridge" (2016), prepare to be disappointed. "Dunkirk" doesn't recreate historic battlefield combat, not even the infamous Wormhoudt Massacre. Adolf Hitler's Waffen-SS soldiers slaughtered as many as 80 British soldiers along with some French POWs. The cold-hearted SS crowded these prisoners into a stable, tossed in stick-grenades, and then finished them off with bursts of machine gun fire. Something like this might have given "Dunkirk" greater dramatic gravity. Instead, we see neither German tanks nor troops storming through France and Belgium. This 107-minute movie boils down to a series of survival episodes that occurred at Dunkirk. Notably, the RAF preferred to confine their resources largely to the island in preparation for the inevitable Battle of Britain, later made into the exemplary film "Battle of Britain" (1969). Along with the RAF, the courageous Royal Navy and the Small Boat Owners emerge as the heroes who rescued the BEF waiting anxiously on the beach."Dunkirk" opens with several British infantrymen sauntering down a road inside the Dunkirk city limits as the Luftwaffe showers them with propaganda leaflets. No sooner have they had a moment to glance at these surrender summons than gunfire erupts from an unknown source. As they scramble for cover, unseen shooters kill all them except Tommy (newcomer Fiona Whitehead), who crosses a street and comes under fire then from French troops. They wave him toward their lines, and later he wanders onto the beaches. As far as he can see, queues of troops are standing on the beach awaiting transport. "Spectre" lenser Hoyte Van Hoytema's atmospheric cinematography shows these soldiers in their brown uniforms standing like ducks in neat, orderly rows on white beaches. These scenes resemble something out of "Lawrence of Arabia" in all their sprawling immensity. Van Hoytema's cinematography adds to the spectacle of the event. Not long afterward, as Tommy tours the beach, screaming Stuka dive-bombers plunge from the skies, seeding the beaches with bombs. The worst death in "Dunkirk" occurs when one of these bombs blast a British soldier to smithereens as he shoots vainly at a Stuka. Tommy meets another soldier under mysterious circumstances on the beach. Might he be a German saboteur? Without challenging him about his strange behavior, Tommy pitches in to help him. They become fast friends who desperately break the rules and the lines so they can get aboard a transport. Cheekily, they seize a stretcher case awaiting transport and dash to an embarkation station. They reach the ship at the last minute, but they are sent packing because they weren't Red Cross personnel. Nolan has these two heading off to find passage elsewhere by any means whatever. Their exploits turn into shenanigans as they deal with one setback after another, even after they stow aboard a ship.Although the RAF lost fewer planes than the Luftwaffe: 145 to 156, "Dunkirk" shows no more than six Spitfire fighters cruising the English Channel in search of prey. Again, budgetary concerns may explain the aircraft shortages. Also, Nolan doesn't go for too much CGI, so he resorted to cardboard cutouts of troops on the beach. Nevertheless, we get one hour's worth of the RAF giving the Luftwaffe utter Hell. Predictably, one pilot perishes in a crash, another ditches in the sea, but the third is far more fortunate. RAF pilot Farrier (Tom Hardy of "Mad Max: Fury Road") riddles repeatedly the Luftwaffe in "Dunkirk's" most exciting scenes. Christopher Nolan does a decent job of staging several tense scenes of soldiers confronting catastrophe. Unfortunately, apart from Tom Hardy's RAF pilot, Kenneth Blangah's Naval officer (rarely endangered), Mark Rylance as an intrepid civilian sailor, and Cillian Murphy as a shell-shocked soldier, celebrity movie stars of prominence are far and few between in this epic. Indeed, most of the actors are unknown, except perhaps for "One-Direction" singer Harry Styles. Suspense works best when a character is conspicuous enough either as an actor or as a character for us to care about. Everybody is virtually a nobody in "Dunkirk." Meantime, evoking sympathy for soldiers so desperate that they take refuge in a beached ship and become targets seems like the province of a horror chiller. Quoting the cliché, they die like fish in a barrel during target practice. Indeed, two of the soldiers trapped in the boat are the same duo who have tried to bluff their way board a Red Cross ship. Oscar winning actor Mark Rylance has one of the better roles as a small boat owner who has already lost a son in the RAF. The episode with the shell-shocked soldier involving the inconsequential treatment of a civilian teen is the least savory scene. Nevertheless, Rylance's character is never in jeopardy. Often wearing an aviator's oxygen mask, Tom Hardy looks like the villainous Bane from Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises," but he comes closest to being a blood and guts hero. Ultimately, despite its heartfelt tribute to British resiliency in the face of annihilation, "Dunkirk" qualifies as a fair war movie.

The story of the famous evacuation of British forces from the beaches of Dunkirk in May/June 1940. Seen through the eyes of a squad of infantrymen, and their leader, Corporal Binns, in particular, as well as civilians who helped evacuate the soldiers. Also covers the high-level decisions as well as the individual sacrifices that were made.History will record the Battle of Dunkirk as a British/Allied defeat, as the Germans ultimately captured the pocket and inflicted over 60,000 casualties on the Allies. However, over 300,000 Allied troops escaped, living to fight another day. This, and the method to evacuate them - the large scale use of civilian craft of all shapes and sizes, bolstered British morale and ultimately kept Britain in the war.The inspirational nature of the event is captured well in this movie, as are the actions during and leading up to it. Quite gritty in showing the bravery involved, sacrifices made and against-the- odds nature of the event. Good performances by the main actors - John Mills as Corporal Binns and Richard Attenborough as John Holden. Supporting cast are a mixed bag, varying from solid to serious over-acting.Overall, a great depiction of a momentous event.

'Dunkirk' was the event that really cemented WW2 in British minds. Up to that point it had been more a newsworthy disturbance in a foreign land, following on the much maligned 'phony' war.For the first time, those at home - at least in the home counties - could see for themselves the face of defeat in legions of haggard and bandaged returnees.This movie takes us through events in a familiar well-paced documentary-like way that makes old British war movies so watchable. There are few excessive heroics, just a gradual realisation that greater effort is needed and a reconciliation to it. Individuals are about to have their pleasure craft commandeered. Even in the 1940's, to own your own boat for pleasure was a very middle-class activity, and so we see this 'Dad's Navy' confused and reluctant at first, but eventually volunteering themselves along with their boats. They still have little idea what awaits them.In France, things are falling apart fast. The collapsing British forces are shown in microcosm by a company of squaddies led by working-class 'corporal' John Mills, complete with phony cockney accent. Constantly harassed by the encroaching German army, they manage to stay one step ahead and reach Dunkirk.Only soldiers can be evacuated. The supplies and substance of an army must be abandoned, destroying as much as possible rather than allowing it to fall into enemy hands.Small-ship civilians get trapped ashore and share in the bombardment with soldiers. Some are killed. There's a lot of men and a lot of equipment shown at times. It's clear that the army were involved in the movie's making. Cabin cruisers explode, loaded ships are bombed. Although today, the bombs falling on the dunes bear more similarity to thunder flashes, for its time, the overall effect is creditable. There are believable performances all round from a cast of reliable, regular stalwarts. And, necessary for every movie; we are made to care about them.The retreat from Dunkirk was the first of several Great British reversals that were needed before the nation took its plight seriously enough to galvanise itself into a professional war-effort. This movie doesn't moralise or sentimentalise much. Dunkirk was chaos that was saved from disaster by just a little bit of order and a great deal of courage. Not to mention luck.Well worth a watch even today. It may be a drama but it tells you as much as a reference book.